gardening tools – GKVKs – Gardening Tips and Store

MOST USEFUL HOME GARDENING TOOLS & INNOVATIONS FOR 2020

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 14:53:31 +0000

In today’s post, let’s look into a bunch of must have gardening tools to make your home gardening tasks much easier and productive, no matter what you are gonna plant in your containers.

Here’s a list of useful gardening tools, especially for home and container gardening that will certainly make your life easier!

SELF WATERING NEEDLES: These inexpensive drip needles are quite simple but a powerful system for slow and self watering of potted plants. Just thread in any standard water bottle into this device – It easily fits most international standards bottles such as coca cola bottles, sprite bottles, pepsi bottles and so on. Cut the top of the bottle and insert this into the container close to the plant and fill it with water. Adjust the 360 degree drip flow knob to get desired flow of water or drops per minute depending on the watering requirement of you plant and there you have it. This is very useful especially if you are on a vacation for few days.

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ELECTRIC PRESSURE SPRAYER: Depending upon the size of your home garden, you can choose a hand held 2.5 litre rechargeable electric sprayer or a 10 litre knapsack electric sprayer that works on 12V DC and a rechargeable battery. Or if your garden is even larger, you can connect a 12V DC pump to a garden hose and use a multi-mode sprayer gun like this and use the misting mode to spray your pesticides and foliar feeds. Using manual sprayers is cumbersome and lacks that ideal pressure needed for spraying pesticides and also they are not durable.

GARDENING GLOVES: Protection First! You can either purchase multiple pairs of inexpensive gloves like these or a pair of good quality gardening gloves with claws in right hand. These not only protect your hands from dirt, thorns and even harmful insects, but also replace trowels and hand rakes for digging, raking and planting.

GRAFTING TOOL: Grafting is actually made so easy with this tool. A Neat and Sharp cut is essential for a successful grafting. This tool comes with U-cut and V-cut blades and a pruner or cutter at the tip. You can save a lot of time and increase the success rates of your grafting. Just punch the tool on the root stock first and then on the scion branch and this fits in so perfectly and healing happens much faster than compared with manual methods like using a grafting knife and stuff like that.
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WATERING CANS: Depending on the size of your garden, you can choose either small watering cans like these ranging from 2 litres to 5 litres – plastic or metallic cans. Fancy Metallic cans like this will have an advantage of no leaks from the nozzle sides while watering unlike the plastic cans which leak from joints while watering. This is a must have tool even if you have a garden hose, specially for watering seeds and seedlings with the fine showering action.

WATERING HOSE: Invest on a good quality flexible rubber watering hose pipe to avoid those irritating kinks from a poor quality hose and have a peace of mind while watering your plants. This great quality hose comes in half an inch or Three-fourth inch calibre to opt, depending on the pressure of your home water supply or the floor you live in. It also comes with an optional retractable reel if you want more peace of mind.
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FALCON EASY PLANTER: This is a very handy tool for digging holes at 5cm and 10cm and very useful for transplanting and planting bulbs, root balls and plants. Simply place this planter tool on the soil, twist and push down to create your hole and then lift out. Drop your bulb or the plant into the hole and by the press of a button, the soil is then released automatically. It’s that easy! You can also use this to transplant small plants and seedlings quickly and efficiently.
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Heavy Duty Garden Spade or Shovel: This is the classical Indian spade. This is very important if you are preparing your own DIY potting mix to thoroughly mix all ingredients in proper proportions.

