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Archive for the ‘Gardening Tools’ Category

Sharpening serrated or straight blade kitchen knives is relatively easy. Gardening or woodworking tools, on the other hand, can look a bit more challenging to sharpen, especially if you are not an experienced knife sharpener. Still, with a bit of experience and the right sharpener, it is possible to sharpen your own tools, including axes, shears, pruners, and chain saw blades.

When these blades start working poorly, you know it’s time to sharpen them. Instead of taking them to a professional knife sharpener, considering using a sharpener at home. You’ll be able to quickly sharpen those blades and get on with your work, instead of having to take them in another day.

You can sharpen most of these with a simple sharpening file. This metal file has ridges on both sides to remove some of the metal on your blades. Sharpening stones can be used not only on knives but also on these larger tools. There are even specific files for sharpening axes, chainsaw blade teeth, and other tools. Chainsaw blades do require a specific round shape and the size of the file depends on the size of the teeth, so make sure you are using the right one for your chain saw.

Coarser files remove more metal, making them ideal for blades that have been nicked or otherwise damaged by use. Smooth files can make a smooth finish and razor-sharp edge; depending on the tool you are sharpening, you may not need a very smooth file.

To use a file to sharpen your axe, chainsaw blade, or other tool, simply use it as you would for a kitchen knife. Draw the blade across the file, removing metal. Because of the size of the blade, it may be easier to hold the blade in place with a clamp or vise, and then draw the file across the blade. Unlike with kitchen knives, the most important step when dealing with gardening or woodworking tools is that you remove enough of the edge to expose a new surface. At the same time, do not remove too much metal, making the blade too thin, or it will bend or break if you try to use it against a hard surface, like wood.

When sharpening garden tools, especially grass clippers, pruning shears, or similar tools, make sure that you keep the original angle on the blades. Each is designed to have a very specific bevel. Always try to keep this angle when sharpening the blades. Use long strokes, covering as much of the length of the blade as you can on each stroke.

This method does require some practice, but outdoor tools, due to their thickness, are often the best blades to practice your knife sharpening skills on. Other methods for sharpening tools include stones, sharpening wheels, and bench grinders. An electric sharpening wheel or grinder will be the fastest method of removing metal from the edge of the blade, but you don’t need expensive or professional sharpening equipment to keep the edges of your tools sharp. You just need to know how to use the equipment you do choose.

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If you have a nice garden, then you probably have a patio of a deck so that you can get every last scrap of enjoyment out of it. Most patio furniture is left outside for a lot of the year so it is best to get high quality garden patio furniture. High quality garden deck furniture is essential if you expect it to withstand the rigours of all kinds of weather and yet last a reasonable length of time too.

Another factor, especially these days, is the ecology. People want to have as little impact on the ecology as possible, thereby reducing their carbon footprint, as they say. The manufacture of plastic involves polluting the environment with more CFC’s and disposal can cause problems too. Plastic can take decades and decades to bio-degrade.

Metal patio garden furniture also has its issues. It has to be mined and fabricated and people are beginning to worry about robbing Mother Earth of her minerals, but at least old metal can be recycled. That leaves us with timber and especially hardwood. Before, there was a great deal of alarm in almost every country about logging, but a lot of countries have the problem under control now after sustained pressure from the West.

Most people understand these days how important it is to look after our planet. There is even a special day to help people remember the Earth’s dire state called ‘Earth Day’. Using hardwood from sustainable sources is the best way to maintain our forests.

Garden furniture made from hardwood from a guaranteed sustainable source is the most ecological way out. If you look after your hardwood furniture according to the manufacturer’s recommendations for the type of wood you have, it will last for a decade or more. Far longer than any plastic or metal furniture, which you might well have to replace every two years or so.

Acacia hardwood offers a hard wearing and comfortable alternative to teak. In fact, this type of wood is much like teak, as if you leave it untreated it will transform to a silvery grey color. However, it is best to treat all hardwood once or twice a year with suitable oil in order to maintain the warm tones of the timber.

Most people will have a garden patio furniture set of up-right chairs, loungers and a table or two or a nest of small tables. However, there are a few other pieces of furniture that will help you get more pleasure from your garden. It is nice to be able to sit in the garden after it gets dark or when it is a bit nippy too. This can be achieved easily with a few accessories.

