Garden tools, old and new.

On Sunday morning, Graham and I had our coffee and pancakes out back on the deck and looked over the yard while we ate. This inspired us to get up, get dressed and get out into the dirt and grass to clean things up. Graham had been wanting to get the vegetable garden re-edged as the shape was becoming less rectangular and more free-style blob. I had been hoping to get the bed weeded but Saturday had been much too windy for my liking.

First we popped out to Canadian Tire to check out their selection of gardening tools. With my growing belly, it’s becoming more difficult and tiring to do a lot of bending in the garden (or anywhere else, for that matter). We came home with a few new tools. My old edger, given to me by my dad, has no handle, so we picked up a new Turf Edger, a sharp-edged hoe, known as a Beet Hoe, for weeding and a Yardworks Cultivator.

As for the cultivator, I was less than impressed. Neither Graham nor I have ever been very impressed with Canadian Tire’s Yardworks products, so it’s not a surprise that this tool was a disappointment. I should have known better…It’ll be going back to the store.

While I pulled large weeds by hand, the hoe worked WONDERS for weeding out smaller culprits. I found myself wondering how I’d managed to have a vegetable garden all this time without a hoe! The new edger worked wonderfully, and the garden is now virtually weed-free with a crisply cut rectangular shape to it.

. . .

Later on Sunday afternoon, while we were puttering away in the yard we heard the familiar clanging bell of the “sharpening guy”, a man who visits the neighbourhood occasionally, charging a few bucks to sharpen tools of all kinds in the back of his van, right there in front of our house. I dug out a rusty pair of hedge trimmers and hand snippers and the sharpening guy cleaned them right up for me. Two tools that were previously useless are now back in commission! He also buffed a couple of chips out of my hand pruners, too. Sure saves a few bucks…the cost of having these few tools serviced was a lot less than it would have cost to buy them new, again, and keeps them out of the landfill.

Is there a tool sharpening service available in your neighbourhood (even if it doesn’t arrive in your very own driveway)?