3-in-1 SOIL PH METER: This is a great inexpensive must have gadget to check three things in your garden. Most importantly to test your Soil PH which is one of the most important factor for nutrient absorption by the roots. This also tests your soil moisture level to avoid over watering or under watering your plants. Plus it has a light meter to check the light levels for your plants.
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A SMALL CROWBAR OR WRECKING BAR: This is particularly useful for ground gardening like for digging pits, removing obstacles and similar stuff.
TWIST TIE: This is another must have stuff specially for tying your plants to supports. Twist on, twist off and Reuse the same year after year!
SOIL SCOOPS: This is so handy – like if you do not wish to get your hands into the dirt. What you see here is just a steel rice scoop and serves the purpose of a soil scoop while repotting plants.
Garden Trowel: This tool is a miniature version of a garden spade. It is used for mixing soil, digging a hole, transplanting seedlings, levelling out soil and even dividing tubers. It can also be used for scooping out compost or potting mix from the bag specially while repotting your plants.
Garden Rake, Fork, Cultivator and Weed Removal Tool: At home gardening level, all these are smaller tools that serve the purpose of raking or making your top soil loose for preparing or aerating the soil before planting seeds or seedlings and also before or after applying fertilizers. The deweeder tool is handy in removing small weeds from root level.
PRUNERS AND CUTTERS: There are various types of pruners and cutting tools in gardening ranging from floral snips to hand pruner, pole pruner, garden saw, hedge shears to a simple tool like a scissor. Depending on the type and the load of gardening, you can choose a particular type of cutting. Please watch a detailed video explaining various types of Pruners.

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5 GARDENING IDEAS AND SECRET QUESTIONS ANSWERED

admin — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 14:35:37 +0000

In this Gardening Article which is Part 4 of our Q and A Series on Gardening Ideas and Answers, will try to reveal 5 more interesting answers to gardening questions like:

Do Plants Feel Pain?

Can Artificial LED grow lights help the plant in flowering and growth?

Can I use Coffee as an effective pesticide on plants and how?

Plus a nice funny question at the end.

So Lets begin!

Do plants feel Pain?

There are many studies and researches conducted on this topic. Plants lack a nervous system – that is a brain and other neurological structures like nerves and pain receptors, so they should not feel pain, unlike in humans and animals where we have specialised pain receptors.

But according to some researches, “Plant can know of themselves being eaten” because studies have shown plants release defence chemicals in response to caterpillars munching on them.

Other points include: Plants fight for territory, seek out food, evade predators and trap prey like what your see in carnivorous plants like the venus fly trap. They are as alive like any animal, and – like animals – they exhibit behaviour.

Can we grow plants from leaves

Yes! Some, but not all plants can be propagated from just a leaf or a section of a leaf. Leaf cuttings of most plants will not generate a new plant; they usually produce only a few roots or just decay. There are many ways you can grow leaves into a new plant, like 1. from a leaf petiole, 2. by dividing a leaf into multiple pieces for example fleshy succulent plants like sanseviera or the snake plant and other succulents. Other methods of propagation like cane or stub cuttings, root cuttings, leaf bud cuttings and so on. I will try to prepare a detailed episode on this topic when I get a chance.

Can Artificial light be used for photosynthesesis and do plants flower in it.

Yes you can.

In fact, good quality LED grow lights are highly efficient, because they provide the exact spectrum of light your plants need. But, Remember one thing: sunlight is free, while good quality LED lights are quite expensive.

Can I use coffee as pesticide on plants?
The Answer is YES: Coffee contains a chemical called caffeine which is considered neurotoxic to many pests like aphids.

You can make a Caffeine Spray. Many research studies have shown that caffeine combined with other insecticides increases their killing power. In one test, a small dose of caffine increased a known pesticide’s potency by ten times.
So how do I make a Caffiene Spray. Its simple. You just have to make a cocktail solution. I always prefer organic mixes. You can use any recipe of your organic pesticide like neem oil, clove oil or whatever, and add one or two tablesspoons of used coffee grounds or 1 or 2 teaspoons of fresh coffee if you like to use it for your plants. Mix well and let it marinate for about 24 hours and then strain it and spray it once a while with your regular pesticide. That’s it. You can watch a detailed video on a Cocktail mixed organic pesticide recipe.

Now lastly a Funny Question!

How do I prevent my neighbours from stealing my plants and fruits from my garden?

Some might think of installing a burglar alarm or fencing it well or locking their gardens. But I suggest one simple remedy to this problem. First of all, interact with them and make friends with them even if you do not like them. Talk about exchanging your plants, seeds or cuttings. You take the first step and present them some of your good plants or cuttings. That is all!

PLANT SURGERY – When to Prune and How? Types of Cuts with Concepts

admin — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 13:22:10 +0000

In this Article we will learn some useful methods and concepts on pruning thats trimming your plants for better growth and flowering. We will learn useful topics like when and how to prune a plant, Types of Pruning like Hard and Soft Pruning and Types of pruning cuts and lastly which Pruning Tools to choose.

