February Tips
TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

Contact: Diane Relf, Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture

October 1996

  • Repair and paint window boxes, lawn furniture, and other items in preparation for outdoor gardening and recreational use.

  • If you plan to plant a large number of tree seedlings, it may be easier to contract out the planting or rent a planting machine than to plant by hand. A mechanical, tree planter digs a furrow and fills it in automatically. Most machines require one or two persons to place seedlings while another drives.

  • Repair and paint window boxes, lawn furniture, tools, and other items in preparation for outdoor gardening and recreational use.

  • Make labels for your spring garden. Plastic milk jugs or bleach bottles cut in strips 1 inch by 6 or 7 inches work well. Use permanent ink markers to write on them.

  • The common, inexpensive, alcohol thermometer often varies more than 3 degrees from the true temperature, resulting in wasted fuel or improper plant growth in greenhouses. To check the accuracy of a thermometer, immerse it in a container of crushed ice and water for 3 to 4 minutes. Any deviation from 32 degrees F can then be marked on the scale, or the tube may be moved up or down to match the 32 degree F reading.

  • Start building up your supply of gardening aids, such as plastic milk jugs for hot caps and orange juice cans to make guards to stop cutworms.

    Monthly Tips have been prepared since 1986 by various staff of the Office of Consumer Horticulture including Ellen Bennett, Michelle Buckstrup, Susan Day, Susan DeBolt, Sharon Dendy, Kate Dobbs, Sheri Dorn, David Gravell, Virginia Nathan, Jenny Shuster, Ellen Silva, and Ruth Sorenson. Resource material for the development of this information includes the Virginia Master Gardener Handbook; Extension Publications and newsletters from VCE, numerous other states, and the USDA; and an extensive library of over 900 books, magazines, and journals. Project funded by The Virginia Gardener Newsletter subscription fees. Diane Relf, Project Director and Content Specialist.

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