My electric lawn mower because it doesn't kill me trying to start it before I even begin to mow.

Weed and feed for my lawn and Miracle Grow for my flowers.

MeMo

I LOVE my Honda mower. I thought I could never afford one, but they finally came out with a cheaper model I could get. It almost always starts on the first wimpy old lady pull. The self-propulsion on it is the best I've ever had.

My two favorite tools are the hula hoe for shorty weeds, and the big garden fork for taller weeds. Love them!

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I also got one of those big floppy softy plastic buckets that is great for hauling mulch, or tossing weeds in. Have a little plastic cart thing with only two wheels. It's too tipsy, which is annoying, but it's good for hauling big bags of mulch around the yard, weeds, etc.

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Memo, what kind of mower do you have?

I agree on the Miracle Grow. It's awesome stuff. I have a friend who uses it every single week -- lightly -- no kidding, and his yard is unbelievable. Every one of his flowers, for instance, is three times the size you'd expect them to be.

Not too sure about weed and feed. Seems to me like the weeds don't die but I have to mow a lot more often? I do think it works best to fertilize everything lightly, and frequently. I also overseed the lawn a lot and that really helps. But lawn weeds are a constant fight.

My #1 favorite fertilizer is now one I make. I can customize it to the plants and the various beds, and it works WONDERS!

I love Safers Garden Fungicide. I've tried making my own, this one works the best. Last year I only needed to spray zinnias a few times at critical points in the summer and no mildew.

Mulch is another favorite product, and I like different mulches depending on the different places to be mulched. Cardboard is the klincher.

My favorite tool is a cement shovel. Pointy, long handled. It does the job for me. I also love my sledge hammer for breaking up slabs of urbanite so that I can use it as stone in the garden.

Compost is another favorite product. Product? I can't make enough of my own right so I have had to buy compost. Keeps me sane when I am attempting to break into new garden areas with solid red clay.

I have two other favorite things right now. I don't actually own them, but I will!! A tiller and a gas trimmer. I need them so badly!!

My favorite hand tools are a sturdy kitchen (butcher) knife for weeding and a ratcheting pair of pruners.

Favorite long handled tool is a hula hoe.

Favorite motorized tool is the DR string mower. I often joke that I like it so much that I should become a salesman for them.

There are so many products that I like:
greensand
chicken manure
Miracle Grow 3 month potting mix
The Bayer brand of an all in one rose product

Wouldn't want to garden without:
~cotton garden gloves
~medium weight shovel
~claw rake for mixing my home-made mulch and raking soil level
~manure fork for turning my home-made compost
~home-made compost
~alfalfa pellets for fertilizing
~2 large children's wagons for hauling and several wheelbarrows

Nothing overly expensive or exotic - I like to keep it simple and organic!

Felco pruners (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00023RYS6) -- like a hot knife through butter!

My Cobra, Hands down! I weed with it, prepare new beds with it. Love it and couldn't do without it..
kay

Tools:

I always liked Fiskars hand pruners, but when dh bought a pair of Coronas and I tried them once, that was it! I grab them every time now.

Also love my Corona hand spade. I've whittled away about an inch of it. Have a couple newer ones, but I always grab the old one.

Products:

-- Pine straw. I can always use it somewhere.

-- Homemade compost. Can't imagine gardening without it!

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Girlgroupgirl,
please tell me more about the fertilizer you make and customize to different areas. I'm impressed!
Will keep the SGF in mind -- does that work for roses? Do you spray it on fruit trees?
In using cardboard for mulch, do you worry the water might not get through? I have a lot of cardboard right now and I'm a bit hesitant. Rains like crazy 9 months of the year here, but in summer my plants are dependent on me watering.
Can you please say more about different mulches for different areas? I've seen your photos of your yard and you're a great gardener.
What's urbanite? Never heard of it. Where do you compost, and when?

Soxxxx,
I never thought of weeding with a butcher knife! How long a knife? Ditto the hula hoe. Used often and on teensy emerging weeds, it can keep the yard weed-free year round. Fabulous tool. Why do you love the DR String Mower? What is greensand and what do you use it for? Where do you use chicken manure, and when? I think I got some of the Bayer stuff for roses, need to go look, and/or put it on my list. Great tips, thanks!