If you are interested in learning gardening stuff, please subscribe to my channel HERE.

Pruning means cutting or trimming the plant organs like branches, stems or even leaves for the sake of your plants health and sometimes to maintain plant shape and form. It is a very important task in gardening specially if you want your plants to perform well like to promote growth and flowering or fruiting. Another advantage of pruning is it allows you to remove the damaged or infected branches and leaves which can further spread and cause more damage.

In this Article, we will precisely look into many questions about plant pruning like:

a) When to prune which plants.

b) Types of Pruning

c) How to Prune and Why?

d) Pruning Tools

e) And many other concepts and tips on pruning.

PLANT SURGERY COMPARISON:

Before we proceed with these topics, first of all its important to know that pruning or cutting is actually wounding your plant. So doing it properly is really important. Pruning is actually a Plant Surgery similar to human or animal surgery, done either to save a plant from disease and also to make it look neat and good. Like the surgical wound, pruning also induces a wound or injury at the point of incision and this wound has to heal properly.
So Lets begin:

1. When to prune which plants? Let me start with a comparison. The best time to perform a surgery on a person is when they are in sleep, that’s during anaesthesia. This is the same for plants as well. As a general rule for most plants including flowering and fruiting plants they need to be pruned, specially hard pruning to be done while they are in a period of dormancy (that’s when they are asleep or inactive). This usually falls in late winter through early spring like in the month of January depending on your climatic zone. Another reason to perform this surgery in winter is the healing of wound is better in this cold season due to scientific reasons.

But some other plants need to be continuously pruned or trimmed I mean deadheaded or soft pruned, to maintain growth and flowering. We shall discuss this shortly.

Also remember to disinfect the cutting tools before your start snipping your plants. You can wipe the blades with any household disinfectant or you can also use hydrogen peroxide 3 or 6 percent and this is easily available at your local medical store.

2. Types of Pruning for house plants? Here we will learn Hard Pruning, Soft Pruning, Rejuvenation Pruning, Dead Heading and many other useful tips.

First we will start with:

Hard Pruning and Soft Pruning:Hard pruning or Annual Pruning as I discussed earlier is done in the dormant or inactive growth period of a plant during the late winter or early spring. In hard pruning, we cut off most of the plant stems and branches, atleast 50 percent to promote all new productive plant growth in the growing season.

Where as Soft Pruning can be performed any time of the year. Here we just trim the plant to onethird to half, the best example is pruning roses. This also includes dead heading. Deadheading means removal of dead or dried flowers from a plant which has just flowered. Sometimes it has to be a constant process and this diverts the plant energy into new growth and more flowering rather than drying up and consuming this energy into the seed formation process.

3. How to Prune? And Types of Pruning Cuts?

We will learn two important cuts here: Heading and Thinning Cuts:

Heading is the process of cutting or trimming branch tips, The cut is made anywhere on the branch or stem just half an inch above a node where it produces multiple branching usually two branches and this process makes your plant more bushy in the long run.One very important tip here:The cut is to be made at an angle of 45 degrees to allow water to run off. Because if a flat cut is made, water can stay on top of the wound which increases the chances of fungal or bacterial infection. Its also a good idea to Seal the wound with some stuff like wax or an antifungal powder or anything – even some recommend fevicol paste. If you can buy a tree paint or any commercially available pruning sealer, that’s still better. Some experts say its better to leave it open and let the plant heal itself specially for larger trees.

Thinning is the process of removing entire branches from a main stem by making a cut at its collar or just outside of the collar. Collar is the area where the branch connects with its main stem. Thinning helps sunlight to penetrate to interior foliage and promotes good air circulation and thus avoids fungus and bacterial growth.

If you are not sure how to and when to prune a particular plant, I still suggest you to atleast perform soft pruning atleast once in its growth cycle.

Regarding Choosing the right Pruning Tools, You can check that HERE.

Top 15 Gardening Safety Tips, Precautions and Dangers

admin — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 04:55:12 +0000

Gardening can be a great way to enjoy as a hobby, get physical activity and even beautify your home and community, and at the same time grow nutritious and healthy fruits and vegetables for you and your family. If you are a beginner or an expert gardener, health and safety should always be the topmost priority.

