A volunteer works with kids at the Civic Garden Center's Race Street Children's Garden.

A Gardener’s Toolbox
Essential Tools and Thoughtful Tips that Enrich Your Garden Experience

By Emily Keough

The Civic Garden Center’s Neighborhood Gardens training program has given birth to more than 40 gardens and beautification projects in Greater Cincinnati. The program’s current coordinator, Peter Huttinger, gave us a few basics on the proper tools for maintaining our gardens—as well as his wisdom on sharing labor and harvests.

Huttinger focuses on gardens as food, and it’s rumored that he’s told students: “If you can’t eat it, I don’t grow it.” He uses the same no-nonsense approach when it comes to working in the garden.

Q: What are a gardener’s must-have items?

A: To begin with, your own two hands. Feeling the soil, seed and plants is the most important place to start. Then, keep the tools simple. A few basics are:

Garden trowel
A sturdy one made of cast aluminum will perform and last.

Hoe
I prefer a rocking stirrup-blade hoe. A stirrup hoe is open on the end, and the blade runs parallel with the crust of the soil, allowing you to loosen the top quarter-inch of the soil and to cut the weed off the surface of the soil.

Garden spade and spading fork
Use pieces made of sturdy steel.

Watering can
There’s a lot of flexibility here. At home, I like the metal galvanized cans—they seem to last longer. At the community garden, for the kids, we use the plastic ones, because the cans are left outside. Galvanized cans are about $26, whereas the plastic cans are $4 or $5.

Pruners
I use a Felco model 2. I recommend buying quality tools that can last a lifetime.

Q: What do you never garden without?

A: A reverent attitude toward the earth. When gardening, the soil should be your No. 1 concern. You need to build quality soil in terms of structure and keep the soil healthy through compost and organic matter.

Q: What tools are best to own individually, and what are the best tools to share among neighbors?

A: Individually—as few as possible. When selecting a tool ask yourself, “Does this tool assist me in nurturing the soil and cultivating the plants?”

For sharing—share your labor and share any extra food you grow. People should work together, not with heavy equipment. I don’t recommend using power equipment unless it’s absolutely necessary. I think it’s better for people to work together with shovels as opposed to mechanized equipment. You can accomplish things without using electricity or gas.

Q: What tools are needed to maintain a garden?

A: Here I would like to advocate NOT using a tiller and to avoid using any power tools in your vegetable garden. A tiller shreds and kills microbial life and earth worms. Also, it radically disrupts the soil’s structure. Another problem is that we have a high concentration of clay in our soil. Repeated use of a tiller creates what is called a hard pan. A hard pan is a buffed clay bottom to your garden, which makes it almost impossible for water to percolate.

Q: What is the importance of maintaining a garden?

A: Working the garden is healthy exercise and provides exposure to fresh air and sunshine. Work in your garden—which includes observing the seasons and growth of the plants—on a regular basis. This will build a healthy connection between you and your garden. 

Q: Do you have any recommendations, specific tools or methods when working with the abundance of clay in this area?

A: The soil in this area is a heavy clay soil. The most important thing to do is aerate and add humus. The best way to add humus is to work compost into your soil on at least an annual basis.  

Q: Any tricks to removing the whole weed?

A: Grab the weed at its base, and then pull with a steady slow upward motion. Afterwards, compost it so it can be returned to your garden as rich humus.

Q: For someone who has never gardened, what would be the ideal size for a first plot?

A: Be conservative at first. You can always expand later. I would start with a plot approximately 4 feet by 10 feet, or you can also integrate annual and perennial vegetable plants into your existing landscape.

Q: What do you think a first-timer should start out growing?

A: What you like to eat! A few standards that can be easily grown here are tomatoes, peppers, beets, bush beans and lettuce. Oak Leaf and Mescaline varieties are fun.

Q: Is there anything that you find to be much easier to grow than others?

A: Beets, but that is probably because I love them.

Photograph courtesy of the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati