The Small Town Gardener

By hand or by tool
 
Marianne Willburn

(5/2019) Yesterday I cleared the pathway and drive up to the front door with the aid of a 56 Volt Lithion battery operated blower. I have many tools in my proverbial back pocket, but this one is probably my very favorite. In the space of two minutes I completed a job that would have taken me at least 30 minutes with a humble broom, and I completed it to a better standard.

This I believe is the measure of a tool: Can I do a job more efficiently with it than without it?

Over the course of my early adulthood, I was ridiculously tool adverse. I can lay much of this at the feet of extreme tightwaddery, and perhaps some of it in watching the example of my parents, who always made do with the cheapest (and quietest) option – and took pride in that making do.

My husband felt (and feels) differently. Faced with a job that has the potential of involving a power tool, he will take more time to search for the tool than the job might have taken him without it. If the blade is broken on the chop saw and a shelf needs to be trimmed, he will go out to the hardware store, pick up a new blade and come home to find me installing the shelf thanks to an old-fashioned pull saw.

In recent years, I have become more open to the idea of better tools = better work, but I examine the application carefully. My time is more valuable than ever and I have a large property. If I can save myself time in a repetitive job with a well-made tool suited to that purpose – or even better, adaptable to many purposes, I have more time for other tasks or recreation.

I’m also getting older, and though I don’t qualify for an AARP card quite yet, there is no doubt that a tool that helps me conserve energy and my joints is tremendous thing.

And this doesn’t apply only to power tools. A well-made, quality broom is a tool – so is a trowel or a soil knife. The key is matching the right tool to the right job so that the landscape isn’t damaged, the back isn’t aching and the bank account isn’t wounded.

I like to take an approach much like that of the horticulturists that use IPM (Integrated Pest Management) in their gardens. IPM would have us apply the least damaging solution first when dealing with pests, and slowly use other methods as the situation calls for it.

This is exactly what I do with tool use, though I think about it in reverse. I don’t want to cause damage to my garden but efficiency is important, so I look at the most efficient solution first, assess the side effects and work backwards until I’ve found a happy medium.

I survey an area first. For example, a few weeks ago I needed to pull a heavy deposit of leaves off of a 10x10’ bed of epimedium, iris, brunnera, dicentra and heuchera. Additionally, the epimedium, iris and heuchera needed to be trimmed before the new foliage emerged.

An undertrained landscape crew (or my husband) wouldn’t think twice. Power blower, power trimmer, done.

But blowing those leaves would leave the soil completely bare, and the air volume needed to shift wet, matted leaves would mean that loosely rooted heuchera roots could be dislodged. A power trimmer would create ragged edges on the iris flags and possibly hit emerging foliage of dicentra and epimedium once the leaves were removed.

So, no power tools.

Yet the less damaging step (pulling out a nice, efficient rake) wasn’t necessarily the answer either. Raking could mean accidently pulling out the same heuchera, and the iris rhizomes (I. reticulata is notoriously shallow rooted). Additionally, the tender, tiny emerging foliage of the epimedium could be broken and torn (dicentra is even more tender).

You guessed it – this job called for a gardener on hands and knees with a sharp pair of pruners and a keen eye. My husband passed me as I pulled out handfuls of leaves and yelled "you’ve always got to do things the hard way!"

Perhaps. But this task called for it. Later in the day I cut my grasses back with a battery operated hedge trimmer and blew the walkway spotless in two minutes. If you’re trying to do the right thing by yourself and your garden, keeping an open mind and applying the right tool (or pair of hands) to the task is key.

Trying to figure out what that tool might be? Talk to other gardeners and find out what their go-to tools are and what they wouldn’t be without.

Just make sure you look at their gardens too. Big bare patches in the epimedium could mean they’re being a little too efficient for their own good.

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