The Top 5 Garden Tools For Your Vegetable Garden

When I was a child, I used to love going out with my Dad and puttering around in the garden. There were always lots of cool tools to play with. Shovels, rakes, forks - all great fun for a young boy in the dirt! Now that I'm grown up, I should probably have grown out of that but those garden tools are still lots of fun...

There are hundreds of different garden tools, a fact that a visit to your local garden center will confirm. There are many different prices as well and the trick is to know what you need to buy without going overboard and spending a fortune.

The first tool you'll need is a spading fork. This tool looks like a pitchfork, but the handle is shorter and the tines of the fork are spaced wider apart. This tool will be used to dig into hard soil and loosen it up to prepare for planting.

Once you've loosened the soil in your garden, you'll need a hoe. This tool is one of the best for preparing the surface of your garden, allowing nutrients and water to get into the ground. A round-ended shovel is another tool that is useful for preparing your garden for planting.

Of course, water is one of the most important things to any garden. As such, you'll need tools to make sure that you can get a consistent water supply to your garden when there is no rain. This means either a hose or a watering can, depending on the size of your garden.

A watering can is helpful for the early days of your garden as it's easier to control the amount of water - especially if you get one with a removable "shower" head. When you first plant your seeds or plants, you don't want to use too much water pressure until they have established themselves.

A bow rake is a good tool for leveling the surface of your garden before planting. The tines on one side of the rake will help remove any larger lumps of soil while the flat side is perfect for leveling and smoothing it for planting.

A quality set of garden shears is important for maintaining your plants. Cheap shears often lose their edge faster, and may not make clean cuts. You'll need these for trimming throughout the season, so don't skimp on your cutters.

These five tools are the most important ones that you'll use to plant and maintain your garden. There are plenty of others that may tempt you, but if you stick to these 5 your garden will do just fine.

Affordable Garden Tools Can Be High Quality

If you're like my husband, along about February you start getting itchy fingers to get out there and dig in the dirt planting a garden. It's easy to get spring gardening fever after being cooped up indoors during the winter months. He'll pull out the old gardening tools and try to clean them and get them ready to go. That's when he'll remember that the rake head falls off every time he uses the rake or the handle broke on the spade. All of a sudden, he's in the market for new tools, but the prices can come as a shock.

If you've been to your local gardening center in February or March, you've noticed that they already have their garden tools on display just getting ready for all the people who are working themselves into a gardening frenzy. However, as excited as they are about gardening, the prices of the tools can be a little over budget. What you need to do is find a way to buy the affordable garden tools you need.

Start out by shopping at your usual stores, even if they haven't advertised any bargains. Ask a store manager if there are going to be any upcoming sales on the items you're looking for. You could find out that the tools you want will be marked down next week. If you don't ask, you could end up buying tools today that will be much cheaper next week. Doesn't it just burn you when that happens!

Try the Discount Stores

Even if you don't make a habit of shopping at stores like discount houses, dollar stores, and outlets, you should give them a try. A lot of times they will have new merchandise that was left over from last gardening season, but at a lot better prices than "new" merchandise. Who's going to know or care if you're using last season's garden tools?

Used items can also be a good buy. Do a little looking around and see what you can find. So what if they're a little dirty? You can always clean them up, and, who knows, you may have found a treasure in the rough.

You can have a lot of fun shopping at garage sales and flea markets. Not only will they have a lot of unique items for sale, you can also find the garden tools you need at exceptional prices. Most often if you find something you like, the seller will be willing to bargain a little bit. You never know what kind of deal you could end up.

If you can find a sale at a home where a shopaholic lives, you may well have hit pay dirt. Some people are compulsive shoppers that will buy something just because it's a good deal, even though they already have three more at home. Eventually they will have a sale of their excess because they've run out of room. You can find affordable garden tools in their castoffs.

Gardening Sentiments

As every season passes, I am so thankful to still be here as if life will never end. Today, as we experience the first day in the Fall and embrace the ol' world charm and beauty of it, I write my heartfelt expressions about it.

I love this time of year when the fields are ripe for the pickings and the harvest is good. Here in northern California, the ground is dry and exhausted. In my area, people flock to the apple orchards in Apple Hill, California and visit the local crafters, eat fresh apple pies and pastries, get our feet dirty, and mosey around.

