some planting basics...
From left to right: spade, transplanting trowel,hand fork/cultivator, loppers (for cutting branches, dead-heading spent flower heads out of reach, weeder, rose-pruning gloves, ratchet clippers
as per your request, here are some basic abc's for gardening novices for re-potting plants. Now that it's almost October, this is a very good time to plant and re-pot some of your plants. Before you do, you need to purchase some gardening tools.Pictured above are my main tools for gardening. These are all you need if you have any kind of plants in your garden -shrubs, bushes, all kinds of flowers, vegetables, smaller fruit trees. I've had all of these tools pictured here for at least 12 - 15 years! Take good care of your tools and they will last you a long time - keep them indoors, out of the rain!
The spade is great for digging up plants that need to be transplanted, or basically anything else that needs to be dug up in small garden areas. Occasionally I use a shovel if there is more heavy duty digging involved.
I use the transplanting trowel all the time - not just for transplanting but also when I am feeding potted plants with fertilizer (organic of course), or feeding plants in the ground with compost material. It's also handy for digging up larger weeds. The trowel pictured has a kind of patina because I found it in the yard. Somehow I have a tendency to lose these when I'm working in the garden, and never find them again until years later!
The cultivator/hand fork makes it so much easier when you are transplanting and clearing your soil of any stray small roots from a previous plant in that same spot, as well as weeds, for a new plant. You dig in the soil and swish it around and all of the little roots and weeds get caught in its thick tines.
Loppers! where would I be without these?! They are great for trimming any branch that is 1 inch thick or less. They are great for pruning tall branches, cutting up any dried branches, and reaching up to dead-head spent flower heads.
Although the rose gloves were originally designed for pruning rosebushes so you don't get torn up by thorns, I use them a lot anyway for better protection when pruning branches. I also use a pair of short gloves for lighter gardening work - pulling weeds, tending plants in containers/pots. It's best to invest in durable, thicker gloves because they'll last a lot longer.
When you buy clippers, be sure to purchase ratchet clippers/ratchet shears. Before I got the Florian ratchet clippers pictured above, I averaged about 1 pair of clippers per year, because they all got dull in no time. But ever since I've used the Florian ratchet clippers (for at least 12 years now!), given to me by a good friend, I've never needed to buy another pair. They are amazing!
my favorite fertilizers and potting soil
This potting soil is my favorite! Among its natural ingredients: worm castings, kelp meal, composted chicken manure, peat moss. All of this is exactly what your plants need!
