How to Buy Basic Garden Tools

There's a tool for every garden purpose--a dandelion popper, a bulb dibber, a watering can for seedlings. Stock your shed with well built, high-quality essentials--the classic tools you'll use year after year.


Step1
Check for a comfortable, balanced weight. Too heavy a tool will wear you out quickly, as will a poorly balanced tool. Too light, and you will have to compensate with your own energy.


Step2
Feel the handle. High-quality wood, usually ash, should be smooth, with an even, straight grain. Longer handles provide more leverage.


Step3
Make sure the head's on straight. Carbon steel is the highest quality. Consider stainless-steel tools if you're willing to pay the price. They're durable, rust-resistant and easy to clean.


Step4
Look closely where the head joins the handle. The strongest connections are forged sockets or steel strapped, riveted with several rivets. Less-expensive tools often employ a metal sleeve that extends from the head and wraps around the handle.


Step5
Test for sharpness. A tool's edge will hold up better if the steel is tempered, heat-treated or solid-forged.


Step6
Recognize the essentials. Every garden needs most of the following: Shovel, spade, digging fork, weeder, hoe, edger, leaf rake, garden rake, hand pruners, loppers, and a pruning saw. There are obviously a much wider variety than those, and many or helpful. But with those, any gardened can be tamed.


Step7
Buy your tools at hardware stores and nurseries. Or shop online at sites such as A. M. Leonard (mleo.com) and Smith & Hawken (smithandhawken.com).


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How to Build a Simple Reinforced Wood Retaining Wall

A retaining wall holds back soil, either in a planting bed or on a slope or hillside. It can be built out of anything - from stone to wood to poured concrete - and it can significantly alter the contours of your yard or garden. These guidelines cover a low, reinforced wood wall. For anything stronger, you'll need a contractor.


Step1
Figure out where and why you want a wall: at the bottom of a gentle slope to create a new planting bed? Between two beds to provide contour and definition? (If the answer to this is "to keep my house from sliding down the hill" see Warnings below.)


Step2
Use a trowel, shovel or grub axe to chop out the cut (a combination of ditch and ledge) where your wall will start.


Step3
Cut 4-by-4 posts to a length equal to the height of your wall plus the amount they will be sunk into the ground; your building code will tell you how far they need to be sunk.


Step4
Dig holes for 4-by-4 posts at the inside base of your wall every 4 feet.


Step5
Lower the 4-by-4 posts into the holes.


Step6
Pour concrete around the posts to ground level.


Step7
Level the concrete. Allow to dry and cure for a week.


Step8
Cut boards (or buy pre-cut boards) - 2-by-6s or 2-by-12s are a good choice - to fit the length of your wall. For example, if you're building an 8-foot wall, you'll have sunk three posts - two 8 feet apart and one in the middle (at the 4-foot mark) - so you'll want to use boards that are 8 feet long. If the wall requires more than one length of board to reach from end to end, you'll need to measure carefully so that they'll meet in the middle of a post where they can be bolted for stability.


Step9
Bolt boards to posts using carriage bolts, placing the boards on the outside of the post (use at least two bolts per board-post intersection).


Step10
Dig a couple of 2-inch diameter tunnels under the wall for drainage using a trowel or screwdriver.


Step11
Fill the drainage holes with gravel.


Step12
Backfill the cut - the area behind the wall - with at least 6 inches of gravel at the bottom for drainage. Fill the remaining space with soil to the top.


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How to Build a Pedestal Bed

A pedestal bed can be a sleeping accomodation that is both easy to set up and easy to take down. It also eliminates the need for a box spring, making the job of moving the bed much easier than a traditional box spring and mattress. One of the challenges to making a pedestal bed is that standard bed sizes (including mattresses) and standard construction material sizes aren't the same. However, here's one way you can build a pedestal bed using standard materials.


Step1
Go to a home improvement store or hardware store and purchase the materials needed to build the pedestal bed.


Step2
Cut the 2 x 6's to match standard bed dimensions. That means 2 pieces at 54 inches and 2 pieces at 80 inches. This will leave you with 2 pieces of 42 inches and 2 pieces of 16 inches.



Step3
Stand the 2 x 6's on edge and install the hinges at each corner so the hinge pins will be on the outside of the boards. These pieces will form the bed frame. Don't put the hinge pins in just yet.


Step4
Put together 2 cross braces consisting of 1 long piece (42 inches) and 1 short piece (16 inches) of the leftover 2 x 6's. Overlap the 2 pieces so the total length is 54 inches. These will sit inside the bed frame and provide support for the mattress.


Step5
Cut (or have the hardware store cut) each of your 4' x 8' sheets so you have 2 pieces that are 80 inches long by 27 inches wide. You may be able to use the leftover pieces as shelving.

Setting Up the Bed


Step1
Align the bed frame corners and drop in the hinge pins. These will hold the bed frame together but are easily removed when it's time to move it.


Step2
Lay the cross braces on edge, inside the bed frame, each about 36 inches from an end. Lay your 2 pieces of MDF or plywood on top of the frame so they meet in the middle, and fasten them with a few screws into the frame.


Step3
Put your mattress on top of the frame and put bedding on the pedestal bed.


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