The blistering heat of 100°-105° is behind us which only makes the cooler Fall weather so sweet and enchanting. I love to garden, but by the time Fall comes around each year, I'm ready to let it go for the winter. For most of the year, however, I feel like nurturing my plants and fortifying the ecosystem in my backyard. I love to see the different species of vegetation, birds, flying insects, and earthworms cohabit together.
I especially love the nesting birds in my backyard and lay out cut-up yarn for their nests. I love to see the birds bathe in my bird baths filled with fresh water. It's even fun to watch them eat from my strawberry patch.

In fact, I love the cute little birds so much that I paint huge, bigger than life paintings of them. No doubt about it, my garden experiences have influenced on my artistic expressions.
Love for life and enjoying all the wholesome activities life has to offer is an artist's ultimate resource. Just as when we speak from the heart, true feelings come out when artists draw from our own personal experiences. Really, once you find the connection between art and our personal experiences, good things happen artistically. (Revised 2/16/2006)

Three Things to Know About Using a Power Inverter

The first thing you will need to know is what you are planning on running in this time of emergency. The fewer the items or the smaller the amperage, the smaller or least costly inverter will be needed. I will give a table of items and their average power uses below followed by a simple formula that will give you an idea of the size of inverter you will need.
Stackable Washer/Dryer: 2500 Watts

Electric Chain Saw: 1700 Watts

Electric Circular Saw: 1600 Watts

Full Sized Microwave Oven: 1400 Watts

Chest Freezer: 1200 Watts

Mini Microwaves: 1000 Watts

1/3 inch HP Submersible Pump: 920 Watts

Reciprocating Saw: 720 Watts

1/2 inch Reversible Drill: 620 Watts

Coffee Maker: 600 Watts

Portable Vacuum: 525 Watts

Electric Garden Tools: 475 Watts

10 Speed Blender: 450 Watts

Orbital Sander: 400 Watts

Home Stereo: 350 Watts

3/8 inch Variable Speed Drill: 320 Watts

20 inch TV/VCR Combo: 300 Watts

12 inch Three Speed Fan:200 Watts

Computer/Printer/Fax: 150 Watts

Quartz Halogen Spotlight: 100 Watts

Mini Stereo/CD Player: 50 Watts

Laptop Computer/8 inch TV: 38-45 Watts

Cell Phone/Camcorder Charger: 10 Watts

14 Volt Cordless Drill Charger: 8 Watts

If the appliance you are planning on using is listed in watts, just go ahead and use that number. If it is listed in amps you just need to use this simple formula: volts (120) X amps (listed on device) = watts. This will give you the amount of watts the appliance will be using. So if you had a 3 amp appliance, and you wanted to find the watts, the formula would be: 120 (volts) X 3 (amps) = 360 watts.

You would then total all of the watts that you will be using and come up with a number. Lets say your total watts usage is 500 watts. If that's the case it would be a good idea to get a 750 watt inverter. Always get a larger size than what you think you will need, it may come in handy.

Your next step will be to determine where your power supply is going to come from. If it is for emergency purposes there is a very good chance that it will be coming from a battery hooked up to your vehicle, or you may be a little better prepared and have a bank of batteries hooked up in a parallel fashion. Since most people reading this are probably unfamiliar with creating a battery bank I will just cover running the inverter from the vehicle. The main thing to know is what type of battery you will be using. It is suggested that you have a deep cycle battery or those that are used for trolling motors or golf carts and that you get as many amp hours as your budget allows. A few years back I was able to go 11 days using a 750w inverter and a 120amp hour deep cycle battery attached to my car. I had to run the car for 10 minutes every 2 hours to run everything that I had hooked up which was a laptop, 13" color tv, direct tv receiver, modem for the laptop, 40w light, and a small box fan. That doesn't sound like much, but I thought I was staying at the Ritz Carlton compared to most of my neighbors.

