Essential Tools: Garden

Welcome to another mini-series. This one is about basic tools.

Have you ever noticed how many survival gurus tell you to be prepared to grow your own food? Mostly they tell you to do so, mutter something about heirloom seeds, and then proceed straight to the discussion of what main battle rifle would be best to have to protect your garden. Very rarely will they recommend what to plant or what you need in the way of tools to cultivate your garden.

This isn’t an article about what to grow. This is a discussion of the tools I think are useful in to a survival garden. You don’t need all of them all of the time, but these are the ones I believe would be most useful to someone trying to grow enough food to stay alive. So let’s begin:

The Cutter Mattock – this consists of an adze with an axe blade mounted opposite to it. It is used for digging and chopping, and would be my first choice if I needed to break ground for a garden. You can break up and move the densest soils with this, and the axe component of the head will make short work of roots.

Garden Fork - a four tined fork used for lifting and turning over the soil. I believe this is likely the most basic and most necessary of the gardener’s tools. It is easier to get into the soil than a shovel, and the tines can be used to rake out weeds and stones.

Rake – the heavy duty variety, not a leaf rake. You’re going to use this to smooth out your soil once it is dug, leaving a nice level seed bed that is free of clods and rocks.

Hoe – One of the most ancient of tools, this is used for creating furrows for planting, hilling plants (i.e. moving soil) and weeding. Another must have in my book.

Dutch hoe – a type of hoe with a sharp, sometimes oscillating cutting blade that cuts off weeds just under the ground. Great for weeding between rows.

Shovel – you’ll want several here. Include a pointed spade for digging in hard ground, a square spade for somewhat easier ground, and a square shovel for moving loose material like sand for a start. If you have the need, you might want to acquire a trenching spade as well.

Axe – at least one general purpose axe.

Sickle – used to harvest grass or grain, it’s worth taking a look at. Handier in tight spots than it’s cousin.

Scythe - The cousin of the sickle, you can harvest far more in the same time, but there are drawbacks. The most important these is that it takes some skill to use one efficiently.

These are the basic tools you’ll need, but there are lots of others out there. All of the tools mentioned are long handled compared to hand tools, and you need to know how to maintain and repair them. The minimum you'll need is a good whetstone and some flat files. If you can afford multiples of each tool, get them. And speaking of hand tools, there are a few that would come in handy:

Garden knife - also known as a soil knife or weed knife, this a large double sided knife used for weeding and digging. Especially useful for working with berry bushes, grape vines and that sort of thing, in my opinion.

Garden trowel - a small shovel like hand tool used to dig with. Very handy when transplanting into a garden or other plant bed.

Seed dibbler – for seeding, obviously

Watering can – No running water? You’ll need a good sized one of these.

Of course, what you get will depend on what you’re growing where you’re growing it, and how you’re growing it. While my preference is for basic tools that I can repair, do not require gas, and don’t require parts, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of whatever technology you feel comfortable with. If it’s a gas powered cultivator, fine. Or maybe it’s simply a push along precision seeder like the one at the bottom of the page. It's up to you and what you're comfortable with.

Just make sure that you have the tools you need, not just the seed.

Next week we’ll look at a basic tool selection for the woods.



Originally posted June 07, 2011 @ MPN