Shirley's Vegetable Garden™ 
By Shirley Barriger
December
Have you considered a useful gardening tool for that special gift?
December has been a busy month preparing for the holidays and making gift and wish lists. Have you considered a useful gardening tool for that gift? There are so many new tools to choose from, one should first consider the list of basic gardening tools for a small garden. The first tool is the hand trowel. It is excellent for gardening in small containers and small spaces and for planting young plants. Buy the best quality hand trowel you can afford and avoid cheap hand trowels that are stamped steel as they bend easily in hard soil.
A good quality long-handled round pointed shovel is used for general digging and cutting through sod to break ground. A garden fork or a cultivator is used for loosening the soil around young plants and to lift out small weeds.
There are many styles and sizes of hoes. Select one that will be a comfortable size. It is designed to shear off weeds and not to excavate the soil. A steel rake is useful for grading and smoothing seed beds and removing rocks and other debris from the prepared soil. A metal file will keep your hoes and shovels sharp.
A trip to the gardening department can be overwhelming as there are some unique new gardening tools and they will probably work very well. Of course the ultimate gardening helper is the roto-tiller. They come in various sizes for different sized gardens. Save your hands and select nice gardening gloves when using gardening tools. If you forgot to use gloves, try triple lanolin hand creams for those cracked and split fingers and hands. It has worked well for me.
During the long winter months, it is a good time to send for catalogs from several seed company's. Lists of company's can be found on the internet. After they arrive, study about all the different varieties of vegetables and start planning your next vegetable garden.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
