Gardening Tools
Buy and sell gardening tools in Guatemala.
Most gardens here are dug with farm tools: the same broad hoe, pick-mattock and machete that work the vegetable fields of Chimaltenango hang in every farm supply store, and they do the same job in a city flowerbed. The finer pieces sit beside them, pruning shears for the roses and the hedge, and the backpack sprayer, which crosses over from the coffee farms. New and pre-owned both make sense, because a well-made hand tool usually outlives its first owner: a used Truper hoe with a sound handle or a genuine pair of Felco shears is worth looking out for.
The hoe, the pick-mattock and the shovel:
they look alike on a hook and do different jobs. The broad hoe moves soil sideways: it opens a bed, cuts weeds at the root and heaps earth around a plant. The pick-mattock, a point on one side and a narrow blade on the other, breaks the ground a hoe bounces off, like the compacted volcanic layer that sits under the topsoil in many highland yards. The round-point shovel lifts what the other two loosened. For a vegetable patch or beds for what comes from plants and planters, a hoe and a shovel do nearly everything.
Bypass shears, anvil shears and the pruning saw:
the cutting tools are where quality shows. Bypass shears cross like scissors and leave a clean cut on live, green wood: a rose, a hibiscus, a bougainvillea that has taken over the wall. Anvil shears close one blade onto a flat bed, easier on dead wood but crushing a living stem. Anything thicker than your thumb belongs to long-handled loppers or a folding pruning saw, and forcing small shears through it is how a pivot gets sprung.
The backpack sprayer, manual or with a motor:
it is a farm tool too, and in town it feeds a lawn or treats a hedge. A manual one, pumped with a lever at your hip, is light, quiet and simple to repair. A motorised one covers a coffee plot in Santa Rosa far faster and is far heavier on the back. For a house garden the manual one wins. Whatever went through a sprayer stays in its seals and lance, so one that carried weedkiller needs rinsing through several times before it comes near young plants. The net and pole that keep a pool clear sit under swimming pools.
Hardware-store shears against a forged pair:
a pair of pruning shears off a hardware hook costs Q30 to Q60, and when the spring goes or the blade bends it goes in the bin. A forged Swiss Felco costs several hundred quetzales new, and its blade, spring and pivot bolt are all sold as spares, so a used pair with a tired blade is still a good buy: one new part and it cuts as it did on the first day. Manual backpack sprayers are around Q150 to Q300 new, which is close enough to throwaway money that a used one is judged on its tank and pump alone and never fetches much.
Handles, pivots and seals on a second-hand tool:
wood and rubber give out long before steel. On a hoe or a pick-mattock, look where the handle enters the eye: a loose wedge, a crack along the grain or a handle held together with wire and tape all mean it needs replacing. Open and close a pair of shears slowly: the blades should meet without a gap or a grinding feel, the spring should push them open, and the pivot should not rock sideways. Fake Felcos are common, so check the stamping and finish of a cheap one against the maker’s own photos. On a sprayer, fill it with clean water and pump it up. A lance that drips at the trigger or a tank that weeps at a seam means worn seals or a crack.
Tools out of a shed being emptied:
they come from a garden that has been turned into parking, a parents’ house being cleared, or a gardener renewing worn kit. Photograph each tool flat on the ground with the brand stamp showing, then the edge and, for shears, the pivot. Say what a sprayer carried and that it has been rinsed. Hand tools go faster as a lot, because someone setting up a first vegetable patch wants the hoe, the shovel and the rake together. A gardener who comes to look will cut a sheet of paper with the shears and pump the sprayer full of water before paying, so leave both clean and ready to try.