A Brief History of Garden Tools
Today’s post comes from guest blogger Margaret Gilmour, a freelance writer who writes about simple living and is co-creator of Chester County Dwell, a hyper-local weblog and leading resource for sustainability.
♦♦♦
A Brief History of Garden Tools
By Margaret Gilmour
“The slowest plant of June,” say the old timers, “will be the biggest soon.”
– from The Seasons of America Past by Eric Sloane.
Like all modern instruments, garden tools have evolved over the years, the oldest dating back thousands of years. In fact, the grapevine is believed to be the first woody plant intentionally cut by man in Armenia around 6000 B.C. (I bet he had wine on his mind.)
It’s true that technology has given today’s gardeners access to ergonomically designed tools, and electric-or gas-powered devices that make planting and pruning easier. But, like cutlery, much of the gardener’s basic utensils remain unchanged:
- Take the shovel, for example. Even with John Ames’ creation of the first iron shovel in 1774, this digging tool’s basic form still maintains a cylinder-shaped handle and a broad, metal blade.
- Even the hoe, discovered in cave drawings symbolizing crop growing, has changed very little. The earliest hoes were forked sticks before being replaced by blades made of animal antlers and shoulder blades, shells and, eventually, like the shovel, metal.
Shovel or hoe, all primitive garden tools were essential in Colonial America, since what was cultivated in the beds and fields fed entire families:
- Back in the 16th-century, in fact, garden implements were so sacred that families locked them away at night to keep thieves from running off with a much-needed gardening appliance.
- Losing any of your collection could mean months before you were able to replace them, since all garden tools were custom-made.
- This meant that early settlers had to be satisfied with what was available, including hoes, shovels, picks and mattocks (similar to a pickaxe) that were crafted by local woodworkers and sold in a nearby town.
But not all tools were difficult to come by. Some were simple enough to make on your own, like the cloche, or bell-shaped cover. Colonists used the covers to protect produce from pests, and to trap heat overnight in an effort to push along the vegetable-ripening process.
By the mid-17th-century, gardening became increasingly popular, though it was still a lot of work no matter what tool you carried. Watering a vegetable patch or flowerbeds, and you might imagine, was a chore that meant hoisting heavy bucket-loads of water to give your plantings a drink.
Even so, well-seasoned gardeners demanded better equipment. That’s when an assortment of non-mechanical tools became available, like hedge shears, pruning shears, cultivating forks and trowels.
- It wasn’t until the 18th-century that Philadelphia’s import houses could offer even more garden tool varieties and a more abundant stock. Locals who could get into the city, or business owners who could transport them back to Pennsylvania counties, took advantage of the excess trowels, spades, scythes and sickles.
- In 1830 Edwin Budding patented the first lawn mower, and by the second Industrial Revolution in 1850 tool technology gained momentum. Steam-power tractors and threshers showed up on farms before 1892 when John Froelich built the first gasoline tractor (that actually worked).
The mechanical revolution certainly changed agriculture, but we still prize our elementary garden tools, locking them up at night to keep them safe. Not safe from thieves, really, but from others in our home who fail to put them back where they belong. ♣
SOURCES: The Gardener’s Rake, Historic Camden County, Garden Digest, The Seasons of America Past by Eric Sloane.
©2009 All rights reserved, except where otherwise noted
Related posts:
Hilda,
Really enjoyed this article. I remember the hardware store where I worked as a young adult had Ames garden tools, must have been the same as this guy with the iron shovel. I think Ames is out of business now.