Luckygal,
What's the appeal of cotton gloves? I think they get wet, don't protect you from stickers, and get very dirty fast, so I wonder what I'm missing? Oh, good uses for a claw rake, thanks. Alfalfa pellets? Please say more.

Sarahrock,
Wow pricey. How big/thick of a branch can you cut with these? I have heard they are good.

Kay,
what's a Cobra?

Natal,
I guess I'm not educated about pruners. I do love Fiskars scissors (for sewing, etc), though. Also have their scissors sharpener and love it. You wore away and inch of a hand spade? lol! That's gardening! Thanks for the picture; I'm a picture lover, as the folks on the Home Decorating board can tell you. I love the idea of having the inches marked on the spade. I'm always trying to guess how deep the hole is. That would be nice. Why do you love pinestraw? I had to go look it up. Don't think I've ever seen it used around here. Doesn't it make your soil acidic? What do you put in your compost?

I love love love my scuffle hoe or as some call hula hoe - I could not do with out that

I love soil conditioner and use it as a mulch and as an admendment but far and away is our homemade compost just don't have enough of it so have to buy compost at some point .....

Lynne

Oceanna, I've tried many types of gloves even the expensive leather ones but I always get them wet and muddy so it's easier to use the cotton ones. I have many pairs (some have sort of waterproof palms, others are all cotton, some are a knit fabric), sometimes I go thru 3 pairs in a few hours of gardening. I just hose them off and hang them over the fence to dry and reuse. Occasionally I send them thru the wash. I don't have 'stickers' in my garden - what are they? Occasionally, like today when I was spreading mulch by hand I use rubber gloves.

Alfalfa pellets are actually made as livestock and rabbit feed. It's ground up alfalfa hay compressed into pellets. There is also alfalfa meal which is the ground up alfalfa not compressed into pellets but our local feed store doesn't carry it. A 20kg (44 pound) bag costs around $10) so it's very inexpensive. I think I used 3 bags last year and I have a huge garden. The pellets are very good fertilizer - not totally organic as the alfalfa plant is a heavy feeder and most is not grown organically. As a fertilizer it has a lot of nutrient value and minerals because alfalfa has very deep roots and brings up nutrients from deep in the soil. It can be made into a 'tea' similar to compost tea - there are lots of recipes you'll find if you google. I just dump a large coffee can of pellets into a 5 gallon bucket, add water, and let it soak. It can get stinky as it brews altho I now avoid that by blasting water (and air/oxygen) into it every day or so with the hose which keeps it from going anaerobic and stinky. To use I just add a can of the concentrated tea to my watering can and give each plant some at least every week. I use it more diluted and more often than most recipes say. It's my main fertilizer besides compost, which technically is a soil amendment, not a fertilizer.

Luckygirl, oh, it makes more sense if you have several pairs, and I like the ones with the rubbery palms/fingers too. They are comfy, I agree. I usually wear leather gloves because I invariably end up working around stickers.

What are stickers? Things that stick you, like roses, blackberries (they volunteer in my yard), and yes the splinters you can get when spreading mulch by hand. Thorns. Splinters. Prickers. Stickers. Guess they use different words in different parts of the country.

Thanks for the great explanation about alfalfa pellets. That's a wonderful money saving tip. :D

>> I use it more diluted and more often than most recipes say.

I think that's a good philosophy. I've had the best results by giving my entire yard a little fertilizer often, rather than a lot of fertilizer less often.

I love Atlas gloves. Super-thin, tough, sticky (tactile), waterproof, and they fit well. You can even put them in the washing machine!

I have this multi-purpose Japanese-style tool that I love. It's like a thin trowel with one serrated edge, an inch ruler on the inside, and a cord-cutter on the other side.

I adore my Japanese weeding sickle for letting me get into all those crevices.

For fertilizer I really like Yum-Yum mix. My other favorite gardening product would have to be Dermud hand cream, unfortunately, I am too cheap to purchase it.

