Tools to Upgrade Your Garden to a Small Home Farm

Reader Contribution by Christine Rudolph
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Making the jump from a small garden to a small farm, perhaps to help cut down on grocery bills or to fulfill a dream, is not really that big of a jump. All it requires is a little bit of planning and investment which might seem overwhelming in the beginning, but in the long run will pay off. Who knows, you just might end up loving your small farm so much that you consider making it even bigger.

If you’ve been considering that jump or are already in the process of expanding your garden, here are five items that you should consider investing in.

Photo courtesy Photobucket

Handcarts

You probably have one of their single-wheeled cousins lying around your house, but if you’re planning on upscaling your garden, those won’t do. Handcarts with two or more wheels are a lot more durable and can be easily maneuvered over uneven surfaces; you’ll be having plenty of those as you make your garden bigger. Whether it’s moving topsoil, plants, tools, fertilizer or basically moving anything from here to there, the handcart is lightweight and good enough to shift moderately sized loads that you can’t carry in your hands.


Photo courtesy Whitby

Green Waste Composter

Transforming your garden will probably produce a lot of organic waste that you’ll throw into the garbage. Furthermore, if you’re planning on adding animals to your small farm, then you’ll have more than a few handfuls of poop to manage as well. Here’s where composting comes in quite handy.

It’s the best way to utilize natural waste instead of letting it go to waste at a landfill or incinerator. You’ll be recycling all those fallen leaves, cut vegetables and animal waste to make fresh nutrient healthy humus for your soil. Of course you can make a homemade composter, but if that’s not enough—which it most likely won’t be—then just get an affordable one made out of perforated polyethylene sheets, or the tumbling types that allow for larger volumes.


Photo courtesy EquipSellsIt.com

Load Pullers

Whether it’s small garden or a small farm, or even if it’s for regular family use, pick-up trucks are amongst America’s hottest cars. They’re the best choice of vehicle for pulling and moving wood, animals, sacks of feed and fertilizers, plants and a number of other basic gardening and farming essentials. Pick-up trucks are arguably the most versatile and useful long-term investment—provided that you don’t already have one. Considering that you’re farm won’t be too big, neither will your workloads, so you don’t even need something that’s too heavy duty.

The Ford F series has a number of variations that are affordable and have good load capacities. If you plan on having more animals than vegetables on your small farm, you may want to consider a livestock trailer.


Photo courtesy Northern Tool

Electric Tools

You probably already have a number of these around for common repairs and other household and gardening chores. Well, you could consider getting a new set, but simply investing in a few useful tools, such a circular saw and a drill, would make even more sense. Whether it’s cutting wood for the barn or new fences to building your own composter and attaching doors and railings, there are so many projects that make both of these tools must-have items for any farm.


Photo by Hydro-Power Sprinklers

Sprinklers

Large farming areas are designed keeping irrigation in mind. For the small garden space, a kettle or a jug works fine. But for something in between those areas a small home garden and large-scale industrial farm, you will definitely want to consider implementing a more effective way of watering—something mechanical instead of walking all over the place with a hose. Sprinklers do just that. You can instantly water a large area by connecting a sprinkler system to your water supply. The best part is that they can be modified to spread natural, liquid pesticides as well to keep your plants healthy and pest-free.

  • Published on May 4, 2015
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
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