Gardening or planting is actually a low-risk and a relatively safe hobby, but whatever it is, certain safety precautions are must to keep you safe, particularly for those with health issues like allergies or for older people with mobility disorders like those with arthritis or spine problems. Now am gonna list out some tips to safe gardening practices. If you have some more to add, please write them in comment section below the video.

Warm up before Actual Gardening: Yes, gardening is a physical exercise, you should warm up before doing some strenuous activities like digging and other activities. Walk around your garden for a few minutes and do some stretching before starting.
Avoid Continuous Activities for prolonged time, like pruning, digging, raking ot whatever, particularly for the aged and those with musculoskeletal disorders like arthritis, tendinitis and spine issues. You need to take rest intermittently. Have a relaxing chair in your garden. One tip for people with arthritis and back problems is Kneeling down instead of bending your spine will put less strain on your back. For extra comfort, consider wearing knee-pads. Another tip for people with arthritis of wrist is to use a Ratchet action pruner for trimming. Its specially designed for cutting with minimal efforts.
Do not lift up heavy stuff like large containers, unless you are comfortable. This can cause back injuries and even hernias if your abdominal wall is weak. You can try this simple hack using a large cloth to place heavy items on it and drag along to shift some heavy garden stuff.
Keep Yourself Hydrated: Protect Yourself from the Heat, specially to avoid heat stroke and sun burns, and particularly in hot summer. Sometimes out of too much passion for gardening, you tend to forget to drink water. Make sure you keep yourself enough hydrated. And Health should be your first priority.
Wear Protective Dress and Gardening Gloves: to Protect Your exposed Skin – like Protecting your skin from allergens or toxic plant saps and juices, specially when you prune the branches. You should wear gardening gloves or any glove for protecting your hands. Also depending on the work you do, protective clothing with full sleeves may also be useful to protect from insects, pests and chemical and also from Sunlight if your skin is photosensitive.

You can also use Other Optional Protective Stuff like safety goggles, shoes or boots and things like that.

Use Sun screens or protective clothing to avoid sun burns, specially for those with photosensitive skin.
Use Insect repellent creams if your garden is having lot of mosquitoes or even ticks which can cause tick bite fever and you all know mosquitoes can spread dengue, malaria, chickungunya and many other diseases. Also consider planting some mosquito and insect repellent plants in your garden. You can watch a list of these plants in one of my videos from a card linked at top right corner of this video.
Use Appropriate Tools for gardening not your hands: Use a hand shovel or rake rather than your hand for digging or raking. Sharp objects and any debris buried in the soil can harm you.
Use tools like cutters including pruners, blades and knives with caution to protect yourself from injuries. Also if you are using power tools follow safety precautions to avoid electric shocks and injuries.
Keep Chemicals, Fertilizers and cutting tools and other stuff out of reach from small kids.
Protect yourself from Infections and Toxic substances: Never wipe your face or eyes with your hands while you are in the garden. There are chances of transferring some toxic substance or even harmful organisms on to your face or mouth or even eyes. If you have done this by mistake, immediately rinse your face or the affected part thoroughly with water.
Keep your compost and other smelling stuff away from windows and living areas. Better use a closed compost bin.
This Point am sure most of are unaware. Avoid gardening during periods of very short rain or light drizzles and storms because the allergen load on the ground is very high at these times, like the pollen grains and other allergens. Specially do not carry your kid at this period, if your kid is having an allergic asthma and any other similar disorder.
Use a Face Mask: Whenever you are spraying a pesticide whether organic or chemical, wear appropriate protective clothing along with a face mask. If you do not have a mask, atleast wrap around a hanky or cloth around your nose and mouth.
After Finishing Your Gardening: Wash your exposed parts thoroughly before entering your living area. Particularly wash well if you have handled the potting mix with your bare hands and also under your nail beds.

So, there you have it folks, those are the top 15 precautions to keep in mind to make gardening a pleasant hobby. If you have any more important points please add them in the comments section below the video.

Also Please tweet or share the video with your other gardener friends.

Happy and Safe Gardening!

