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Pruning shears that make clean cuts are essential for healthy plants and comfortable gardening. These shears not only aid plants’ healing but also alleviate hand strain. The ideal pruners will produce even cuts without crushing or tearing the stem or bark, providing optimal results and reduced stress on both hands.

The ARS VS-8Z pruners are lightweight yet sturdy, featuring a sap groove to prevent sticky grime accumulation and an easy open/close mechanism.

1. Fiskars 6689 Ratchet Pruner

The ideal garden hand pruners must withstand regular use with ease and be capable of cutting through firm plant material with precision, so their material construction must be of top quality.

The Fiskars 6689 Ratchet Pruner is an impressive piece of machinery, garnering much praise due to its superior performance and durability. It is specifically designed to reduce strain on hands, making it suitable for those suffering from arthritis.

Ratchet design increases force with each squeeze, so you can power through tough stems and branches without becoming fatigued. Its blade is fully hardened and precision ground for sharp cutting edges; low-friction coating enhances cutting while preventing sap buildup; durable steel exoskeleton with rugged Dura Frame handles provides long-term use; lifetime warranty is included! Ideal for pruning trees, hedges, shrubs.

2. KOTTO Pruners

These pruners feature razor-sharp blades that cut effortlessly through stems and branches like hot knives through butter. Their clean cuts, user-friendliness, and durability make these pruners very impressive tools, while the soft touch handle made of PP + TPR plastic provides comfort during extended use.

This pruner can be used with either hand and is available with multiple cutting diameter options. It features a sap groove to keep sticky debris off its blades and an excellent wire-cutting notch, plus it has an integral shock absorber to cushion wrist strain and reduce strain.

These pruners are an ideal option for anyone who regularly prunes. While more expensive than some other models we tested, their quality makes up for any costs involved – they are lightweight yet sturdy and require very minimal upkeep – just remember to wipe down blades after every use and sterilize periodically while regularly oiling moving parts to ensure smooth operation.

3. Corona ClassicCUT Pruner

Pruners that can create straight, clean cuts will allow plants to recover more quickly while protecting them from insects and diseases. Furthermore, using such pruners should require minimal force from you so as not to leave you sore afterwards – the best ones have consistently cut twigs, small branches and even thicker woody growth with ease.

Corona ClassicCUT Pruners are constructed of steel for maximum strength and precision, featuring an all-steel blade and hook that has been hand-matched for strength and precision. Their handles, chassis and blade come together seamlessly thanks to MAXForged process technology.

Make sure your chosen knife features a spring-like system between its two handles that pushes them apart when you relax your grip, thus relieving strain and helping you cut more with less effort, as well as protecting the cutting head and blade from being damaged during regular use. Furthermore, choose quality stainless or carbon steel blades which stay sharp over time and resist corrosion.

4. Okatsune Pruner

Okatsune pruners represent the perfect blend of excellence in pruning tools: razor-sharp blades, an intuitive design for ease of use and robust yet lightweight construction. Their exceptional quality can be seen through Izumo Yasugi steel’s Rockwell hardness range of 60.0-61.0 which enables cutting blades to remain razor sharp, creating clean cuts without damaging plants.

These blades easily cut swiftly and evenly through ficus branches up to an inch thick in our original test, leaving only minimal torn bark and smooth cuts behind. Furthermore, Japanese professionals highly recommend them as an art form of pruning.

Red and white handles make these toolbox essentials easy to spot, representing happiness in Japan. To keep their razor-sharp edge sharp, clean and oil them after every use and store in a moisture-free environment with all cutting blades closed before storing in an Okatsune 412 whetstone; alternatively you may grind them if blade alignment starts deteriorating over time.

An indigenous medicine garden is an in situ repository of medicinal plants that represents traditional knowledge. Additionally, these gardens serve as tools for plant identification and research.

Royal Roads University recently unveiled a garden as part of their Indigenous Studies diploma program, where land-based learning plays an essential role in Indigenous health and wellbeing.

Native Medicine Garden: Medicinal Plants

Medicinal plants have become an increasingly popular trend, both commercially and through supplements. When treated correctly, many medicinal herbs thrive in North Carolina soil and climate; Craig Mauney and Margaret Bloomquist of NC State Extension’s agricultural crop experts introduce us to some such plants in this episode of Homegrown.

A medicine garden is a space to showcase your inner spiritual health through plants, natural materials and symbolic elements. It serves as a sacred healing space and often becomes the setting for ceremonies, blessings, cleansing or visions. A medicine wheel symbolizes life itself while providing us an opportunity to reflect on relationships between ourselves, each other and Mother Earth.

The University of Maine campus Medicinal Herb Garden features over 20 medicinal plants identified with metal placards. Selected by June Blue, an Anishinabe Ojibwe Elder and grandmother from White Earth Nation and member of Crane Clan.

