When It Comes to Your Garden the Best Tools Are the Ones You Operate By Hand
A guest post from Lou Manfredini, Ace Hardware’s Home Expert

Most gardeners agree that the best part of working outdoors is getting your hands dirty. Feeling that soil on your skin, getting dirt under your fingernails - what’s not to love? Alas, our hands can only take us so far and sometimes you need a little help. While there are a myriad of power tools to make quick work of just about any job, I still prefer hand-powered tools to achieve garden nirvana.

To promote healthy growth in your flower or vegetable garden, it is important to turn the soil regularly. A sharp spade works well but requires extreme caution to ensure you do not damage your plants.

I recommend using “The Garden Weasel”. It started as a product only available on TV and developed into a go-to item for novices and professional gardeners alike. I’ve had one for about five years now, and use it often. It has a series of rolling spikes at the end of a long handle that enables you to easily roll it between your plants to turn the soil. This motion opens up the top layer of the soil and allows air to reach the root bed. It is just as easy as it sounds and really works! The Garden Weasel retails for about $30.00.