PLANT PRUNING SHEARS SECATEURS | Garden Tools and Gardening Scissors

admin — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 14:50:33 +0000

Today we will look into different types of pruners and garden cutting tools and by the end of the video, you should be able to decide which gardening cutter or pruner is best suited for your gardening level.

Pruners also called as Pruning shears or hand pruners or secateurs and even garden scissors, are a type of cutting tools for use on plants and gardening.

Pruning is one of the most important and useful practice in gardening that needs to be performed irrespective of the type of plant you are growing in your garden. Whether ornamental plants or flowering or fruiting plants, these cutting or pruning practices are indispensable for your plant health and you should never avoid pruning on emotional grounds. You all must be aware of the benefits of pruning – whether to get rid of diseased branches or to promote branching and plant growth or even improving flowering and fruiting. We will not go into details of the benefits of pruning right now. But in this video we will learn about the different types of pruners or cutting tools we use in home gardening.

There are many gardeners and beginners who are not aware of the correct type of pruners they require. It is important to note that using the wrong pruners might adversely affect your plants instead of improving it.

So, now lets look at the different types of Pruners:

Hand Pruners or Hand Shears: These are the most commonly used cutters in home gardening. These are of two types:

Anvil pruners
Bypass Pruners

Anvil pruners have a straight upper blade that cuts against a flat lower plate – that looks like an anvil. ANVIL means a heavy iron block on which hot metals are beaten into shape.
Well, These Anvil pruners tend to crush the stem as they cut, and are best for woody branches that won’t be harmed by crushing. So remember to use them only on woody or semiwoody branches and not soft branches that can be crushed.

Bypass pruners have curved scissor-like blades that overlap. These are ideal for cutting younger and soft branches. These are the commonly used pruners in home gardening. Also they are best for making stem cuttings at 45 degree cutting angle for propagation of plants from stem cuttings.

Lopping Pruners or lopping shears: These are similar to the hand pruners but have long handles that provide a little more reach than hand shears and are they are suitable for heavy duty pruning for upto three-fourth to 1 inch diameter cuttings. Again similarly these are of two types – Anvil and Bypass type.
Pole Pruners: Pole pruners are made of blades attached to hooks. These hooks are mounted on long poles and a chain or cord controls the blade, which is usually spring-loaded. Pole pruners can typically reach branches that are 12 feet or more above the ground. These are typically used when the use of ladder is not possible.
Hedge Pruners or Hedge Shears: These are designed for rapid trimming of hedges. Hedge means a boundary or fence formed by closely growing bushes or shrubs or even grass. The hedge shears come in a variety of sizes and designs. They have long, straight or angled blades that are sharp enough to cut several branches at once shot. The longer blades of hedge shears ensure an even cut across the plant branches to maintain a neat and balanced border. You can also use them to make a neat border of many other plants as well like bougainvillea bush and stuff like that.
Pruning Saw: Even these come in variety of sizes and blades with teeth that are fine or coarse. and even a folding type like this one is available. This looks pretty handy and sturdy for home gardening purpose. These are typically used for Stems that are more than 1-1/2 inches in diameter which are usually too large for hand pruners or lopping shears. You can find the links to purchase these items from my website www.gkvk.in
Flower Cutter. This is a simple bypass pruner to cut small branches or flowers. These are light weight and have a spring system. And they are Best for performing dead heading. Am sure you all must be aware of what is dead heading and its benefits. You can watch this video on what is dead heading from HERE.
Last but not the least – A simple Scissor does a lot of job. Am sure all of you agree with this. This is quite handy and most useful tool in gardening.

Must Have Garden Tools Used in Home Gardening – Video Demonstration

admin — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 04:21:55 +0000

These 2 Videos Below Demonstrates The Common Garden Tools Used in Home Gardening.
The Garden Tools are used in home gardening and overlaps with the range of tools made for agriculture and horticulture. Garden tools discussed here are only hand tools and not power tools.

Tools Discussed are:

The Garden Trowel

Khurpa / Khurpi

Cultivator / Hand-Rake

Garden Fork

Hand Weeder:

Garden Cutter and Pruner

Water Sprayer.
Water Sprinkler or Shower can.
Spray Gun.
Rubber Hand Gloves.
Wrecking Bar for digging.

Types of Pruners.