In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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August 9, 2007

Missing pruning shears---again

Sacramento Bee file photograph/Owen Brewer

I’ve lost my pruning shears again. That makes three pair this year. My husband can’t believe it.

I’ve looked on all the benches in the garden. I’ve looked in the garage. I’ve looked in the house. I’ve looked in the hay shed. I’ve looked in the vegetable garden. I’ve looked in the car. I’ve looked in the truck. I’ve looked on the rocks that border the beds. I’ve searched along the paths and looked among the flowers. And then I went back and looked all of those places again. No luck. Wherever those pruning shears are, they are out of sight.

The trouble is I tend to put the clippers down on the nearest bench or rock when I’m finished. That’s why I buy orange pruning shears. If I leave them where they shouldn’t be, I can spot them easily. At least that’s the idea. In practice it hasn’t really worked. I’ve also lost a green pair. I did find my least favorite pair - a useless gray and black pair - on top of the woodpile in front of the house. They don’t cut well, and don’t fit my hand. That’s probably why they're still around. My all-time record for losing pruners is about 15 minutes. I bought a new, fairly inexpensive pair to use in a friend’s garden I care for each month. I misplaced them almost immediately. She later found them on the edge of the birdbath. Of course, I then remembered where I’d put them.

This year I designated a small table as the place for all gardening hand tools: clippers, trowels, cultivators, plant labels, and nozzles. And for a while I knew if I needed the clippers or a trowel, it would be there. Lately the table looks bare.

To make matters worse, I get sidetracked when I’m gardening. I’ll be clipping and clipping, then have to stop and haul the debris away so I put the clippers down. Or I’ll spot weeds that need pulling, or a plant tag that needs replacing, or have to move some pots, and before I know it I’m in another part of the garden sans pruning shears. I have to backtrack to find them.

I see all the really serious gardeners with leather holsters to hold the shears when not in use. I don’t wear a belt, so I guess that option is out for me. A friend keeps weeders poked in the grounds throughout the garden so one is always handy. Whenever she finishes weeding, she buries the point of the weeder in the ground near the path. She hasn’t lost any. Maybe I should have places throughout the garden to hand pruning shears. I could have lots of hooks and lots of shears. That might work.

Anyway, I’m off to buy another inexpensive, orange pair of pruning shears. I hesitate to buy a really good pair since I’ll just lose them. Maybe I’ll buy two, and something for hanging them.

Mainly, though, I’ll try to be more careful this time. Really.

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