Girl power: an all-female gardening team shares secrets for keeping plantings beautiful year-round - Garden and Outdoor Living

Sunset, Nov, 2003 by Debra Lee Baldwin

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Use the right tools. Matching the tool to the job eases garden chores. Each woman has her preference.

Longmire: "A small hand rake from Smith & Hawken. It lets you maneuver under shrubs to clear leaves and debris." (Gardena Hand Rake: 800/981-9888 or www.smithandhawken.com)

McFadden: "A French pruning knife for weeding. It has a hooked blade--perfect for getting at roots." (Bahco P20 pruning knife: Rittenhouse, www.rittenhouse.ca or 877/488-1914)

Gousha: "Joyce Chen garden scissors [pictured above]. They have long, tapered blades, which make cutting flowers quick and easy." ("Unlimited" Garden Scissors: www.joycechen.com or 812/238-5000)

RELATED ARTICLE: 2 easy ideas

Raise pots on posts. Place bowls filled with cascading plants on stone pedestals. The pot pictured at top contains lime green sweet potato vine (lpomoea batatas 'Marguerite') and Helichrysum petiolare 'Variegatum'.

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Train vines on walls. Star jasmine, trained into a diamond pattern, spreads a green tapestry across an 8-foot-tall, 10-foot-long stucco wall above a trickling fountain in the garden pictured above. The vines grow from planting pockets on either side of the fountain and spread along stainless steel wire attached to eye screws in the wall.

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