Are You Using Your Gardening Tools and Machines Correctly and Safely?

Written by Kelsey W.

Gardening often feels like a relaxing and easily rewarding activity for your family with simple projects like watering houseplants, picking vegetables, and light trimming. However, some gardening projects require a little more effort and some thoughts regarding tool safety, hygiene, and tool choice.

Even though it might seem like you can accomplish most gardening tasks with a single tool, it’s actually a good idea to have a few different tools at your disposal for various gardening projects. It’s also important to understand how to use and store those tools safely. This knowledge will keep you safe and help you give your plants their best lives.

Let’s learn about some of the common tools you should have in your gardening arsenal and some simple steps you can take to ensure you’re using those tools correctly.

Using the Right Tool for the Task

You’ve probably seen various types of gardening implements, and maybe you have some in your garage or in a box of gardening equipment. Spades, shovels, and clippers of all sorts are used by gardeners to clip, shape, and cut plants of all sizes.

One key facet of gardening tools to remember is that you should strive to use the appropriately sized tool for each job. Don’t try to use a tiny pair of clippers, best suited for snipping dead flower stems on a geranium, to cut a big tree branch on your Jacaranda tree. Not only might the tool break, but it might take way longer than it should to perform a simple task.

If you have a significantly-sized tree limb that you’d like to trim that isn’t otherwise something that requires a professional with a chainsaw, always size up your cutting implement to ensure you’re not having to put too much effort into the cutting.

Hacking away at a limb that’s too large for the clippers you’re using is not only likely to take more time than is necessary, but you might even damage the plant with the excess cutting and pulling. It’s best to use clippers that will cut smoothly and cleanly through whatever it is you’re cutting to make things easiest on yourself and your plant.

You should also size up your spade or tiny shovel to a larger shovel whenever you’re digging a sizeable hole in the ground. There’s no reason to take a tiny spade and dig for hours when you could make that hole appear in just a few minutes with a larger shovel. Using the right tool for the job makes everything easier, faster, and safer.

Maintain Your Tools for Safety and Performance

Many common gardening implements will become dull over time, and you may eventually find yourself struggling to complete tasks with your “favorite” gardening shears. Just like a dull knife in the kitchen is actually more dangerous than a sharpened knife, the same is true when it comes to cutting implements in your garden.

Pruning the olive tree in your backyard and trimming the boxwood along your fence can become hazardous when you’re sawing away endlessly at branches because your cutters are dull. Most cutting implements will benefit from a yearly sharpening, but you don’t need to handle this task on your own.

A variety of local businesses, like knife shops, hardware stores, and lawn and garden centers, will sharpen tools for you. Not only can these professionals sharpen your hand tools like your clippers, but they can even sharpen the blades of your lawnmower and your larger powered gardening tools.

Scientifically speaking, sharp tools are safer than dull tools because it’s easier to maintain control when a cutting implement operates more smoothly. A dull tool that requires you to exert much more pressure can lead to serious accidents, particularly if you’re attempting to use a large tool or cut something significant.

Not only will your sharpened gardening tools help you complete your gardening tasks in the safest possible way, but you’ll also reduce the stress your plants may experience from trimming by reducing the force and movement required on the plant during cutting.

Clean Your Tools After Using

After spending a few hours in the garden, it’s fun to admire your handiwork, but you might forget that the work isn’t over even after you’ve removed all the dead blooms, plucked every weed, and trimmed every wayward branch.

At the conclusion of your gardening project, a vital part of ensuring your next day spent gardening is a successful one is making sure you don’t toss dirty tools back into your toolbox or wherever you might store them. Dirty tools degrade much faster over time than clean tools, which makes gardening a much more expensive hobby when you have to replace your dull, rusted gardening shears every year.

The two most important ways to keep your tools in good condition include removing all the organic matter from the tools after each use and never putting them away while they’re wet, so you can avoid rust. There are a few ways to accomplish this goal.

First, you can rinse off all your tools with water, just to get all of the loose material removed. Second, you can use isopropyl alcohol and then rinse them again before letting them dry. Taking these steps will ensure your tools are completely clean during storage and for the next time you use them.

If there are some crevices in your tools that aren’t getting cleared with a simple bath of water, you can take a toothbrush or any small brush to wipe the dirt and materials away from the smaller sections.  If you’re comfortable using it, a diluted solution of bleach is another option for cleaning your gardening implements.

After your tools are completely clean and dry, you’ll want to take that same wisdom to the storage place you choose for them. Don’t store them in a bin outside that’s all moldy and wet at the bottom. Choose a watertight container or try to hang them up somewhere inside, like a garage or shed.

Use the Right Technique When Gardening for Your Health

For many, gardening is an activity that keeps us healthy, but using improper form while gardening can actually lead to injuries. Chopping away at a branch, mowing the lawn, or clipping some leaves away probably doesn’t sound like a terribly complex endeavor, but it’s still important to use proper technique.

Consider the following before taking your cutting shears, lawnmower, or giant watering can out to your yard this season:

1. Don’t Work Too Hard: If you’re trying to cut a branch and you’re putting in loads of effort without seeing any results, don’t continue until you become weak from exhaustion. There’s likely a better tool for the job, or if you’re cutting something like a large tree, you might need some assistance from a professional with a bigger tool.
2. Don’t Bend Strangely: Reaching around to pluck away dead leaves or to deadhead flowers is fine in limited instances, but try to avoid contorting your body, especially when you’re wielding a tool that requires some dexterity. It’s way too easy to pull a muscle you never even knew you had.
3. Use Good Posture: Employing good posture isn’t just for the classroom setting or for work. It’s also a good idea to keep your back straight while performing tasks like weeding, cutting back branches, and other tasks that might have you bending over. Too much bending over can make gardening painful instead of pleasurable.
4. Use Your Elementary School Sharps Rules: Remember when your teachers told you not to run with scissors? Well, the same is true now when you hold a pair of recently sharpened shears. Always point them away from yourself and always remain aware that you’re holding something very sharp.

Another facet of safe and healthy gardening techniques to consider is that you should try to ease into your gardening projects when you’re new to the hobby. Don’t try to remove an entire season’s worth of weeds from between your giant bed of yarrow plants when you haven’t weeded anything in years. 

Always take it slow and work up to the more intense projects, so you don’t hurt yourself trying to accomplish a project that’s too big for your current abilities.

Get The Tools You Need for a Beautiful Garden at Green Thumb Nursery

Green Thumb Nursery is your Southern California source for everything you need to set up your new garden project, create a houseplant haven at your apartment, or get things started with your next vegetable garden. There’s no better place in the Southland to get everything you need for a beautiful plant-filled home.

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