GARDEN TOOLS 



working in where the square one cannot — and turned 

 on its side it will draw up quite as good a ''hill" with 

 no more work. 



The rake is a cultivator as well, indispensable for 

 the surface tillage that is so essential to the garden's 

 health and welfare. The dibble and the float have been 

 described and their uses explained, in an earlier chapter. 

 Pruning shears are required for snipping off even 

 small branches, else the bark may be stripped. It is 

 never well to try and pull or break even a twig from 

 a branch, for some things have such tough bark that 

 it will never yield, but will strip the length of a branch. 



The trowel is for close-up hand work, likewise the 

 hand weeder — both are needed among flowers especially. 

 The liquid spray syringe and the powder gun are most 

 important — indeed, almost everything else might be 

 omitted, if one had to, but certainly not these. Raffia, 

 which is soft yet tough, comes in great bunches, for 

 tying up the things that need to be tied. Stakes are 

 necessary for locating things as well as for supporting 

 those plants which require it. Labels in the form of 

 stakes are needed for the vegetable and flower garden, 

 and smaller labels, to tie onto plants or to stick down 

 into the flats or the beds where seeds are sown, made of 

 wood so light that they will not weigh down a branch, 

 are a necessity to the fastidious, helping to keep things 

 neat and uniform, as they do. Any little stick will 

 answer of course, if one feels that way, but smooth little 

 labels are easily home-made. 



Fifty feet of strong, hard- twisted line is none too 



145 



