good morning this is angela with parkrose permaculture it is incredibly humid today in
portland oregon unseasonably so we've had quite a lot of rain and we are now getting increasing
temperatures and it feels like my childhood in texas it does not feel great here we're supposed
to get more rain today and so i thought that i would take a break from some of my regular
yard work projects and cover a requested topic and that is what are my favorite hand tools
for gardening for the purpose of this video i'm just going to cover some basic hand tools i'm
not going to go over shovels or axes or hatchets or pitchforks and things like that i just want to
go over some useful hand tools that i use all the time and i couldn't do permaculture without them
so let me start by saying that i'm not going to include this in my list of tools but
having really good garden gloves is really really important for me and i couldn't do
permaculture without them i couldn't be out in the garden without them even though i may often have
dirty hands and gardeners fingernails in videos i try to wear gloves whenever possible i have some
autoimmune issues and some um psoriatic arthritis in my hands and i have to really protect them from
cuts or scrapes or irritation from plant saps and things like that because if i get a flare
particularly on my fingers it really aggravates my arthritis so i try and protect my hands as much as
possible and i find that that's true for a lot of gardeners as they get older so just be aware that
you can really extend your ability to work in the garden if you use good protective
gear and gloves are a part of that now i will say right now i just use these
kind of cheapy ones that are not compostable not recyclable and that is a source of frustration
for me and a way in which i do permaculture imperfectly i haven't found a good supply of
natural compost or compostable or recyclable gloves that really protect my hands and allow for
the quantity of dexterity that i need in order to do my job i know folks are going to suggest
leather gloves right off the bat i have several pairs of good leather work gloves that i take
care of and i make sure that i work leather oil into them which i make myself by the way
i should make a video about that i use wax from my bees in in that conditioner
and i take really good care of my gloves so one of my pairs of gloves i've had for more than 20 years
but for regular digging in the dirt kind of work leather gloves don't really
provide enough dexterity but also in the rainy pacific northwest they get saturated really
quickly and they take a long time to dry out and then when they do dry out they're very hard and
have to be worked over to be pliable and malleable again so leather is an imperfect solution
cotton gloves i just destroy them super quick so if you have ideas for gloves that really
hold up allow you to get fine precise work done in the garden and protect your hands and can be
compostable please let me know i am searching in vain for a solution but in the interim i'm
going to protect my hands okay let's talk about the tools that i feel i couldn't do without
you can look back at one of my old videos i love my axes i kind of collect axes and hatchets
um even on my limited budget so my collection is small because i prefer quality over quantity
the same is true with my hand tools i don't use very many and i found over the years a lot of them
that have been gifted to me are relatively useless now so when i first started gardening
i did a lot of formal straight rows and i really utilized a hoe i had a french hoe and a chapo
and i would have said those are two of my most important tools but having done a complete food
forest permaculture setup i don't use those at all anymore in fact i gave them away so in
future videos i will definitely be talking about how i sharpen and oil and care for my tools but
in this video let's talk down my six favorite hand tools that i use all the time in my garden okay so
number six counting down on my list of top small hand tools that i use all the time not my poodle
she's she's invaluable um number six is a circle hoe so i don't use a big hoe anymore but i find
that this is a really useful tool particularly in the areas of my garden where i need to get around
the base of some of my trees to deal with some weed pressure particularly young trees it's really
good for weeding in a small area i have some parts of my garden that still intermittently get quack
grass sprouting i spent an entire year and many many many yard waste bins full of rhizomes to
eradicate my entire backyard of quackgrass it was covered in it and even when mulching with
cardboard i found that the quackgrass still crept back in many many places i mean just
i can't even tell you how many 40 gallon yard waste bins i filled with quack grass rhizomes
and i still occasionally get them this tool is really good for getting
in and loosening the rhizomes in damp soil and helping me get them out without destroying my
hands and using my fingers so a circle hoe may be a good small choice for you
number five as beat up and as dinged up as these are one of these belonged to my grandfather and
the other one belonged to my husband's grandfather dandelion waiters this is such a useful tool y'all
i love dandelions before everybody jumps on me i love dandelions i let them proliferate everywhere
great bee food as a beekeeper why would i not let dandelions grow
but i also really love dandelions as snacks and early forage for my chickens and ducks
dandelions often come up all over the path where i don't really want them or sometimes
next to seedlings or in an area where i need to plant annual veggies and a dandelion weeder is
so good at getting in there and popping up a dandelion and then i can throw it down to my
chickens it's a resource that doesn't go to waste it helps me effectively harvest the dandelions
and use them as forage fodder for my ducks and chickens and they turn them into eggs now i also
use this one of the few weeds i get in the garden is dock and it has a deep tap root so a lot of
sun loving early pioneer species weeds that we tend to get in our gardens have big deep roots and
that's really useful for breaking up soil but they may come up where you don't want them and you may
have other plans for that area a dandelion weeder really saves your hands and a lot of frustration
and helps quickly pop up those long rooted weeds and helps you be able to clear an area more
quickly so i know a lot of folks will say this is their favorite garden hand tool and that's the
hori hori for me it is definitely in my top six i use it a lot it has a nice serrated edge which is
so good for if you're trying to divide a clump of perennials just get in there and saw in between
the crowns and separate the roots so good for dividing things it has a useful notch
tool here for cutting twine it's great if i'm out in the garden and i'm trying to cut twine
it has a measuring stick on it when you are trying to plant bulbs or other things
