Gardening with Hand Shovels

Series Summary

A garden tool is any one of many tools made for gardens and gardening and includes tools used for agriculture and horticulture. Garden tools can be both hand tools and power tools, with the hand tools having originated by gardeners using the earliest agricultural implements used by man. Some common garden hand tools are the spade, the garden hoe, the pitchfork, and the rake. Metalworking allowed for the manufacturing of cutting tools, including pruning and hedge shears. The first power tool to become popular with gardeners was the lawn mower, but this has been followed by other power tools like the chainsaw.

In today's gardening world, there are a seemingly endless amount of tools to choose from, all with a specific purpose. In this free video series, an award-winning horticulturist will describe and display a number of different gardening tools so that you can decide what your gardening needs are. You'll learn about shovels, soil additives, hoses, and saws. You'll also learn about different types of gloves, protecting your plants, and promoting healthy soil. With these gardening tips, you'll be able to narrow down the gardening process and learn some ways to make your garden healthier and better looking!

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Stan DeFreitas, "Mr. Green Thumb", for On Gardening. We talk about tools, remember, we've talked about small tools. You can talk about large tools. This happens to be a small hand towel. It's actually like a small shovel and you can use this when you get ready to start planting small gallon size plants, maybe up to two or three gallon size plants. You may not want to dig out the big shovels. You can use something this size, sort of, as a intermediate tool. Remember that tools are important to good gardening. This one, also, is of course, a good well built tool. You can see that it has a handle that comes apart so you can use it on a number of different devices. You can use it on a hand trowel, you can use it on this, on a rake and it's easy to keep together. Simply put it together and you've got something you can use to plant those azaleas beds, put in those annuals, if you're putting in some alyssum, if you're putting in some geraniums, tomatoes. This one has been used quite a bit in a vegetable garden area. I really don't like using great big shovels when I'm putting in very small plants. So, something like this gives me the torque and the ability to put the plant in without digging up the south forty. Getting good tools is important when you start to have a good garden. Remember, good quality, good construction and you'll always be happy. For On Gardening I'm Stan DeFreitas, "Mr. Green Thumb.""