You wouldn’t pour a can of motor oil on your garden, would you? Of course not. You wouldn’t even dribble motor oil on your garden, but that is what happens if you treat your metal garden tools with oil as part of your regular cleaning and storing process. When the oiled tool makes contact with the garden soil some oil is transferred into the ground. Now that you’ve made that mental connection, it’s easy to remember to use petroleum-oil-free alternatives when cleaning your…
Sharpening your pruning tools makes yard work easier for you and keeps your trees, shrubs and plants healthy. SHARP TOOLS HELP YOU How many times have you attempted a pruning cut and grumbled when your loppers did not slice quickly through a branch? It could be you were trying to cut a branch larger than the capacity of your loppers. The hang tag on your loppers tells you the maximum branch diameter the tool will cut; be sure to take that seriously or you could end up with a lopper blade jammed in…
Do you grow roses? DId you ever think about growing them organically? That way you not only keep synthetic pesticides out of your garden and groundwater, but you can EAT and DRINK your roses too. In our…
read more»
February 14, 2013 - Charlotte from Peaceful Valley
Do you have shrubs and trees on your property? Then you’ll need pruning tools to keep them trimmed and healthy. When you wander into the pruning tools section of our website or down that aisle in…
read more»
December 27, 2012 - Charlotte from Peaceful Valley
You’re ready to plant a fruit tree—but how do you decide on the best pruning and training system? We’ve got easy answers for you. The University of California says pruning and training…
read more»
Our gardens can shift so quickly from warm, late summer to chilly, rainy fall. To help you avoid the “oops, I forgot to ________” that afflicts all gardeners, here’s a checklist of garden…
read more»
Prune cherry, apricot, and pluot trees in the summer, not the winter. These trees are susceptible to water-borne diseases and winter pruning cuts provide dangerous openings for damage in rainy weather.…
read more»
The wheel hoe is a superb and versatile garden tool. There’s no motor to fuss with, just a willing garden helper that rolls along tilling the soil, digging an even furrow, or cutting off those nasty…
read more»
Double digging revitalizes garden soil and gives it better tilth. It’s one of the basic practices of “French intensive” or “biointensive” organic gardening. French intensive…
read more»
Ready to start your first vegetable garden? The three essentials for an easy vegetable garden are: Full sun Convenient water supply Good soil Add some basic supplies and you’ll be off and growing.…
read more»
Walk through the process of pruning a bare root fruit tree in Tricia’s video, where she prunes her new peach tree. Are you ready to plant and prune some bare root trees? The video has all the basic…
read more»
December 28, 2011 - Charlotte from Peaceful Valley
You wouldn’t pour a can of motor oil on your garden, would you? Of course not. You wouldn’t even dribble motor oil on your garden, but that is what happens if you treat your metal garden tools…
read more»
When filing with a file, file on a Forward stoke.not pulling back. The file only cuts on a forward stroke. You’ll dull the file pulling towards you. You also won’t remove any metal unless you file in the correct direction.
Michael Bankston Says:
Dec 31st, 2011 at 9:50 am
Bob L. is correct. Also, file toward the cutting edge of the tool (wear gloves.) This way you won’t create a burr.
Melissa Says:
Jan 1st, 2012 at 8:45 am
Thank you for this. Quick, clear and precise. Perfect