Gardening tools for your greenhouse
If you are reading this, chances are you love gardening but live too far north to start tomatoes from seed outdoors or to eat lettuce out of the garden in December. Not too long ago though you decided that you no longer want to buy tomatoes and lettuce at the local supermarket in the winter because you discovered that the taste of the produce did not compare with what you grew yourself, and ?this should prompt some gardening action ?what you ate had been liberally laced with chemicals. So you built a greenhouse and now you plan to get your hands dirty this winter by gardening in your newly-built greenhouse!
Anyone who has done gardening in the open will apply their knowledge to the greenhouse, just altering it a little to garden under glass. For a start, you should get a good list of gardening tools that are essential for your greenhouse. Basically, greenhouse hand tools speed up your work as they can do what your hands cannot. You will find that many of the tools that you use in the outdoor garden can be used inside the greenhouse, but for sanitation purpose, you should gather a separate set and keep them in the greenhouse.
First, you will need some gardening tools for soil cultivation which may include trowels, shovels, and spades. Since most greenhouse gardeners can usually choose their soil, power tools are often not required. There is no need to purchase or rent a tiller to break up the soil. You can choose the specific soil for the type of plants that you want to grow in your greenhouse. In addition, a stiff-tined rake is also necessary, particularly if you use large pots or floor beds.
Next, you should get two kinds of gloves ?one pair of any fabric that lets your fingers work unfettered but protected and another pair of heavy-duty latex rubber gloves for handling caustics such as pesticide sprays and bleach. You might also need some pruning tools, depending on the plants that you plan to grow. Pruning shears, hedge shears, lopping shears, pruning saws, and pole pruners are some of the tools you may need for pruning. These tools are especially useful for shrubbery and trees. Also, remember to keep scissors on hand for other tasks.
Your plants need to have water to survive and since you cannot rely on the rain to provide the necessary moisture for your plants, unlike an outdoor garden, you will need watering tools to deliver moisture to the plants in your greenhouse. Your hand-watering tools may include both cans and hoses fitted with special spouts or water-breaking nozzles. Pick a 2-quart, narrow-spouted watering can and a 3-gallon model with a round-patterned breaking nozzle as they can handle most tasks. The length of the water hose should be a few feet longer than the entire length of the greenhouse. And lastly, three kinds of nozzles will meet nearly all watering needs: a round or fan pattern nozzle for primary watering, a mist nozzle to add moisture to the air between irrigations, and a pressure nozzle to clean walkways and walls.
Having the right gardening tools for your greenhouse will definitely save you a lot of time. This means less time working and more time enjoying the fruits of your labour. For some cool greenhouse accessories, such as autovents, blinds, potting trays, and seed trays, check out Gabriel Ash.com. They also offer high quality gardening hand tools sourced from Sneeboer, as well as a variety of watering cans.
