Things You Need to Know About The Garden Hand Trowel

Gardening is a beloved pastime enjoyed around the world. It is a relaxing hobby for every age, and anybody can immediately learn how to do it. You can either grow vegetables in your backyard or have a flower collection in a greenhouse. Whatever you do, gardening revolves around caring for all sorts of wonderful and colorful plants.

In gardening, you’ll need plenty of tools. These tools can help make gardening effortless and time-efficient. They are also necessary since they are built with plant care in mind. Obviously, you can’t dig a plant up with a crowbar. Not only is it silly, but you risk hurting your crop.

Investing in the right equipment is beneficial to both you and your plants. There are a lot of great tools out there. But nothing can beat the good old trusty hand trowel.

This neat little tool is used for a lot of things in the garden. If you have ever walked into the gardening section at a store, chances are you have seen one on a shelf. But how is a trowel useful? And is it necessary to have one in the garden?

What is a Hand Trowel Used For?

There are many kinds of trowels out there with different use cases. But in this article, we are going to talk about garden hand trowels.

This small, shovel-like tool is a handy addition to any person’s toolbox. It comes in different sizes, designs, and materials. Yet, the purpose is all the same.

Hand trowels are used for a variety of reasons in the garden. The number one reason why you need a trowel is that they let you dig holes more accurately. Got a plant that is stuck in a tight space? A trowel can come and save the day! Its small size means that it is easier to maneuver. You can easily dig what you want to uproot. And unlike a shovel, a trowel can leave less mess behind.

Trowels are also useful in weeding. While you can easily pull weeds out with your hands, the roots are often left behind. But with a trowel, you can scrape the weed off the ground cleanly.

Another useful tip is to use your trowel as a plow. Trowels work best when you are gardening in pots or flowerbeds. Those little areas don’t need a big tool for the job. Instead, you can plow through them with your trusty trowel.

But trowels aren’t good for only moving soil around. You can use trowels to scoop other things. You can easily carry products like fertilizer or compost with your trowel. At least you don’t have to get your hands too dirty anymore!

Finally, trowels can make your planting area look nice and uniformed. How? You can use the underside of your trowel and pat the soil until it’s nice and even. It’s an easy way to make your area look neat.

As it shows, there are a lot of ways to use your trowel. That’s why gardeners love this tool so much. If you are thinking of investing in gardening essentials, don’t skip out on buying a good, hardy trowel.

How Do You Choose A Hand Garden Trowel?

You’re probably convinced to buy a new trowel after reading the section above. Great! But hold your horses. Trowels might seem inexpensive, but you still want to buy something durable and worthwhile.

When shopping for trowels, you want to look for something made out of good material. A stainless steel trowel has to be the best option. They don’t easily bend or rust, unlike other metals. They are also affordable and easy to find.

You also want something comfortable to grip. Your trowel will be in your hand for a long time while gardening. So you want to find something that feels right in your grip. Consider getting a trowel with a rubbery handle to avoid fatigue. A rubber grip also means that your trowel won’t easily slide off your hands.

Finally, you want to consider the weight of your trowel. You don’t want something too heavy. Otherwise, it will be tiring to carry it around the garden. You want something light. A lightweight trowel makes digging and uprooting easier and faster. Evidently, you can’t try a trowel at the store by digging in some dirt. Instead, compare the weight of different trowels with one another. See which one feels nice in your hands.

What Are The Maintenance Of Hand Trowel

A trowel is a common gardening tool, that is used for smoothing, digging, and transferring the soil. This tool is made of two parts, one is the wooden handle and the next is the scoop-like blade made of metal. It’s important to maintain and clean the trowel you use in the garden otherwise it will become rusty and won’t dig properly.

Cleaning the garden tools is easy, you have to start just before the gardening season, and check the issues with the trowel and other tools. Check for dull blades, broken parts which are the topmost issues. Let’s explore the trowel maintenance tips below.

Daily maintenance:

The first thing is to keep the gardening tools clean, so they give long-lasting service. Other than that here are some tips:

• Rinse the digging tools with water and use a putty knife or wire brush to clean the dirt and mud from them.
• You can scrub the hand trowel with a brush and soap water. If the tool has been exposed near a pest-infected soil or a diseased plant, you need to soak the trowel into a solution of two cups beach with one-gallon water. After that rinse the tool in normal water, or wipe with a rubbing alcohol-soaked cotton pad.
• You need to dry rub the trowel with a soft rug.
• Keep a bucket filled with sand and mix it with plant-based oil, you can use linseed oil which is useful for cleaning metal. The sand has to be damp and not wet. Dip the trowel into the sand and repeat the process few times. This will clean the tool quickly. The oil will keep corrosion away, and you can use the trowel after towel drying it.
• It’s best not to use petroleum products because the toxic ingredient will enter the soil and damage it.
• Keep disinfectant wipes with you to remove sap, fungus, and bacteria.
• To keep the trowel and other gardening tools safe and working for a long time, store them in a well-vented and dry place. Place the smaller tools in a bucket of small pebbles or sand, and hang the larger ones upside down.

Remove and prevent rust:

Before you store the garden trowel, make sure to dry it. Treat the tools with linseed oil so it keeps them from becoming rusty. But if it still has some rust, you can follow these steps.

• Soak the tool in the 1:1 mix of water and vinegar overnight
• In the morning scrub and clean the trowel with steel wool in a circular motion.
• After that rinse, the tool in soapy water then with normal water.
• Dry the tool with a rag and then rub linseed or mineral oil over it.

Seasonal care of gardening tools:

Other than daily maintenance you need to deep clean the trowel and other pruners. Clean the tools before each season. As the season ends you can follow these steps before storing the tools.

• Unscrew the nuts that hold the tools together and wash the parts separately with soapy water.
• Soak the tools in vinegar and scrub the trowel with steel wool so that it removes the rust. After that rinse in plain water and dry it.
• Instead of vinegar, you can use water and bleach solutions to clean the rust and sanitize the trowel.

Other maintenance tips:

To keep the trowel working for a long time, it’s important to clean and sharpen it. Let’s check out how.

Keep the trowel sharp:

Pruning and cutting tools often become blunt and the blades no longer give the previous performance. That’s why you have to keep them sharp. You can use a sharpening stone to keep the edges sharp. Follow these steps,

• Push the sharpener or file in the same direction across the tool blade and use the original bevel angle
• After this smooth the edges with a sharpening stone
• Wear eye protection and gloves when you are using the sharpening machine.

Care for wood handles:

Other than the hand trowel blade, you need to take care of the wood handle too. If it has cracked a bit, wrap the industrial tape around it. This will prevent accidents while gardening. After each use, brush the handle with a damp cloth. Check the cracks on the handle at the joint of the metal part.

A trowel is an important tool for any gardener. Ask someone who tends a plant or two, and they’ll tell you that they have a trowel in their sheds. A garden hand trowel is a handy tool that can help gardeners in caring for their plants. If you are thinking about starting a garden, then a trowel is the tool for you. Taking care of the gardening tools will make them last longer. Also, they will be safe to use always. Make sure to read the above maintenance tips for better help. We mean it when we tell you that you’ll always be holding on to your trowel while you garden.