seeds and want to know how deep to plant them in the ground i really love the narrow shape
it works as well as a small hand trowel if not better the narrow shape makes it
great for my dense clay soil just a fantastic all-around tool you cannot go wrong hori hori
does the job of many tools in the garden and i i definitely couldn't be without it number three
a fixed blade small knife i really like flex cuts um all of my kids have them for whittling
and i have them both for whittling and as a small utility knife i wear it on my belt constantly and
i find it so useful in the garden if i need to quickly cut anything from garden twine
to a small branch in my way to opening packaging for something can't go without a good little knife
and because it is you know a small blade i find it easy to use it has a nice handle if you have
arthritis or you have grip issues this is a really nice ergonomic handle and makes it very easy to
use this knife super super easy i use it a lot when harvesting so things like my lemons other
crops that don't come easily off the tree and need to be cut a small little fixed blade knife
is a great tool flex cut is made in the usa and if you're going to invest in one definitely worth
getting the holster here now my third child hal he actually made his own leather holster
and that's an option with scrap leather that he got it tandy leather and it was a really fun
little project i might do a video on it later but really fun to make your own little leather holster
for your knife okay moving on number two is featured in a lot of my videos and that is my
pruning saw i have a corona there are many good pruning saws on the market actually got this one
as a christmas present from my family and i think it was when the local hardware store
was there's a hair on this was going out of business and they got it on a really cheap uh
good deal good discount and i use it constantly i really love having an arc to pruning saw prefer it
very much to my previous straight bladed pruning saw this gets constant use in my garden i have a
rotator cuff tear and that makes pruning above my head really difficult this motion is almost
impossible for me to make and i really like the saw it's lightweight and easy to use and i've
found that with practice it's quite easy for me to prune above my head
left-handed with this saw and it's just really adaptable lightweight sharp easy to use so even
though i'm not ambidextrous i've become skilled at using it with both hands due to my shoulder injury
but you can't beat it if you want to prune off larger pieces of wood obviously it's great but
even for a small branch if i don't have my hand pruners on me hold a very small branch taut and
just pull sharply and it will cut them cleanly so that's really really nice for especially getting
in some of my vigorous trees like mulberries and getting those young green shoots that don't snap
off easily with my fingers hold them taut and then one quick jerk and then they'll come right off
all right number one on my list of hand tools i would not be without as a gardener
hand pruners in europe they're often called sacateurs in the us we tend to call them hand
printers and i mean a good quality set that you keep real sharp same with my knife and pruning
saws i keep all my tools very sharp you're less likely to hurt yourself you're less likely to hurt
your trees and you're going to be more effective and use less energy if you take the time to keep
your tools sharp so let me talk about a couple of things you don't want with hand pruners and
a couple of things that you do want okay so let's talk about a couple of things that you don't want
i don't know for the life of me why these are on the market they're cumbersome they hurt my hands
and they're a terrible idea and that is these giant hand pruners so here's mine that i love
and then here's these big honking things
they come in a set of three usually i think like some of the big box stores sell them i was given
these as a gift and they are huge so the open span is larger than anybody's hand my husband
is a big honking guy with giant meat hook hands and this is still too big of a span for him to use
these are too big for his hands they're too big for everybody's hands
um they hurt my hands to use them they open too far the handles are too long they're cumbersome
think about the proportions of your tools i don't know who designed this somebody who
doesn't actually garden don't use these so when you're looking for hand pruners that you know
will last a long time and i've had my favorite pair for many many years you want ones that
first of all have a bright handle whoever decided to paint handles of hand printers red genius i had
a few pairs that were black and green and children and when we used to have garden volunteers here
harvesting for a local food bank they would leave my hand pruners all over the garden
and they would get lost green or black or gray handles just get absorbed into the landscape
and they're very difficult to find if your hand pruners don't have red consider painting them red
very easy to find them if left in the garden you also want ones that the hand span is comfortable
for you so see these are all the way open again versus these monsters which are completely useless
you want them so that they're comfortable you're going to be doing a lot of repetitive motion with
them and you want to make sure that it doesn't hurt your hands you want your tools to have good
permaculture design or you're not going to use them right you also want ones where the
closure mechanism is one that will hold up over a long time i really really dislike this closure
mechanism like this over time this tends to not be effective at holding the pruners closed
and it tends to break down i much prefer one like this oh you can see my dirty gardening hands
one like that also consider getting a leather holster now this one again my family got it for
me and it was on clearance somewhere so it's not the same brand as my pruners but i use it all the
time leather holster keep it on your hip protects your tools and makes them readily accessible
definitely definitely worth it if you are a vegan you could obviously sell one out
of canvas if you don't have access to leather working tools you could sew on out of canvas
make yourself a little holster keep your saca tours close by and easy to use and protected
so if you got something out of this video please give it a thumbs up please consider subscribing
and check out my patreon in the description really just floored by all of the new folks who have
decided to patronize this channel and help support my work if there are hand tools that you like and
you utilize on a regular basis basis and make your garden work easier more efficient and less
labor intensive please let me know i'm always open to improving my design improving my toolbox
and making permaculture more enjoyable and more efficient thank you for watching i'll be back soon