Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 09:08 pm
Do you want to plow your garden but are wondering what kind of plowing tools to use? Throughout this article, you’ll discover some tips on the subject.
Everything you need to know about garden ploughing tools
Why are there different tools for tilling your garden?
There are as many different tools for tilling a garden as there are ways to do it.
Generally speaking, tilling is a way to remove weeds and loosen the soil sufficiently so that plants can grow in good conditions.
It is also a way to aerate the garden soil and make it porous, so that the plants can benefit from the gases and water retention necessary for their growth.
It is also a way to bury fertilizers, compost, manure and other fertilizers deep in the soil, rather than on the surface layer of the soil.
In other words, tilling is a way to prepare the soil for planting, so that your future crops can take root more deeply without being limited by the strength of the soil.
There are many schools of gardening, however, and gradually the practice of deep tilling the garden tends to decrease.
By not turning the soil too deeply, gardeners preserve the insects and micro-organisms that promote soil fertility, such as earthworms. It is best to plow in the fall or early winter, when the soil is not too wet, too dry, snowy or frozen.
What are the different tools to plow your garden?
There are a number of tools for turning over the soil, including the following:
Spade: the spade is part of the basic garden tools. It is used for single and double digging. Digging consists of turning over the soil and breaking up compact clods of earth. It is also available as a spading fork, which is preferable in the case of clay soils. It is important to choose a model adapted to your morphology to make less effort and thus have less back pain at the end of your gardening sessions.
Hoe: Its appearance is relatively close to that of the spade. However, its handle does not come into contact with the soil, which prevents the wood from rotting. This tool is used in gardening for wet and/or clay soils.
Hoeing: Hoeing is an alternative to spading. Indeed, hoeing only concerns the superficial part of the soil and its surface. It does not disturb the life under the ground. Hoeing: a tool designed to weed the garden without disrupting the soil in depth. Weeding consists of cutting weeds between the stem and the root, thus preventing them from regenerating.
Croc: a gardening tool fine enough to pass between the rows of crops in a vegetable garden, with curved teeth to remove stones and other solid unwanted elements. It is also used to pick up potatoes.
Grelinette: an indispensable tool that allows you to work the soil in your garden without having to mix the different layers of the soil. Moreover, the grelinette is very easy to use, which saves the user’s back.
Crumbler: as its name suggests, it is used to crumble the soil before seeding.
Rakes: Rakes are commonly used to remove dead leaves and grass clippings from a garden. When plowing, the rake is used to level the turned over soil.
Furrower: Before seeding in the garden, it offers the possibility of creating straight rows.
Hoe : the hoe is an ancient tool. In a vegetable garden, it is used to stir up the soil to aerate it. And at the end of a plowing, the hoe allows to break the still compacted clods of earth.
Motor hoe: it is equipped with rotary hoes that allow its user to plow his garden in silence and to work almost effortlessly. A thermal hoe has a greater autonomy, which allows the user to cover larger areas.
Tiller: similar to the rotovator, but equipped with two wheels with large tires that move it forward, improving its grip on the garden soil.
Micro tractor: or mini tractor. It is a machine that allows you to plow a garden soil with a driver on board.