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From amateur planters to seasoned growers, most gardeners understand the value of having the right tools. You might have the basics in our sheds or garage: a hand trowel, pruning shears, and a watering can — perhaps even a smart watering can! You also need a good pair of gloves to protect your hands while you’re digging or weeding, and a wheelbarrow to more easily move mulch or compost.

If you’re ready to move beyond the basics, you can find a comprehensive choice of gardening and landscaping tools at your local garden center but be prepared to pay top dollar. If you’re on a budget or you simply like getting a good deal, you may be surprised by the selection and reasonable prices found at discount tool retailer Harbor Freight. With more than 1,600 locations across the U.S., Harbor Freight is a one stop shop for tools, paint, and outdoor equipment and gardening tools. You can find the basics: garden forks, hoses, and loppers, but the store offers much more. Here are five gardening tools available in-store or online that you may not have realized even exist.

4-in-1 Solid Brass Faucet Expander

An outdoor faucet or spigot gives you easy access to water for everything from filling the kiddie pool in the summer to washing off your patio or car. They require a bit of care in cold weather, but the convenience of easily keeping your potted plants or flower beds watered without hauling around a bucket or watering can is certainly worth it.

If you only have one or two faucets outside, however, you may find that it’s not enough, especially if you want to set up a sprinkler system. Hiring a plumber and adding additional spigots would undoubtedly be costly, but this four-way faucet splitter from One Stop Gardens may help. This splitter allows you to connect four hoses to one spigot. It’s made from brass, with corrosion-resistant stainless-steel valves, and it comes with a black rubber washer. Not only does a splitter allow you to keep multiple hoses or sprinklers hooked up at once, but it also prevents wear and tear on the faucet threads from constantly switching hoses.

The splitter is priced at $14.99 at time of writing and has a 90-day warranty. Reviews are mostly positive, and most buyers say it works as advertised with no leaks.

Multipattern watering wand

Even with a faucet expander, watering your plants and flowers with a hose can often be a pain, especially if your plants are hard to reach, such as hanging flower baskets. The high-pressure spray that many hose sprayers offer can also be too strong for some plants, breaking stems and damaging delicate flowers. Instead, you may want to consider this multipattern watering wand from Niagara. You have to hook it up to your hose, but the wand allows for easier access to those hard-to-reach pots and into the plant’s root zone.

Currently priced at $10.99, the wand has eight different spray patterns, including cone, flat, full, mist, shower, and more. It also has a thumb lever to easily control the water flow and a soft-grip rubber handle. It’s made from metal rather than plastic for increased durability, and reviewers give it high marks for its low price and adjustable flow pattern. A few buyers reported issues with leaking and durability.

Portable Greenhouse

A permanent greenhouse is an expensive proposition, but this six-foot by six-foot portable greenhouse by One Stop Gardens is a budget-friendly solution for greenhouse beginners or those with small spaces. At $99.99, the greenhouse is watertight and has a reinforced polyethylene design and a heavy-duty steel frame.

It can be assembled and set up by one person and doesn’t have the frustrating panel clips found on other small greenhouses. It has a zipper door and one ventilation window. It’s not very big but works well in a small backyard, with sturdy ground anchors to keep it in place. It can help extend your growing season and offer protection from wind, heavy rain, and frost. Reviews are a bit mixed – many say their greenhouse has lasted several years, praising its solid construction and low price. A few stated it was difficult to put together, citing poor instructions. Also, according to reviewers, if you experience high winds in your yard, it may not hold up.

Pruning saw

You’ve likely heard of loppers or pruning shears and may even have a set at home. Pruning shears, or pruners, are a small, hand-held tool that resembled scissors and are used for cutting through stems and small branches. Loppers are a longer tool that are used to cut thicker branches or stems. But what about thicker branches and shrubs when pruners and loppers are too small? You could pull out the chainsaw, but that may be a bit too much for the job, or perhaps you simply don’t own one. You need a pruning saw.

