Lifestyle & Seasonal

How to be a hipster gardener

If you think vintage accessories, old traditions and careful tending are the bee’s knees, you may be a garden hipster.

The hipster aesthetic is marked by an obsession with independence, eco-friendly living and vintage style. This group has its own style in clothes, food and yes, gardening. Aside from the new urban chickens movement, hipsters have made old ways of tending to the lawn new again.

Want to join in the fun? You don’t have to spend a lot on antiques. New, improved versions of yard accessories from yesteryear are available now. Grab a pair of flower-patterned gloves and get dirty with some of these great finds.

Manual reel mower

There’s nothing like snip-snip of push reel mower blades. Soothing and quiet, a manual mower cuts the grass cleanly in a scissor-like motion, leaving the clippings to nourish the soil below. New mowers are lighter in weight and easier to turn than your grandfather’s rusty monster. The new mowers discard the clippings forward instead of showering your feet with lovely little green bits. Fiskars has a line of new, advanced design push reel mowers that any hipster would love.

Atomizer sprayers and watering cans

Individual attention to plants is a labor of love a hipster adores. Instead of dousing the victory garden with powerful blasts from the hose, take a gentler approach with a vintage-style mister for the leaves and a watering can for the soil. Misters deliver a delicate amount of liquid to foliage. They can be used to apply pest control substances (look into essential oils to stay organic) or plant food. Using a hand-held mister gives the gardener an advantage over hose-spraying, because the smaller, more agile container can reach the underside of leaves and other pest-hiding places in the garden. Sedums and succulents especially love being misted.

Watering cans are helpful when various plants in a garden require different amounts of water. A hipster gardener can conserve water by manually delivering it to each plant. There’s no worries of overwatering when you’re up close and able to observe the saturation levels of the soil.

Hoes, shears and weeding claws

Although the temptation to snatch up an old rusty pair of shears from a yard sale looms large for hipsters, it may not be the best tool for them or their gardens. Rust deteriorates iron and can result in flakes of metal getting into the skin, eyes or mouth of the gardener. If decor is your game, put a layer or two of sealer on those hoes and display them proudly (and away from the reach of children). If working the soil is the goal, newer tools may be more prudent, but some hipsters will be sold on restoring vintage tools to save them from landfills. Old tools will need new wood handles, rust removal, and more, but hipsters are never afraid of a little elbow grease.

Hipster heaven

The hipster gardener takes comfort in caring for a low eco-footprint garden and landscape. If you have a relatively small lawn and garden, taking a few cues from the hipster movement may bring back your love of growing things.

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