I suggest a patio heater, an electric mosquito killer and suitable lighting. Patio heaters are not expensive any longer and a single upright propane heater will keep up to eight people warm, depending on their seating pattern. An electric mosquito killer will usually keep a whole garden clear. In fact, some will keep a quarter of an acre or more clear of flying insects. These two items may provide enough light for you, but is best to have a few spots to highlight a plant in bloom or to read by.

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Any reliable seed house can be depended upon for good seeds; but even so, there is a great risk in seeds. A seed may to all appearances be all right and yet not have within it vitality enough, or power, to produce a hardy plant.

If you save seed from your own plants you are able to choose carefully. Suppose you are saving seed of aster plants. What blossoms shall you decide upon? Now it is not the blossom only which you must consider, but the entire plant. Why? Because a weak, straggly plant may produce one fine blossom. Looking at that one blossom so really beautiful you think of the numberless equally lovely plants you are going to have from the seeds. But just as likely as not the seeds will produce plants like the parent plant.

So in seed selection the entire plant is to be considered. Is it sturdy, strong, well shaped and symmetrical; does it have a goodly number of fine blossoms? These are questions to ask in seed selection.

If you should happen to have the opportunity to visit a seedsman’s garden, you will see here and there a blossom with a string tied around it. These are blossoms chosen for seed. If you look at the whole plant with care you will be able to see the points which the gardener held in mind when he did his work of selection.

In seed selection size is another point to hold in mind. Now we know no way of telling anything about the plants from which this special collection of seeds came. So we must give our entire thought to the seeds themselves. It is quite evident that there is some choice; some are much larger than the others; some far plumper, too. By all means choose the largest and fullest seed. The reason is this: When you break open a bean and this is very evident, too, in the peanut you see what appears to be a little plant. So it is. Under just the right conditions for development this ‘little chap’ grows into the bean plant you know so well.

This little plant must depend for its early growth on the nourishment stored up in the two halves of the bean seed. For this purpose the food is stored. Beans are not full of food and goodness for you and me to eat, but for the little baby bean plant to feed upon. And so if we choose a large seed, we have chosen a greater amount of food for the plantlet. This little plantlet feeds upon this stored food until its roots are prepared to do their work. So if the seed is small and thin, the first food supply insufficient, there is a possibility of losing the little plant.

You may care to know the name of this pantry of food. It is called a cotyledon if there is but one portion, cotyledons if two. Thus we are aided in the classification of plants. A few plants that bear cones like the pines have several cotyledons. But most plants have either one or two cotyledons.

From large seeds come the strongest plantlets. That is the reason why it is better and safer to choose the large seed. It is the same case exactly as that of weak children.

There is often another trouble in seeds that we buy. The trouble is impurity. Seeds are sometimes mixed with other seeds so like them in appearance that it is impossible to detect the fraud. Pretty poor business, is it not? The seeds may be unclean. Bits of foreign matter in with large seed are very easy to discover. One can merely pick the seed over and make it clean. By clean is meant freedom from foreign matter. But if small seed are unclean, it is very difficult, well nigh impossible, to make them clean.

The third thing to look out for in seed is viability. We know from our testings that seeds which look to the eye to be all right may not develop at all. There are reasons. Seeds may have been picked before they were ripe or mature; they may have been frozen; and they may be too old. Seeds retain their viability or germ developing power, a given number of years and are then useless. There is a viability limit in years which differs for different seeds.

From the test of seeds we find out the germination percentage of seeds. Now if this percentage is low, don’t waste time planting such seed unless it be small seed. Immediately you question that statement. Why does the size of the seed make a difference? This is the reason. When small seed is planted it is usually sown in drills. Most amateurs sprinkle the seed in very thickly. So a great quantity of seed is planted. And enough seed germinates and comes up from such close planting. So quantity makes up for quality.

But take the case of large seed, like corn for example. Corn is planted just so far apart and a few seeds in a place. With such a method of planting the matter of per cent, of germination is most important indeed.

Small seeds that germinate at fifty per cent. may be used but this is too low a per cent. for the large seed. Suppose we test beans. The percentage is seventy. If low-vitality seeds were planted, we could not be absolutely certain of the seventy per cent coming up. But if the seeds are lettuce go ahead with the planting.

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