If you have a small yard, or few deciduous (leafy) trees, a rake may be good enough for your needs. But larger properties, or those with several trees may be more easily cleared with a power assist from a leaf blower. Keep in mind, too, that your tree may not be the only one putting [...]

A hose is indispensable for nearly every lawn and garden. Even in areas that get regular rain, there are often dry spells that can be dangerous for plants. No matter how good your automatic sprinkler design, there are usually areas that don’t get enough, causing dry spots. And, there’s no good substitute for cleaning up [...]

Most tools have metal parts, making them subject to oxidation that weakens them. Wooden parts, too, can suffer an early demise if the coating is worn off by neglect. Keeping lawn and garden tools including gloves clean maximizes their lifetime and usefulness.
For neoprene gloves, the solution is simple. Just leave them on and rinse under [...]

Having an array of lawn and garden tools is a must for proper care. But no matter how many hoes, shears or shovels you have one thing remains true: lawn care uses chemicals.
Those chemicals may be in the modern form of commercially manufactured fertilizers, pesticides and weed killers. Or they may be ‘organic’ (a misleading [...]

Sharp shears are a necessity to avoid ripping those stems rather than slicing them neatly. It also decreases the muscular effort required to make the cut, saving your hands. Fortunately, keeping shears sharp as new is simple with the proper tools and technique.
For larger shears, such as grass or hedge shears, the technique is very [...]

Some people garden and perform lawn care their whole lives using no gloves at all. But apart from the calluses and the dirt, some of us mere mortals require a little help from technology. Fortunately, the technology of gloves has come a long way in the past 50 years.
Today, thanks to advances in materials science [...]

A rotary-blade power mower cuts grass by slicing it off at high speed. The blades on many move around 2,500 revolutions per minute. But that high speed becomes ineffective if the blades are dull or nicked. Fortunately, keeping them sharp is easy and takes only a few minutes with the proper tools and technique.
Since the [...]

A watering can sounds like such a simple device that one wonders how there can be any difficulty in picking one. But, thanks to the ingenuity of contemporary designers, there are a dozen varieties. One may suit your needs better than another.
Consider the weight. Water weighs about 8 lbs (3.6kg) per gallon (~4 liters). If [...]

The metal parts of shovels, hoes, pole saws and other lawn tools with wooden pole handles always seem to outlast the handle. A broken handle usually renders the tool useless. Sometimes total replacement is the least expensive alternative, but it can be frustrating when the tool is relatively new. To replace just the handle can [...]

The type of hose repair needed depends, of course, on the type of leak you have. Here are two different possibilities for a leak, and how to fix them.
Ordinary garden hoses tend to leak at one of two points, either at the fitting or at a kink.
Kinks are usually the result of trying to get [...]