Sharing Tools.

What's in your garden shed? Good tools get the job done.

We might think we are nurturing our garden, but of course, it is nurturing us.

Hello Everyone.

I’ve been thinking about garden tools lately. Garden tools are like books, and lending them out seems nice until you can’t remember who borrowed them. Generosity is at the heart of this action, yet it can also result in lost tools and resentment. But this doesn’t happen very often.

I like lending my favorites because it makes gardening easier when you have the right tools. Good tools are pricey, and while sharing makes sense, I am also protective. If a lent tool is not back within a week, I go after it. I want them to last forever.

Over the past two decades as a gardener, I’ve acquired plenty of tools. It’s a bit of a mystery how they have come into my life, but I could not part with a single one. Some I use daily, others just a few times during the summer. Occasionally, I will lend out a shovel or an edger tool because good, solid tools are meant to be shared.

I’ve learned never to lend a lawn mower or anything electric after a few bad experiences, yet I am grateful to my neighbor ( thank you, Heather!), who lent me her hedge trimmer, an electric tool that I use to tidy up the boxwood twice a year. She knows I treat it with respect and return it safely. It saves me from having a new one that would hang in the shed for the better part of the year.

Most of my tools are hand tools, all are kept in pretty good condition in a garden shed, a step away from the kitchen garden. In early spring, I haul everything out of the shed, sweep out the leaves, and reorganize. Everything goes back in a methodical order, streamlined for efficiency. Nothing is worse than being in the middle of trellising the pole beans and not finding the step ladder or the twine.

The garden tools we acquire over a lifetime of gardening reflect how we move through the garden routines daily and over a year. My tools and methods are most likely different than yours, yet they are what I know and understand. I am unsure how I came to learn these methods or fulfilled the destiny to be a gardener, and I assume that my kids will sell everything at a yard sale when I am gone. And if they do, I trust the lucky recipient will continue to enjoy this fine collection, which has been well-worn and much appreciated over the years.

My most often used tools are a garden fork and a metal flat-backed rake for turning and smoothing out the soil. A Cobra weeding hoe is essential for digging out tenacious buttercup and burdock roots. I use a step-on edger to keep the grass tidy, although I recently purchased an electric one and took it back after a single use. It saved me time but did not give me that same sense of satisfaction of stooping down on my knees. Time is relative to the garden, and I am not in a hurry.

I rely on a scuffle hoe to slide through the soil to cut off weeds before they get too far along. I could not manage my garden without two trowels because one is often lost early in the season, revealed only after the plants die back in fall. Two sets of scissors and twine, for the same reason, and several sets of clippers. Several watering cans and high-quality hoses that will not kink are essential, along with reliable seed-starting trays and harvest baskets. The list goes on.

When gardeners make gardening look easy, chances are the gardener has a good set of tools. The right tool can save time and make a tough job easier. For example, in a kitchen, using a sturdy professional mixer instead of beating by hand or a sharp knife instead of one that is dull is a matter of knowing what tools are essential and using them correctly.

Garden centers are like kitchen stores: they offer many more tools and gadgets than you need to get the job done. Some may look tempting and provide time-saving techniques, but in the end, they will only create clutter in your garden tool shed. Knowing the difference between what you need and want requires patience and trial and error.

My garden shed is not very big ( pictured below), and I am in and out of it all day as if it were an extension of my home. There are carpenter bees boring holes around the entrance, and chipmunks dig holes around the foundation, which gives it character. Each time I open the garden shed and reach for the wheelbarrow I’ve used for 20 years or hang up the hoe that goes back two generations, it feels like I am greeting old friends.

Sharing your tools (and garden books) is all about the true spirit of gardening.

From my garden to yours,

Ellen O.

Ellen Ecker Ogden is the author of five books on garden designs with recipes. Follow on Instagram @ogdenellen

Welcome to the Art of Growing Food newsletter. I am writing about artful tips for growing a garden for cooks who love to garden. You are receiving this newsletter because you are a free or paid subscriber. Thank you! - Ellen Ecker Ogden