Tools of the Trade

Tools of the Trade

The garden was usually fenced in for the same reason we would want to do so today - to prevent animals from helping themselves to plants and produce! If the family had them, they may have used horse-drawn cultivators and plows to prepare gardens that were somewhat large. Gardens could be as large as a ½ acre. Hand tools used to maintain a garden were:

·        Spades

·        Rakes

·        Hoes

·        Hand weeding hooks

·        Pronged cultivators

·        Layout Line Tool with string, used to plant in a

straight row

Newer versions of many of these same tools are still used today in the preparation, planting, and care of gardens.

To enrich the soil, the only fertilizer used was horse, cow, and pig manure.