I remember the moment I reached for the knife: I was attempting to divide a clump of irises with rhizomes so thick that my shovel refused to cut through them. I thought to myself, “a serrated knife would cut right through these”—and after a moment of reflection, couldn’t come up with a reason not to do precisely that. And just like that, a bread knife that saw no action in the kitchen became one of my most valued garden tools.
The key to being efficient in the garden is to use the right tools for the job, and there’s no rule that says those tools have to come from the garden center. If you identify a non-traditional tool that can do the job, don’t be afraid to claim it from whatever part of the house it usually lives in and reallocate it to your garden.
Serrated knives
When your shovel can’t get through roots, and a hori hori is too short, it’s time to take out a long bread knife. What I like most about using a bread knife is that I can stick it right into the ground and use it like a saw on resistant root balls, rhizomes or roots. As long as you wipe off the knife when you’re done with it, it shouldn’t rust, and should remain a trusted tool in the yard.
PVC pipe
PVC pipe being used as a dibbler.
Credit: Amanda Blum
A traditional dibbler is a tool you use to make indentations in the soil, to place seeds in. Turns out, a stick of PVC pipe does roughly the same thing. And if you misplace a piece of PVC in the yard, it won’t drive you crazy the way it does when I misplace my dibbler. In fact, PVC is more effective than a dibbler when it comes time to plant leeks, which you dig up and replant every few months so that more of the stem is blanched underground. When you replant them, you want a hold that’s very narrow and 10 inches deep—and PVC gets the job done.
But PVC can do more. It’s the perfect material for building hoops for a low tunnel over your beds, and because of all the connectors and fittings for PVC, you could even build a small greenhouse out of it.
Electric toothbrush
While you’re not going to find a method for pollination better than good ol’ bees, there are instances where your plants are going to need an assist. Sometimes, you don’t have a lot of pollinators around, and sometimes you’re gardening indoors. In those cases, you need an electric toothbrush, or, uh, anything else that vibrates. Once the plant has blossoms, and those blossoms are open, you hold the vibrating tool against it, and you will see the air fill with pollen, like a yellow cloud. Some of that pollen will land on other flowers and pollinate. I’ve found this method wildly effective on my indoor gardens.
Copper pennies
Copper pennies being used as a slug shield.
Credit: Amanda Blum
With pennies about to be decommissioned by the US Mint, here’s another way to use up the ones you have. If they were made before 1982, they’re made of copper, and if there’s one thing slugs hate, it’s copper. It gives slugs a shock, and they usually will not cross it. Sure, you could buy copper tape—or you can just glue copper pennies around your raised beds. I like epoxy for this, rather than hot glue, since hot glue is just going to melt again in the heat.
Wire trash cans
Wire trash can as plant cage.
Credit: Amanda Blum
Perhaps you don’t have chickens who want to devour all your plants and are instead just dealing with the average birds, raccoons, rats, and squirrels. In any case, a wire trash can serve as an excellent cage for your plants, keeping animals out while the plant gets big enough to stand on its own. The dollar store is an excellent place to locate these gems, and when you do, grab a bunch of them.
Five-gallon buckets and milk crates
5 gallon buckets being used for weed collection
Credit: Amanda Blum
Look, I’m convinced five gallon buckets—the cheap ones you get at Home Depot—are the unsung heroes of garden work. There’s always eight to 10 of them kicking around my yard. When I’m weeding, I look for the closest bucket to toss them in. When I get into a tight squeeze where my wheelbarrow can’t reach, a bucket is great for scooping and dumping. It’s easy to toss a bunch of buckets in the back of the car if I’m running to get sand or soil for the garden, or if I’m picking up a freebie plant from a neighbor that needs something to ride in until I plant it. Fill a bucket with water and dunk entire plants in that have become hydrophobic. You can use buckets to mix soil amendments. Buckets can make a decent planter, too, if you drill holes in them. I’ve seen driveway gardens full of tomatoes and peppers in five-gallon buckets.
In a similar vein, milk crates are invaluable for garden storage, since water can’t pool in them. You can see everything stored in them at a glance, and they stack. Being able to stack things in a garden is an equivalent to discovering a dress has pockets: priceless. But the best use of milk crates is to use them for planting bulbs. Flower farmers often use the crates that bulbs are shipped in (which look like milk crates) for planting that year’s bulbs, and once the crates are filled with soil and start flowering, you won’t notice the crate.
Cardboard
Cardboard sheet mulching.
Credit: Amanda Blum
In my neighborhood, large cardboard rarely makes it to the recycling station. It is quickly claimed for gardening, because clean tape- and paint-free cardboard is the basis for sheet mulching. If you want to kill your grass, tamp down weeds, and/or create walkways in your garden, you start with a layer of cardboard. It will smother whatever is under it, and as the cardboard decomposes, add nitrogen to the soil. In a similar vein, cardboard can be the brown in your composting bin, which should be balanced with the green (grass clippings, leaves, stems, etc).
You can also use cardboard in germination. Some seeds, like carrots, are a real bugger to germinate, and need consistent moisture, and don’t much like the sun at this stage. A sheet of cardboard over your carrot seeds will keep the soil moist and ensure darkness. Lift the cardboard after a week or two and check the germination. Once you see seedlings, remove the cardboard.
Scissors
Cutting sweet peas with a scissor.
Credit: Amanda Blum
I have every pair of pruners out there (I tend to lose them, somehow), but for some situations, nothing beats a pair of scissors. For delicate flowers like sweet peas, trying to get a pair of pruners between the growing vines will do more harm than good. I consistently find myself needing to cut twine while out and about in summer, and pruners rarely give a clean cut.
