Hand Tools and Techniques for Home Landscaping

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Whether doing it by hand or with conventional lawn and garden power tools, you have to take on each obstade with the tool most appropriate to the task. The first thing I do when attacking a new section of brush, woods, or meadow is to cut a broad path in, clear to the ground. Then I can work outward to both sides. If the ground is fairly even and the growth is light, there is nothing better than my CHP DR ® Trimmer/Mower, a giant line-trimmer on wheels. It will take out anything up to pencil-sized brush, and will do a pretty good shredding job on it too. I suppose that a hand-held gas trimmer would do the job, but I can't handle the high frequency shriek of a fast revving little two-cycle engine that close to my ears.

For small saplings and brush—after ruining a half dozen cheap mall store pruning tools—I use an anvil-type lopping shear that costs more than a hundred bucks. I find that cross cut (scissors-type) shears get bent too easily. Indeed, the soft steel cutting blade of the anvil-type can twist if given too much to bite off. So I protect my investment by carrying a little Swede saw or bow saw that will cut off larger saplings.

Slim wood-handled shovels and hoes used in light garden work won't hold up to any sort of heavy grubbin; especially if they've been left out in the weather or haven't been linseed-oiled at season's end.

To cut sod in strips to be rolled up or to remove it in small shovelfulls, a square ended cutting spade is best. I prefer the wood "D"-handled varieties imported from England just because they are pretty and at about $35 aren't exorbitantly priced. Mine are from Spear & Jackson and are half-strapped: the steel strap that holds the shovel on comes half-way up the wooden handle. It will stand up to several times the load of a long plain wood handle.

More effective still are contractors' or nursery shovels with half or full steel-strapped handles of wood, fiberglass, or all steel. The fiberglass handled versions will take any punishment a human can dish out, and come with lifetime guarantees. As well they should, with some going for $75 and up. The best selection comes from the A. M. Leonard catalog; their own brand of nursery spades in full-strap and all steel are reasonably priced, especially since they are industrial strength.

Leonard also sells a much needed tool: trenching shovels. In 3" and 5" widths, these 11" long shovels with good penetrating pointed ends, "V"-shaped spoons, and 4' long fiberglass handles cost under $30 and are perfect for digging drainage trenches, for burying water-drain and supply trenches, or for electrical conduits. In rain or sprinkler moistened soil they actually let a steady worker do the work more quickly, more cheaply, and more quietly than a rented mechanical trenching machine. Nor will they accidentally sever underground electrical or phone lines.

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