These Lee Valley plant clips rank at the top of our list for indispensable garden Gimpliments.

They are incredibly sturdy, can be used year after year, and even survived being left under the snow through our Arctic winters.

They work like clothespins to stabilize and support plant stems by clipping them to stakes, leaving room in the center loop to avoid crushing and chafing the stem. They easily attach using one hand.

We use them all through the garden, especially when something is falling over and we don’t have time to stake it properly. Because they’re so handy and easy to use, we find ourselves moving them from plant to plant throughout the season and keeping spares clipped on tomato cages and trellis.

At last count, we had three dozen of them and could use more.

Like many people, we have numerous improvised scoops to handle dog food, bird seed, chicken feed, potting soil, etc.

Usually, it’s just what we can grab - an old can, a pitcher, a plastic container - none of which were designed for scooping and most of which crack or break or spill the contents.

The ideal scoop, in our opinion, is a galvanized grain scoop - lightweight and designed for the job with high rounded sides and a nice balance. Even if your hands aren’t steady, these trusty farm scoops are easy to use and get the contents from barrel or bag to its intended destination.

We live near farm country and Cait brought one home from a tag sale and gave it to Marty - The Official G.G. Scooper for chickens, dogs and what have you. Mary loves it and wishes she had more.

The eNasco online farm store has several sizes to choose from and many other fascinating products, including everything you need to raise an Alpaca or artificially inseminate a cow. (Isn’t the Web amazing?)

Click here to see myriad scoops.

Nelson makes a terrific line of sturdy ergonomic hose nozzles - including this one that lets us play junior firefighter when we need to hose down our driveway or quell a riot in our backyard.

This Nelson Industrial High Flow nozzle turns on and off with a big easy lever - unlike many nozzles where you have to squeeze or turn part of it, which is difficult for those with arthritis or sensitive hands.

The pressure is amazing. A little too amazing. You don’t want to use the Nelson industrial to water seedlings or containers.

For watering duties we use this Nelson Rezimar Fan Nozzle seen to the right and this LR Nelson Trigger Long Neck with Flow Control.

We recently had our duplex reroofed and saw this Gemplers cap on the roofers - all of whom also wore No. 30 sun block.

You’re not likely to see it among the latest fashions for garden hats but it does offer excellent protection for your head, neck and ears and the back flap can be folded into the crown of the cap when you don’t need it.

This cap fits like a size-adjustable baseball cap and is made of a material that feels and breathes like soft cotton but dries quickly and repels water and stains.

This photo of the left side of our greenhouse shows some our tomatoes, herbs and flowers.

As we’ve said previously, our Gimpy Garden is heavy on container gardening and all of the tomatoes will go into 30-gallon metal garbage cans, which conserve water, warm up quickly in the sun, and make the picking much easier without having to bend over.

We live in a suburban neighborhood and the neighbors aren’t quite sure what to make of us. Kids love to hang over the fence and ask us all kinds of questions about our chickens, the garbage-can gardens and our dogs.

The “Power Rake” from Lee Valley has a Gimpy friendly five-foot handle that swivels and is easy to hold. Your back will thank you because the rake’s design lets you work the rake without having to lift it as much as a traditional rake:

On the push stroke the swept-back tines glide over the leaves, and on the pull stroke the upper shield prevents the accumulating pile of leaves from tumbling over the tines.

Lee Valley calls it the Power Rake because this rugged beast gathers leaves and twigs, rakes soil, spreads top dressings and has a rotating hand grip for a low or high angle of attack (for dethatching or raking).

We are not Spring Chickens, but our three hens are a different story - having survived a difficult winter where deep snow kept them in their coop for nearly four months.

Their coop is a simple wood-and-wire structure large enough for them to roam around. In late fall, we cover it with a plastic tarp and insulate it with about 25 bales of straw around the sides and the top. The girls have an electric light for day and get a heat lamp on the coldest of nights.

They’re quite comfy in there, and have no desire to step into the snow, but as soon as they hear wild birds starting to sing in late winter, they get antsy to be free and roam the backyard, as you see here.

From now until next winter (ugh, shudder), they’ll roam from dawn until dusk chowing down on bugs, slugs and greens from the Gimpy Garden. Each night at dusk, they take themselves back into the coop, where we lock them up until morning to keep them safe from the neighborhood raccoons.

Eds. Note: The girls - one Wyandotte and two Buff Orphingtons - also give us great eggs - if we can beat our dogs to them. Didn’t Willie Nelson have a song about Egg Sucking Dogs?

There are a few companies we deem worthy of a blanket, blatant, Gimpy Seal of Approval and Fiskars is one of those few.

Fiskars understands hand and arm fatigue and they engineer their products to help us garden longer, with less pain, without spending a fortune on tools.

New this year is their Power-Pivot Bypass Pruner, seen in the photo to the left, and the Multi Garden Snip, seen below to the right - both of which will become use-all-the-time garden Gimpliments.

Fiskars says both come with lifetime warranties and are configured for optimum use of your stronger fingers to reduce fatigue and increase power and control.

They are one of the many interesting Gimpliments to be found on the Fiskars Web site, which includes entertaining videos of Fiskars’ engineers and designers at work and at play making art.

Eds. Note: And no, we are not on the Fiskars’ payroll. We buy their products ourselves just like everyone else. But if there comes a day we go looking for quality sponsors, Fiskars will be high on our list.

This strap-on seat was designed for dairy workers but is equally useful for gardeners, artists, and those who find themselves kneeling and bending too much.

The seat, which reduces stress on the back, hamstrings and knees, fastens around the waist and has straps extending from the belt to the seat that adjust for a good fit. The seat, which can adjust to different heights, moves with you and is easy to sit down on again in a new location.

The light-weight seat was tested by researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s Healthy Farmers Project, who found they worked more efficiently and with less soreness. The researchers said it beat sitting on a 5-gallon bucket because they didn’t have to drag a bucket along with them, which freed up their hands for the work before them.

Yes, it makes you look a little strange when you stand up and walk around, but as Gimpy Girls we learned to put comfort before vanity a long time ago.

Click here for a seat that adjusts from a height of 13-1/2″ H to 17″ H.

Click here for a seat that is set permanently at a height of 11-1/2″ x 7-1/2″.

Eds Note: Cait barred me from using the word ’stool’ in my descriptions of this particular seat.

Cait & Marty use this torch year-round to kill weeds, start the barbecue, thaw frozen pipes and melt ice on the steps.

At first, Marty was a bit intimidated about handling a propane torch, but now she lives to flame. She invokes Harry Potter as she ignites her torch saying, “Wands at the ready!”

This torch is remarkably well-balanced, with a soft foam handle and easy to use and start. Just screw on a can of propane, press the trigger and it starts right up. No matches involved.

The wand is sturdy enough to serve as an impromptu cane when you are moving about outside.

And, as Cait knows, it quickly fires a batch of charcoal for the grill without having to use that nasty smelling charcoal lighter.

We kill weeds with the torch on damp days, following a rain when the lawn is wet.

Never use it when the ground is dry or you could have another California Cedar Fire on your hands.

To kill weeds, you don’t need to burn them to a crisp - Just hold the torch over the center of the weed for a few seconds, which causes the moisture within to boil and rupture the plant cells.

To eliminate ice with the torch, use MAPP gas, which burns hotter than propane, but also is more expensive.

Click here to learn more