Books
- Smith & Hawken: The Tool Book: A Compendium of Over 500 Tools for the Well-Tended Garden
- The Garden Writers Association of America declared it best book of the year for 1998. And The New York Times wrote: "Logan, who is one of our best garden writers, has produced not only a real book but a scrupulously researched, handsomely designed, and highly enjoyable one to book."The Took Book celebrates garden tools in all their pleasure, practicality, variety, beauty, ingenuity, simplicity, and purity. Thirteen chapters and over 70 striking full-color photographic spreads-obsessive and obsessively informative-present hundreds of tools organized by task: 22 shovels, 21 spades, 12 trowels, 16 hoes, 11 weeders, 19 hand pruners, 10 pruning saws. In addition to garden tool necessities, here are knives, axes, hooks, watering cans, rakes, riddles, brooms, wheel barrows, shears, and scoops, and much more. There are tools to start the garden from seed in the spring, tools to keep it growing and healthy all summer, and tools clean up in the fall. And, finally, tools to care for the tools.
In addition, the the book presents a detailed overview of the marriage of tool to type of work-how garden tools evolved, how to use each type of tool properly, and what to look for in a tool. It's the right tool for the right job. 37,000 copies in print. - I purchased this book for a design class where we were making gardening tools to get a better knowledge of the products, and let me tell you it was worth it. This book goes very in depth with not only how the tool is used but how it should be made and the "rituals" surrounding each tool. Also, although I'm not a gardener myself, I could see this book being an invaluable reference or even as a great guide to those just starting out in the gardening world.
- Homemade Contrivances and How to Make Them: 1001 Labor-Saving Devices for Farm, Garden, Dairy, and Workshop
- The traditional American devices contained in this intriguing compilation date from an era long before milking machines, pesticide sprayers, and industrial hay bailers. Yet the simple inventions described for doing everything from managing young bulls to protecting drain outlets can be just as useful for today’s farmer as they were for the homesteaders of over a century ago. Discover how to make such items as a movable nest for hens, a ribless boat, a contraption to extricate a mired animal, a farm cart with adjustable racks for larger loads, a wire fence tightener, a fruit picker, a grindstone set and frame, and much more. This book is a boon for the rancher, farmer, or anyone who loves the rural life.
- This book is a boon for gardeners, farmers, or anyone who likes to tinker in a toolshed. Gates, boats, sheds, fences, tools... you name it, you can learn how to make it. The devices here stem from the early days of American farming, when things were made to last. Charming, practical, and over six hundred pages, this book is a real bargain!
- Jointers and Planers: How to Choose, Use and Maintain Them
- “Peters has done a great job of describing the types of tools available and their uses, repair, maintenance, and trouble-shooting; he also discusses the construction of shop-made jigs and fixtures. Numerous colorful illustrations help explain the text. The development of relatively inexpensive bench-top models has made these tools much more common.”—Library Journal
- This is a really good book for beginners, which is what I am. Very well laid out, very well written. I highly recommend this book for anybody w/ a planner and jointer or anybody in the market for one.
- The Scythe BookSecond Edition Mowing Hay, Cutting Weeds, and Harvesting Small Grains with Hand Tools
- In the last few years, interest in the scythe has grown remarkably; and so have the sales of The Scythe Book. Now Peter Vido, who has written two outstanding articles for Small Farmer’s Journal on the use of the scythe, has contributed an addendum for this book on the practical use of the scythe based on his own extensive research and experience.
- The author rants against the 'American' scythe, and all things American, which seems to him to represent modern, industrial, evil. The 'European' scythe is traditional, pure, righteous. The reader may become confused to find that, according to this book, the 'European' scythe may have been invented in Turkey, and might be made today in China. Also, the early American scythes were made by Europeans just like in Europe.
The terminology is standard, though it is a little inaccurate. The 'European' scythe is hammer forged from a bar stock. The 'American' is stamped and formed from sheet material. So the scythe the author is so fond of is a hammer forged scythe. Simple as that. Europe really has no claim to it.
Here's the basics to using a scythe:
Adjust it so that you are standing and the blade is just slightly tilted up at the edge.
Cut the grass when it is wet.
Keep the blade close to the ground, actually just riding lightly over the ground.
Swing the blade pointy end first. Don't slash like using a sword, but slice like cutting bread.
Cut only a few inches at a time. - Garden Tools (Everyday Things)
- Garden tools are inseparable from gardens, and yet, while the history of gardens has been exhaustively explored, the story of garden tools has been virtually ignored - until now. As authors Suzanne Slesin and Guillaume Pellerin reveal in this lushly designed and nostalgia-filled volume, embedded in these familiar, everyday tools is a rich history that documents the tastes and passions of gardeners through the ages. Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs of garden tools, as well as with vintage lithographs, engravings, posters, ads, and even decorative plates depicting garden implements, the book follows the gardening cycle, from "Preparing the Earth" to "Harvesting", and each chapter features the traditional tools used in that phase of gardening. The "Sowing" chapter, for instance, presents an array of dibbers, trowels, seeders, and terra-cotta pots, while the "Pruning" chapter offers a host of knives, grafters, pincers, saws, scythes, hatchets, billhooks, and a mind-boggling variety of pruners. Today, vintage garden tools are being rediscovered and appreciated anew as much for their ingeniousness as for their sculptural and timeless form. Garden Tools casts these humble objects in a whole new light, and anyone who loves to dig a spade into the earth or prune a rosebush will find the book irresistibly compelling.