12 essential tools - garden tools - Buyers Guide

Sunset, Dec, 2000 by Sharon Cohoon

An expert picks a dozen tools for the green thumbs on your gift list

Which garden tools would you consider absolutely essential if you had close to 2,000 in your collection? Bob Denman has that many. Denman & Company the store he runs with his wife, Rita, in Orange, California, sells nothing but garden tools, ranging from historic implements to the latest ergonomic designs.

To provide Sunset readers with sure-to-please ideas for the gardeners on their holiday gift lists, we asked Denman to narrow his choices down to a dozen tools. For each type of tool, a reliable brand and approximate retail price appear in parentheses.

Hand tools

* TROWEL (Union Tools, $16). Essentially shovels with very short handles, trowels need little introduction. Most of us make do with inexpensive models and replace them regularly. Denman suggests investing in a fine-grade trowel instead. Using a high-quality tool makes a pleasurable task doubly so, he says.

* LOPPER (Corona Clipper, $68). A lopper provides the leverage to cut branches that are thicker than 3/4 inch. A heavy-duty model with 1 3/4-inch bypass blades and 26-inch-long handles suits most gardeners, says Denman.

* PRUNING SAW (Fanno Saw Works, $29). When you exceed the capacity of your lopper--or your own strength--switch to a saw, says Denman. A saw with a 13-inch-long blade, which can handle up to 4-inch-thick branches, is the best size for most people, he says. He prefers a fixed saw to a folding model: "I don't use tools with sharp edges that can fold back against your hand." He likes the shock absorption of a wood handle and recommends Japanese triple-edge blades with razor-sharp teeth on three sides: "They're self-cleaning and twice as fast as conventional blades."

* #2 SHOVEL (Union Tools, $52). Denman recommends a standard American round-point #2 shovel with an 8- by 12-inch blade. Get one with a solid forged-steel blade rather than a stamped-steel blade. "It's more expensive, but it's much stronger," says Denman. Also look for an ash handle with tight grain, and a forward-turned tread on the blade. "The British routinely garden in heavy boots, so they don't need that step to push against. But we garden in sneakers and sandals, so we do," explains Denman.

* IRISH SPADE (Spear & Jackson, $66). If you want to loosen and turn soil, you can get by with a shovel, but the flat edge of a spade does the job better, says Denman. Also use a spade anytime you want to dig a straight-sided hole. He prefers the Irish spade, with its longer, narrower blade, to English and American models. "It takes smaller bites, but that allows you to work faster and for longer stretches, so you actually get the job done in a shorter amount of time." The Irish spade also performs beautifully in tight spaces or in heavy clay or rocky soils. One with a forged-steel blade, ash handle, and forward-turned tread is ideal, he says.

* SPADING FORK (Clarington Forge, $58). After you've spaded your soil and shoveled in amendments, you need a fork to mix everything together--"like working shortening into flour when you make piecrust," says Denman. Forks are also useful for breaking up clods, dividing perennials, and digging up plants without slicing through roots, Buy a fork with flat tines, front and back. Since a spading fork is another serious digging tool, Denman again recommends forged-steel tines. (Note: Diamond-backed potato forks are not made for heavy-duty uses; they're designed for lifting root crops without damaging them.)

* FLAT-HEAD RAKE (Union Tools, $52). To prepare a surface for planting, use a flat-head rake to clear away pebbles and other debris and to smooth out terrain. "If you turn up a missed clod with a flat-head rake, you can smash it with the tines or either end. And you can use the back to tamp down and firm the soil afterward," Denman says. Again, he opts for forged steel and ash handles.

* CULTIVATOR (Spear & Jackson, $39). Once you've created nice, fluffy soil, you'll need a cultivator to keep it loose. A cultivator is also useful for working amendments such as compost or manure into the soil. Denman prefers a model with three prongs in a V pattern. "The fronttine does the yeoman's job, and the back tines break up the soil even finer."

* HOE. "To kill annual weeds, which is what 90 percent of weeds are, all you have to do is slice off the stem at ground level," he says. The best hoes for weeding have sharply angled blades which slide along or just under the soil surface. Some cut with the push stroke, some on the draw, and others, called scuffle hoes, in both directions. Denman's personal favorite, the diamond hoe (De Van Koek, $50), falls into this category.

With so many styles of hoes available, we asked for a second choice. Denman opted for the oscillating hoe (De Van Koek, $54). Also known as the Hula, or stirrup, hoe, it has a double-edged blade attached to the handle with a hinge, so the angle changes as you push forward and draw back. "The oscillating hoe tends to bounce off heavy weeds, but, if you weed regularly, it's very quick," he says.