3 Essential Tools to Clean up Your Garden Instantly

A well-manicured garden is a thing of real beauty. There’s nothing like looking out the window and seeing your hard work bloom in its right place, just the way you want it. Everything that you see is the product of hours upon hours under the sun. It’s the foundation of concept building and organizing the aesthetics of your property. But, as we all know, shaping and cleaning up your garden is tedious. It’s the fresh-air equivalent of all the other chores around the house. And although one may derive a sense of zen out of the idea of cleaning, there’s no point in making the endeavor any more time consuming and back-lurching as it already is.

That’s why we have tools; and thank goodness for them. But in the day and age of downsizing and minimalist solutions, a whole shed full of specialized tools seems like a practice in excess. Expanding technology and consumer-oriented product design is continually working to deliver the best and most efficient means of getting the job done. In fact, one can fit most of the work into three highly versatile and massively effective implements.

The Mower

The first and most obvious tool on the list is a mower. It’s the big, bad king of the yard. Mowers are meant to massively reduce the amount of time it takes to trim a whole field. The impressive workload that one can achieve is why they’ve become a staple in every landscaper’s toolset. There are, of course, a few different types to choose from. According to Rotation, you’ve got your rotary mowers and your reel mowers. The majority of current commercial mowers are of the former. Rotary motors have a blade pan that spins on a horizontal plane, giving an even and straight look to your lawn. It’s the go-to choice for large parks and fields due to the flattening effect it gives. It’s perfect for manicuring a playing field. Now, a reel mower is the original mower. It’s the kind of mower you see in old movies with the rolling, bladed cylinder. The effect it produces is that of a shorter, yet more natural levelling of grass, as opposed to its flattening counterpart. The downside of these mowers have traditionally been the cleanup. After you’ve cut the whole field, you’ve got to collect the trimmings. Back in the day, they’d have to rake it all up in sections.  Of course, we’re not about to go back to the 1930s to get a modern job done. There are really neat options nowadays coming out of reelrollers.com and other companies that are trying to take the best of what the market has pushed and combining them. New generation reel mowers come equipped with engines and bags for easy clean up. Either way, your large, blunt landscaping machine doesn’t have to be an old fashioned work horse, nor does it have to be a run-of-the-mill product.

Hori Hori Knife

The next essential piece in your garden cleanup arsenal is the Hori Hori knife. It is the quintessential fine-tuning tool that’s perfect for cutting, sawing, and transplanting. It’s part spade, part knife, with a solid wooden handle for and impressive feel. Hailing from Japan, the land of efficiency, some even come with a measuring gradient so you can know exactly how deep you’re planting seeds.

This tool comes into play, most importantly, in making sure that weeds and other invasive species don’t suck the resources from the surrounding plants. These may be a bit more difficult to spot, but once you do, a precision instrument is more suited than hoping the mower or weed-killers fix the issue. Using the Hori Hori knife has very few drawbacks. They’re affordable, available in most online and physical stores, and are small enough to fit snugly in a tool belt. You just have to sharpen them periodically like you would any knife.

The Rake

The third essential tool is your garden rake. This is where the final touches take place. After you’ve mowed, and cut, and transported everything, the final debris need to be brought to the center. There’s very little frill to the rake, although in the spirit of evolving tech, there are some that double as a scooper so you can toss the leaves in your compost bin. In turn, composting is a habit will do wonders for your garden down the line.

There you have it! The big three essential tools for garden cleanup. You’ve got your big guns, your precision piece, and a rake for the finishing touches. With these, along with a solid compost heap, your garden will be ready to impress your friends, or simply serve as an ongoing appreciation in hard work and beauty.