Each herb was chosen for specific medicinal applications: treating respiratory infections or fevers; healing mouth sores or toothaches; soothing emotional distress or aiding digestion – some even contain toxic compounds which may need to be reduced with proper preparation and use;

most medicinal plants do contain potentially toxic compounds which must be reduced or even eliminated with proper use and preparation – most likely not being suitable options!

Native Medicine Garden: Site Selection

As part of creating a medicinal garden, it’s essential to consider how each plant fits into its surrounding landscape. Since medicinal plants tend to be tall, their growth could impede other plants in the area. Your chosen herbs should also work well with the growing conditions on site such as soil type and weather patterns – consult a landscaper, horticulturist or botanist for assistance in finding plants suitable for your climate zone.

One way of planning a medicine garden is using the Medicine Wheel, as shown here. This sacred design represents all four directions; Native Americans believed each direction brought different energies into the garden. Each quadrant represents different aspects of healing; herbs can be found that correspond with each quadrant.

As an example, the southern stone of a medicine wheel represents Coyote totem and symbolizes growth and fulfillment. This space would be ideal for planting nutritious foods like vegetables and berries as well as herbs that promote fast development such as southern sage or creeping thyme.

Native Medicine Garden: Plant Selection

When creating a medicine garden, choose plants that serve multiple functions – both edible and medicinal – such as wild blue violets (Viola sororia) and wild strawberry plants (Fragaria ananassa). Both can easily grow in landscape settings while providing vital nectar sources for pollinators populations.

Medicinal plants can be found both in the wild and from local nurseries. When selecting wild species for medicinal use, look for native varieties as this helps preserve ecology while mitigating any negative impacts to habitat or community.

Consider the cultural significance of each plant when selecting them for a medicine garden. Jewel weed, for instance, serves as an effective first aid treatment against poison ivy and other skin irritations; while yarrow is another native medicinal that can stop bleeding from cuts and scrapes and insect bites as well as reduce swelling and soothe headaches.

Plantain can be an essential addition to any native medicinal garden as it can remove stingers from bee stings!

Roos intentionally integrated cultural significance into her design by employing the Medicine Wheel both as a physical representation of her garden layout and an analogy for plant selection process.

She worked closely with Band Elders and Anishinaabe traditions during this process to ensure all elements were meaningful for the community.

Native Medicine Garden: Plant Care

At its heart, all gardens heal. From the therapeutic act of pulling weeds and digging in the dirt to gazing upon flowers – each element contributes to our sense of well-being. More formally speaking, medicine gardens are created with healing on an intrinsic spiritual level in mind.

Medicinal plants can not only enhance your landscape, they can also be delicious! Integrating herbs into meals and making herbal teas, tinctures, salves and oils is an easy way to incorporate medicinal plants into daily life.

Joann: In the community-based garden program where I work, medicinal and culinary herbs are part of our curriculum and help students gain more familiarity with each plant and its uses. This helps facilitate connection between students and plants and their medicinal or culinary benefits.

Dandelions may seem like common weeds, but they actually possess numerous medicinal uses. Dandelions stimulate appetites, promote healthy digestion and can even be gargled to soothe sore throats.

Dandelion grows well in USDA planting zones 3-10 and seed can easily be started within two weeks before frost date.

Fennel offers vivid blooms that add visual interest and mental wellness benefits, including supporting healthy lungs and respiratory system functions, correcting fungal imbalances, relieving muscle tension, and providing relief against fungal imbalances.

Sow seeds in either late fall or early spring for outdoor transplanting 12 inches apart in full sun with well-drained soil.

 

When it comes to raising vegetable plants in Missouri, soil health is paramount. Choosing the best cover for raised garden beds in Missouri for summer not only protects your soil but also improves fertility and suppresses weeds. While sterile potting soil may suffice for container gardening, raised beds benefit from nutrient-rich covers that support strong root systems and maintain moisture during the hot summer months.

One way to enhance the soil in your raised garden beds is to seed winter cover crops like crimson clover and oilseed radish as winter cover crops, as these fast-growing, weed-suppressing soil builders can easily be integrated into the beds in springtime.

Ground Cover

Ground cover plants provide an invaluable service in terms of both controlling weeds and improving the aesthetic appeal of raised garden beds. Classic perennial flowers like phlox and sedum are popular choices; however there are other low maintenance space fillers you might like to consider too – daylilies provide a beautiful blooming canopy which covers over any pesky weeds while adding color contrast and eye catching flair.

Hostas make an attractive yet adaptable ground cover; some varieties form dense mats which need regular pruning back for tidyness purposes whereas others form low growing forms which spread naturally or form dense mats that need trimming back periodically so as to maintain tidy garden beds.

An effective planting bed preparation is key to the healthy and rapid establishment of ground cover. You should work the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches while eliminating perennial weeds or grasses that might compete with your new plantings.

