Good tools are essential to growing good crops of vegetables, they make the work easier and enable cultivations to be done more efficiently. Of first importance is a spade, for it will be used for turning over the soil and for trenching, also for earthing up and lifting the crops. It will be in constant use and although a spade of any reliable make will be an efficient tool, for best results select one with a blade of stainless steel. It will not only be almost indestructible but it will be lighter and easier to use for soil will not stick to its mirror polished surface. Especially should a stainless steel spade be used if working a clay soil into winch it will cut with the greatest case. A Spear and Jackson spade with a blade of Sheffield stainless steel and fitted with a I)-type handle molded from polypropylene will be light and easy to handle and will last the average gardener a lifetime. For working rough clay soil, the Claymaster spade, fitted with four pointed cutting teeth and with a handle of tubular steel will allow the most stubborn soil to be brought into condition. Select a spade in the same way that a professional cricketer selects his bat. Try several, to get the ‘feel’ or balance and it is surprising how each will differ, however slightly. But when one is using it most days of the year, a spade must need to feel comfortable in the hands of he (or she) who will most use it.
As a complement to the spade, a garden fork of stainless steel will be the ideal tool for forking over the surface and for mulching; in addition it will be needed for lifting potatoes and other crops and conveying garden refuse to the barrow or compost heap. Here again, a stainless steel fork will remain clean and polished where working wet soil, especially of a heavy nature. A small ‘border’ fork 9 inches wide instead of the usual 12 – 13 inches, will prove easier for a lady to manage, whilst it has additional value in that it may be used between rows made only 12 inches apart. A spade and fork will be the vegetable grower’s most important tools and after use they should be wiped clean with an oily rag before putting away in the garden shed. Treat them with the respect they deserve.
Those who find digging difficult will obtain sonic relief if using the Terrox digger manufactured by Wolf Tools, This implement entirely eliminates the strain caused by lifting and turning the soil. The tool is pushed into the soil until the rear lever is resting on the ground. Then, with a slight movement of the handles backwards and downwards, the soil is made loose and turned over. There is no laborious lifting and the tool may be used by a person with only one arm. I3oth spades and forks may be obtained in this semi-automatic form, and when it is realized that a spadeful of soil will weigh about 14 pounds, it is obvious that the semi-automatic spade will take most of the hard work out of digging.
After the ground has been given its basic preparations, an implement such as the Jalo Single- wheel Cultivator will prove valuable. After fitting it with a small plough or with a set of discs for breaking up lumpy soil, it is pushed through the soil which should be clean and friable. Rakes may also be attached to prepare a fine seed bed and cultivators for hoeing between the rows and for loosening hard top soil after winter.
For the larger garden, there are a number of efficient power-driven machines which will do
the work of several men and with greater efficiency, in much less time. The Howard ‘Bantam’ manufactured by Rotary Hoes and fitted with a two-stroke engine, is capable of doing eight hours work on a gallon of petrol. For market garden work, Dashwood Engineering’s ‘Hornet’ is only 12 inches wide and weighs 90 pounds. It will do a day’s work on a half a gallon of petrol and will cultivate between rows 12 inches wide.
The compact Farmer’s Boy made by the Raven Engineering Co. is an inexpensive machine to use. Besides doing all the usual garden cultivations, it will cut down bracken and drive a saw bench, thus utilizing timber about the garden for fuel.
{ 0 comments… add one now }