I couldn't stand to wear gardening gloves for more than a few minutes until someone on gardenweb last year recommended Ethel gloves ~~ expensive but WONDERFUL! ($18 at Lowes; $15 on the internet)

~~~ and my large kitchen butcher knife for weeding things like dandelions, thistles, etc. is better than anything else i have ever used for difficult weeding ~~~~~~~~~~~~

oceanna
The butcher knife is good for plunging into the ground and making a circle around the roots of nut grass. Just pull out the soil plug and shake the dirt from the roots. I keep several in a slotted wooden knife holder near the garden entrance.

Greensand is a mineral rich sand found in a few locations. I use it in new beds.

The Dr mower is like a handheld string weeder on 2 wheels.
It safely mows over rocks and objects. It mows up to and barely into the edge of ponds.

Newbiehavinfun, I googled. Would that be a Hori Hori knife? I see the Atlas gloves are being sold on eBay.

Tishtoshnm, I googled that too and that does look like it would be great for getting into tight places, such as too close to a plant's stems. I never heard of Yum Yum fertilizer. Funny name.

Lefluer, I looked Ethel gloves up and they're cute and look comfy. I can see I'm going to need to try out a butcher knife for weeding. Sounds like I'm missing out.

Soxxxx, sounds like that would be just the thing for dandelion roots. Thanks for explaining how you use it, and about the Greensand and the DR mower. I got a Worx portable string trimmer and I like it, though it's not real powerful. The cool thing about it is I used it all last summer and I'm still on my first roll of cord. But I can imagine where the DR would be good.

oceanna,
Yes! That's it. Mine just has that little extra cord tie, and is a little wider.

I got Atlas gloves at the Philadelphia Flower Show, as well as a CobraHead weed tool. The CobraHead is best for weeding around other plants, so it works well in the perennial garden where a hula hoe might be like a bull in a china shop. It's also good for planting small seedlings.

My newest favorite tool, I bought today. It is a manual edger. I wanted it so the edges of my flowerbeds (no pavement) would be straighter and neater, and it worked like a charm.

Fiskers makes it, and it has a little (maybe an inch overhang so you can put one foot on it like a shovel then just stand up with both feet...makes a very neat litt6le trench almost. I weeded from it in toward the plants and it looks so much better, and it wasn;'t hard. I have stupid nut sedge to deal with, and this worked well.
kay

Newbiehavingun, I looked up the cobra weeder too. Does it look kind of like a big round hook on a long pole?

My son swears by his winged weeder for getting into tight places.

Mine are: my Felco 12 secateurs, Fiskars Garden Light spade (which is super light but durable), my Joseph Bentley spade, my old metal Haws watering can and those wobbly colourful Multi Tubs in different sizes.

I forgot to mention my secateurs! I was given a very special pair of leather handled anniversary (they are even numbered!!!) felcos as a reward for hard work when I was at the garden center. They are finally getting sharpened again today!!

Lotion bar...

with shea butter & lemon grass + other ingredients I can't remember, but was less than 6 things. It looks like a bar of soap. Ours had tools in the mold when it was made, so is manly enough for my guys to use, too!. Bought at a local hardware store for under $5 on sale.

Moisturizes & soothes hands as I massage it in either before gardening or after washing up. Not greasy ever! Have used about 1/4 of it so far since Christmas.

Corrine

Scuffle hoe (which I found out about on this forum). Love it!

A set of extra large kid's sand pails - one for hauling mulch, one for hauling compost and one for mixing up the soil I've dug up with the compost.

Felco pruner specially sized for tiny hands.

A plastic reel measuring tape for planting.

Oceanna,

That's the one, but I have the short handle version. I think it would be hard to use with a long handle.

I have a pair of garden scissors by OXO that I just love. I use them for everything. They are spring loaded so I don't have to open them. They are sturdy and lighweight. They fit right in my pocket and they are with me always.
Ne

Include me in the felco fan club. I just love felco pruners. The best. I have an OXO trowel with a serrated edge (you can see it on Amazon, where I got it)that is marvelous for digging and cutting thru roots at the same time. I give it to my gardening friends as a little present, and everyone raves. I live in rocky terrain (CT foothills), so I do love my pry bar for exhuming rocks. And for winter, I love my USA made ice chipper. I have to say, I never buy tools made in China -- if you buy the best, they will serve you the best (just my opinion)
lucia

I dunno about Chinese tools, but I do adore my Japanese weeding knife!