Incorporating organic material, such as peatmoss, manure, compost or well-rotted leaf mold into the soil will improve its structure and moisture-retaining capacity; organic matter can lighten clay soils while increasing water-holding ability of sandy ones.

Dianthus species that tolerate shade well, like D. gratianopolitanus or cheddar pink, make great ground covers in shade-tolerant gardens, producing an abundance of small carnation-like blooms in spring. Sweet Geranium maculatum also adds texture and depth to rock gardens with its low growing height and fast spreading habit that creates texture throughout a landscape.

Juniperus horizontalis makes an excellent ground cover choice in the Midwest. Depending on which variety is chosen, it may reach no more than 1 foot tall – several cultivars that grow low include Emerald Isle’, Prince of Wales’ and Wiltoni cultivars.

Where winter temperatures are below freezing, ivy is a popular ground cover choice. When selecting varieties to use as ground covers in such regions, however, it is crucial that they are hardy enough for your climate zone; vigorous cultivars like ‘Baltica’ and ‘Bulgaria’ will be more likely to withstand severe winter weather than hybrid varieties such as ‘Walker’s Low’ catmint or ‘Crimson Queen’ periwinkle that have less hardiness ratings.

Cover Crops

Cover crops offer many additional advantages beyond protecting soil from wind and sun erosion. Cover crops offer rest, nutrition, or aeration – or all three! They add organic matter that suppresses weeds while helping improve moisture retention while encouraging earthworms to inhabit your raised beds.

As cover crops are available in various species and varieties, finding the ideal one depends on your goals. Legumes like clovers and vetch can fix nitrogen into available forms that can benefit garden vegetables; additionally they’re great at breaking up compacted soil. Grain covers such as buckwheat or foxtail millet can also provide quick coverage that can easily be mowed or tilled into place before spring planting of garden vegetables.

If you plan to plant vegetables this fall, cover crops such as crimson clover and hairy vetch can serve as effective protection. When planted in autumn, these legumes will form protective barriers around kale plants during the cold months, then later turned under and integrated back into the soil when planting kale for another season in early spring.

If you want to incorporate fast-growing cover crops into your vegetable rotation, oilseed radishes or mixes of oilseed radishes with oats are easy to introduce after wheat harvest in northern Missouri and will be ready to work into the soil by mid-September.

They provide effective weed suppression as they can be mowed or tilled back into the soil when planting your vegetable crops; or try warm season cover crops like buckwheat or foxtail millet that can be planted prior to planting vegetable crops that create allelopathic effects by emitting biochemicals that prevent weed seeds from germinating by emitting biochemicals that release biochemicals;

warm season cover crops have quick growth rates while offering effective weed suppression using an allelopathic effect, which prevents germinated seeds from germinating due to biochemical releases by biochemical releases released by these cover crops’ quick growth rates;

or warm season cover crops can produce quick-growth but allow your crop space before sowing seeds or tilled before sowing your vegetable crops before sowing seeds or sow them before sowing your vegetable seeds!

These covers crops have quick-growth characteristics while inducing an allelopathic effect, which prevents germinated weed seeds from germinating due to release biochemicals produced from their biochemical releases released by emitting biochemicals released by emitting biochemicals released by releases biochemicals released by biochemical releases released by biochemical release by emitting biochemical releases that release biochemicals which release biochemicals which releases used prevent weed seeds germinated seedling.

Raised Beds

Raised beds are an efficient method for cultivating vegetables, fruits, flowers, and shrubs. Their easy access makes them suitable for gardeners with back problems or other health concerns; raised bed gardening also proves effective when soil drainage issues exist. Unfortunately, using raised beds does present its own set of challenges, including erosion – one way of combatting this issue would be covering them with lightweight fabric covers.

Raising beds offers numerous advantages, including increased productivity and better control of pests, weather conditions and soil quality. Cover crops can further enhance their effectiveness; several species such as crimson clover and legumes can be planted in raised garden beds to provide living mulch, improve soil health and act as weed suppressors while decomposing and aerating your soil.

Cover cropping is especially beneficial to vegetables. It increases soil organic matter levels, helping retain moisture and nutrients more effectively, protect against late frosts and high summer temperatures, extend growing seasons, manage pests like aphids and cabbage loopers as well as diseases like blights and molds, and extend growing seasons. Cover crops also make an effective tool for controlling pests like aphids as well as diseases like blights and molds more effectively.

When planting in raised beds, it is essential to take several factors into account, including the height at which the gardener will work. For optimal results, this height should allow them to feel comfortable tending their plants and performing other tasks without becoming fatigued; additionally, having a flat ledge on which they can sit may provide support for individuals suffering from back conditions.

Keep in mind that raised beds’ soil experience continuous nutrient withdrawal throughout the season, necessitating regular amendments with slow-release organic fertilizer such as Milorganite.