Garden Tools

The cloche hat of a woman in church has caught my eye and will not let it go.

Cloche hats look so much like the old gardening cloches (bell jars) that, instead of following the liturgy, I begin to mentally set out transplants of basil, tomatoes, bell pepper, and eggplant. The cloche adorning the noggin of the parishioner two pews in front of me is the color of eggplant.

The garden cloches in Gustave Caillebotte’s late-nineteenth-century painting “The Gardeners” protect seedlings and transplants in an early spring garden. The painting is in the book Garden Tools, published by Abbeville Press (1996), a lovely book of photographs of gardening tools used through the ages. There’s a Roman pruning knife called a billhook nestled in an array of other tools. The Roman knife was found in a tomb. The rusted metal handle ends in a circle convenient for hanging on a Roman nail. I close my eyes to imagine the toolshed of the ancient gardeners. I see the cool, dark interior of my shed.

This summer, I’ve added the book of gardening tools to the collection of naptime books my four-year-old and six-year-old grandsons take to bed. We look for tools—pruning knives and clippers, trowels, watering cans, long-handled loppers, shovels, spade forks, and asparagus knives. Except for the latter, the boys recognize tools they see on the bench in my courtyard, hanging from fences around the garden and in the backyard shed.

With only a little trepidation, I have shared my hand gardening tools with the young gardeners. The tools (trowels of different sizes, a hand fork, and weeders) are piled in a toy dump truck.

I thought to dust off Garden Tools after watching Emerson and John carefully select tools from the dump truck for their work in the sand pile. Even at so young an age, they each have a discerning eye for the right tool for a job. These outdoorsy children regard a small hill of sand or topsoil as a jobsite for grading and road building.

The boys’ large-movement motor skills are fine. We’re working on finer control and patience for transplanting and weeding. Weed thyme to know patience.

The boys like to water. They use a method that is best described as “accidental.” They start with plants I’ve designated as needing attention before swinging the watering can’s rose to water bricks, a bench, their feet, and my feet. Under the influence of Garden Tools, I addressed the grandsons’ need for a watering can they could handle. More on that in a bit.

Getting water from its source to the plants is a task that faced Sumerians as it does today’s sustainable-gardening practitioner. Modern watering cans were inspired by metal containers resembling milk cans that were used to carry water from well to kitchen. There are dozens of styles of watering cans in Garden Tools from the now-rare terracotta watering vessels with fixed roses to the modern, handsome watering cans of iron, copper, and galvanized steel. Some of the watering cans have long, slender spouts and roses with small perforations for watering seedlings in pots in a greenhouse. Extra long spouts affixed to large cans made it possible to reach across wide rows of plants. A container designed to hang from the end of a long pole was used to water hanging plants. The gardener used a rope to tip the watering can on its articulated support at the end of the pole.

For years, I’ve used a squeezable, rubber bladder with metal spray-head to water seedlings. Horticulturist Ed O’Rourke gave me the venerable tool when he and the watering bladder were of advanced age. The bladder looks like a patch of alligator hide, so cracked is it from thousands of squeezings.

The time had come to retire O’Rourke’s gift, coinciding with the need to provide the grandsons a smaller, lighter watering can, one that could be used in the confines of a cold frame. The result: a medium-size peach can with holes of graduated size punched in the bottom. Hold the can level, while filling it from a plastic drinking cup, and the water drains through large holes.

Tilt the homemade watering can forward to allow water to drain more gently through smaller holes. I folded the tin’s lid in half, two wings flaring from a flat space at the middle of the lid, and screwed lid to can to make a handle.

I feel a kinship with the gardeners whose implements of horticulture are pictured in Garden Tools. I’ve placed the small watering can in the courtyard where my grandsons will discover it. Emerson, 6, will say, “Cool.” John, 4, will ask, “Why?”

Gardening Tips

Limit your gardening to cool weather and you miss out on cantaloupe, okra, pumpkin, Southern peas, and squash, all of which can be planted as seed in July. You may know Southern peas as cowpeas or field, crowder, or black-eyed peas. Put transplants of eggplants and hot peppers in the ground. Plant broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower as seed in small pots to grow plants for the fall garden. Tomato and bell pepper seed planted this month make transplants for setting out in August for winter harvest.

Be prepared to hedge your bets with transplants from the hardware store or nursery. If you don’t have a greenhouse, you need to protect your seedlings from downpours, wind, and clumsy cats. If you don’t fertilize (fish emulsion is safe but stinky), your transplants may look more like pencil-neck geeks than the football-player-neck vegetable plants you find at the nursery. — E.C.