Pruning saws are typically designed for branches two inches or more in diameter. Harbor Freight offers the Bauer 20-volt brushless cordless pruning saw for $64.99 at time of writing. It has an extended runtime, with up to 162 cuts per charge. The five-inch guide bar helps you cut precisely, and it has a grip guard and a trigger-switch lockout for safety. It weighs 2.5 pounds and comes with a chain, scrench, and scabbard. It has a 90-day limited warranty and a 4.7 out of five star rating on Harbor Freight’s website. Buyers say the saw is a good value and has powerful cutting capability, though a few complained that users have to manually oil the chain. This product also requires a Bauer 20-volt battery and charger, which are sold separately.

Rolling work seat

There are all sorts of tricks and gadgets to help save your back, when you’re working around the house or shoveling snow but what about gardening? If your favorite hobby is wreaking havoc with your knees or your back, check out the rolling work seat from One Stop Gardens. It’s a bit of an investment at $69.99 but it will eliminate the need for constant up and down while you weed, plant, and care for your garden.

This seat rolls on large, 10-inch pneumatic tires, so you should be able to easily use it on grass and dirt. It has a weight capacity of 300 pounds and users can adjust the height of the seat, which also swivels. There’s an attached tray underneath the seat that will hold a small amount of gardening supplies, such as gloves and a trowel. The seat is made from weather-resistant, powder-coated steel for increased durability.

Reviewers state that the work seat is simple to put together and rolls easily, though some complain that it sits a bit too high and needs a bigger tray for more tools. Many buyers say that the seat definitely helps ease back pain while they garden, though some experienced issues with steering the seat while in use. A few reviewers also mentioned the product’s weight, so buyers should note that the shipping weight of this seat is just over 30 pounds.





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In a recent econlife, we noted that car shopping consumers are likely to consider an electric vehicle or a hybrid. Then, though, if gas prices continue ascending for several months, more of us will want to replace our SUV.

Seemingly small, a dollar change in gasoline prices could produce a massive shift in new and used car markets.

Gasoline Price Impact

Gasoline spending

Ram, Dodge, and GMC owners have been the hardest hit by high gas prices. They will get little comfort from knowing that Rolls Royce drivers are suffering more at the pump:

gas guzzlers

As for how much, The Washington Post told us what the five best selling vehicles–Ford F-series, Chevy Silverado, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Ram Pickup– could cost us extra annually at the pump. While the Toyotas and Hondas, in $500 territory, were cheapest, the others took us closer to $800.

Knowing that gasoline prices go up like a rocket and down like a feather, our preference for a pickup or an SUV starts to sink.

Our Bottom Line: Demand

It all takes us to a change in demand. Defined as the different prices, that we are willing and able to pay for an item, our demand depends on six determinants. Ranging from income to substitute and complementary goods and services, those determinants move the entire demand curve. With the Iran War, we have soaring gasoline prices shrinking the utility of gas guzzling vehicles.

Scholars from Northwestern University and MIT quantified the change in demand in a 2012 study. Though dated, it relates to buyers’ contemporary behavior.

The study looked at market share, unit sales, and prices for new and used cars when gasoline prices went up. For a $1 increase in 2012 (equal to $1.44 today) market share reacted considerably. The quantity demanded of guzzlers went down by more than 22% while fuel economy vehicles saw a whopping 28.7% spike:

Market share:

Gasoline Price Impact

Guzzler sales plunged:

gasoline price impact

 

And guzzler prices went down while fuel economy vehicles became more expensive. The spread was $657:

gasoline price impact

Meanwhile, in used car markets, we have even more of a response. When gasoline prices rise by $1, gas guzzling used car prices fall by an average of $1474. Meanwhile, at the other end of the fuel economy scale, we have prices up by $922–a swing of almost $2400.

Taking the next step, our marginal gas expense becomes even more unsettling when we consider the non-auto tradeoffs. One gas buyer said he could not top off his tank because he needed some of the money for his mortgage payment. Others surely were thinking about grocery affordability.

My sources and more: While our car facts came from the Washington Post, Car and Driver was the ideal complement with the best sellers. Then, this paper provided the analysis.



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