Ouch

Ouch

by | Jul 1, 2025 | Garden tools, Safe Gardening

A hand with a small pinch mark.Ever pinched your hand using a pruner? Well, if not, you don’t know what you are missing. LaVille didn’t miss out, and you can see the results on her hand. This injury frequently occurs when using a pruner with a sliding lock mechanism. The plastic lock always seems to have sharp corners, and when you close the handles, the skin of your palm can get trapped.

The 3 pruners pictured all use this type of lock. The pruner with the orange handles was the culprit in this case, and I will fix it next. The pruner on the far right was treated long ago and is safe to use. I used my trusty Dremel to grind away the plastic edge of the sliding lock to round it off where the arrow is pointing. I don’t know how you could do the same with your pruner at home. Perhaps an emery board would work.

Three pruners on a counter.

Stan, The Fixit Man

Mega Tweezers

Mega Tweezers

by | Mar 1, 2025 | Garden tools, Safe Gardening, Weeds

Small weeds growing at the base of a rose.I was headed out to the roses, but never made it. A week ago LaVille and I had attacked the Australian Somethin Or Nuthers. (I thought they were Johnny Jump Ups.) You can see the Australians are all entangled in the base of the rose where we were loathe to reach.

A plant and a small weed in a pot.Well, as I walked by pots of Abutilons, I noticed small weeds growing in the pots—mainly baby tears and oxalis. I found that the long tweezer forceps I was carrying could very easily pull the weeds out. Now, perhaps you personally have no need for 12 inch tweezers.

If you think you could use a pair of long tweezer forceps, check the third photo. Here I’m holding my forceps in front of the Amazon description of what you could order. Clever, huh.

A person holding a pair of tweezers in front of an Amazon product page: 2 PCS 12 Inch Tweezer Tongs for $5.99.

Stan, The Tweezer Man

Friction Tape

Friction Tape

by | Jan 1, 2025 | Garden tools, Safe Gardening

Here is a solution for those of you have garden tools with slippery handles. LaVille likes this pruner mainly because it is so light, but she recently got a painful pinch when her hand slipped forward down the handles. The arrow indicates the guilty point.

I’ve used Liquid Dip in the past to reduce slipperiness, but I thought I’d try a different approach. Friction tape sounded like a logical choice. I thought it would simply create a rough, nonslip surface. I was surprised to find that it is also somewhat sticky.

I anticipate that using this pruner would eventually collect dirt covering the tape. This would eliminate the stickiness, yet maintain the roughness that will prevent hand slipping.

Stan, The Friction Tape Man

A roll of friction tape on a marble counter.Pruning shears on a marble counter. An arrow points to the base of the handles.Pruning shears with friction tape wrapped around each handle.

Hand Truck

Hand Truck

by | Jan 1, 2025 | Safe Gardening, Senior Gardening

A hand truck carrying a pack of water.As we age, there is a corresponding loss of strength—at least that is what has happened with me. I find myself more frequently asking for assistance when tasked with loading heavy items into my shopping cart, whether it’s a 42 pound bag of cat litter at Costco, or the 3 cubic bag of Sunshine potting soil at Lowes. I even asked for help transferring the soil into the back of my car, and as it turned out, it was a female worker that did it. I hope your pride won’t keep you from asking for assistance when you need it.

Well anyway, when you get home with your heavy purchase, the chore of delivering it into your yard or house can pose another challenge. You can see in the photo what I use. The hand truck is a great tool for moving heavy objects. I find that I am using it almost every week. You have perhaps been using some sort of cart, and that’s great if it works for you. The advantage of a hand truck is that you don’t have to lift the object up—merely slide the truck platform under it.

Now, my hand truck is heavy duty, and you may find a lighter model that suits your needs. So, if you are tempted, give a hand truck a go—before injuring your back carrying something beyond your capabilities.

Stan, The Getting Weaker Man

Burning Desires Gone Bad

Burning Desires Gone Bad

by | Nov 15, 2022 | Garden tools, Safe Gardening, Weeds

If you have followed my blogs, you will remember how I have touted the benefits of controlling weeds by burning them. The main advantage is that the weed seeds are destroyed along with the weed.

A collection of propane-fueled weed burners.

My experience with weed burning has evolved over the years. The first tool I used was the small green propane tank and torch you see on the pavement in the photo below. I would walk through our garden, bend over, and press the red button to produce a flame that cooked whatever weed I found. I would use a trowel to shield drip lines or valued plants.

When I joined Daisy Mah’s crew at the WPA Rock garden, I used this torch to fry the weeds growing in the paths. This slow process led me to advance to a much bigger torch. I attached a 5 gallon propane tank to a hand truck and wheeled throughout all the Rock Garden paths. It wasn’t long before all paths were weed free.

Recently, due to back problems, I was unable to bend over to reach the weeds. So, I bought a burner with a long tube extension that allowed me to burn weeds while standing erect. This system works well except there is no button to turn the flame on and off as you move around, and the flame is much larger than that produced by the smaller torch.

Well, a month ago, I was using this long burning torch in the garden, and I quickly burned some weeds next to the fence, and then continued to work my way around the yard. I was alerted by my wife, who had been indoors, that there was an emergency. And, sure enough, flames were roaring several feet above our fence. A nearby hose finally quelled the flames, but the damage was done.

What you see in the photo is the view from my neighbor’s yard. My new torch had ignited dry material on the other side of the fence and flames quickly engulfed the redwood boards. It did not help that daytime temps were around 100 degrees. Also, had there not been an open space at the base of the fence, there would not have been any fire damage.

A wood fence with large burnt sections.

When I have talked about the use of a torch to control weeds, I mention the possibility of burning a fence as sort of a joke. As it turned out, the joke was on me.

Happy (but safe) burning,

Stan, The Burning Man

Got Gloves?

Got Gloves?

by | May 6, 2022 | Garden tools, Safe Gardening

Well, of course you have gloves. No gardener has no gloves! So, I am a little reluctant to suggest that you buy more gloves. You have probably gone through a lot of gloves in your gardening experience and have settled on a pair that seems perfect for you. But. . . if you need new gloves, I have a suggestion for you. This is the working glove made by MaxiFlex. I came across this glove at a garage sale years ago. This guy was giving them away, so how could I resist? The gloves I picked up sat in a box along with a variety of others for years until I finally, for some reason, tried them out. Their ugly appearance had put me off, but likely it was the fact that I couldn’t find my favorite gloves that caused me to make the plunge. In any case, these are now my go-to gloves.

So, why would I suggest these gloves for you? They appear to be waterproof. They’re not. They look like they would protect your hands from thorns. They do not. But if you slip one on, you will find that they fit . . . like a glove. They are really flexible (duh). The insides are lined with some kind of soft fabric. There are little dots of nitril covering the palm side that give you good grip. They are quite durable. You can jam your hand down through the soil to grab the root of a weed and not have to worry about creating a hole in the glove fingers. They absorb skin moisture so you don’t end up with a serious case of slimy hand.

If you are in need of a new pair of gloves, they are available on Amazon. By chance, the particular kind I have is FlexiGlove Endurance. It appears you are unable to buy just one pair of gloves, but a set of 3, for instance, would probably last a lifetime—however long that may be. You will see that they are rather inexpensive. Note that you can purchase your choice of color, as long as that choice is black. So your gloves may not color coordinate with the rest of your gardening garb, but I think you will find the sacrifice is worth it. So, I think you should give these gloves a try. If you don’t like them, you could always give them to LaVille—she of much smaller hands than I.

Stan, The Ugly Glove Man

Maxi FlexiGlove

Maxi FlexiGlove