The last thing you need to know is how long will your power supply (battery) last before it needs recharging. First you will need to know the wattage of all the appliances. Lets say we have 480 total watts of power being used, and we are running our inverter off of a 12 volt battery attached to the car. Next we have to convert this number so that we know how many amps are being used. We do this by taking the watts (480) and dividing it by 12 (volts of the battery) and come up with 40 amps. The formula is: watts / volts = amps. If we have a 120 amp hour battery we would divide 120 (amp hours) by 40 (amps) and get 3 hours before the battery is dead. It is recommended not to drain a battery below 50% of its capacity so you may want to divide the 3 hour in half giving you 1 1/2 hour before starting the car up to recharge the battery.

Some Quick Tips For Getting a Beautiful Garden With Garden Tools

A beautiful garden is the result of hard work and using the right garden tools. When you are planning a gardening project, getting the kind of design and effect that you want using plantings will be much easier when you have a plan and get the appropriate tools for each phase of your project.

Create a garden plan that includes a rough drawing of your garden and where you want to put plants, flowers, fountains or other features. If you are going to need special garden tools to put some of the items in your garden include them in a list. Check the tools that your currently have to be sure that they are right for your needs.

Some people get a new set of tools each year while other people want tools that will last indefinitely. The cost of garden tools varies greatly depending on what the tools are made from and the manufacturer of the tools. When you are comparing tools, many of the more expensive tools will have a warranty that will cover replacement of the tool if it breaks.

Getting well made tools that have a warranty is very important if you want a quality that will last for several years. These tools are usually made from industrial steel and have safety features that make them extremely useful for the avid gardener.

When you are starting your project, you will find garden tools in sets that can be a great way to get started with all of the basic equipment you need for your garden. These tool sets usually include a small garden fork, hand held rake, weeding tool, and trowel. Once you begin your project, you may find that larger tools are needed such as a spade and shovel that is made especially for flower beds.

The sets that are available normally are kept in a case that is either in a box or tote with pockets in it. There are also garden tool belts that you can wear while you are gardening. These belts make it very easy to get to the tools you need quickly when you are in the middle of a flower bed. The larger tools usually come with a hook that will fit on the wall of your garden shed easily.

When you begin looking for the most effective garden tools, think about the size of your garden and what type of tools you will need to work with the type of dirt that you have in your yard. Some people have very hard dirt that must be broken up and treated before a garden can be planted. When this is needed, you may have to rent a large rototiller to turn the dirt and add fertilizer before you embark on your garden project.

Arrow Utility Buildings Are a Great Storage Solution For Your Garden Tools

Do you have a lot of garden and yard tools that are taking up space in your garage? You are in luck then, because an Arrow storage building is the perfect solution for you. These cool buildings can provide the perfect answer to your storage needs.

In a world where storage is a much needed thing, there are many storage sheds utility buildings of which you can choose from. They come in numerous sizes and shapes and can fit in any budget or yard. This could be the perfect place to store your excess equipment, holiday and seasonal decorations, or animal accessories such as horse saddles or feed.

Arrow utility buildings are an excellent addition to any yard. They also are very functional. You will be very happy when you buy an arrow utility building. It is important to remember a few things when you are deciding on the purchase of a multi-purpose storage building.

The first thing that you need to do is measure where you plan on putting the building. Getting a building that is too big for the area only stands to ruin your day. While they are affordable, it would be a waste to purchase a building that you would not be able to use for the purpose you have in mind. It is vital to measure the area accurately, and to write your measurements down.

Try searching for an Arrow utility building 10x21 in any one of the various search engines on the web. This will help you find what sizes are actually available for purchase and where you can purchase them from. There are many retailers who well these buildings, so it is wise to do some research on the retailers as well.

Before buying, do some research to find out if your store is willing to ship and set up the building, or if you will have to set up the items yourself. If you do not any one who can help you set up the items, it is a good idea to find a place that will charge for delivery and set up. However, an Arrow shed is one of the best purchase decisions you can make, no matter what you decide about delivery and set up.

Given how tremendously important the storage of your property is, there are a huge variety of storage sheds utility buildings from which you can select. A utility building is both functional and will look great in your yard. When thinking of purchasing any multi-purpose storage building learn whether or not the seller will ship and assemble the building for you, or if you will have to pick it up from the store and assemble it by yourself.