The right gardening tools can make routine chores easier. When you're deadheading, for example, you can spend hours removing spent blossoms with conventional shears, or you can use cut-and-hold shears -- a tool designed specifically for the purpose. Because the tool holds plant material, you save time by not having to cut, then pick up. Cut-and-hold shears with long handles are also available. They're useful for pruning on a balcony or in a spot where you have a hard time reaching the plant to be pruned. Held right side up, the tool is a cut-and-hold tool; it works like a regular pruner when held upside down. Watering in high places can be made easier if you use a water wand. A wand attaches to the end of a hose and delivers water in a stream, a spray or a gentle rain pattern. A valve at the hose end allows you to regulate or turn off the flow of water. Water wands available for apartment dwellers -- or those who don't have a hose bib on the porch -- are available. They come equipped with a hose and connector that attaches directly to an indoor faucet. Polyacrylamide crystals hold water in a jellylike form so that it's available to roots after the soil has dried. To use, mix a prescribed amount of crystals with water, then stir the resulting gel into potting soil. After two hours, each crystal will have swollen to the size of a pea and become a small reservoir of water that's available until the plant needs it. When you water again, the crystals reabsorb water. Using polyacrylamide crystals can cut your watering frequency in half. Use them in container plants without repotting by poking six to eight holes in the soil with a chopstick or pencil and dropping hydrated crystals into the holes. The crystals last in the soil for several years before breaking down.
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