Gardening Tools

The cuchillo, the machete and a good pair of shears:

most gardens here start with hand tools. The cuchillo is straight and narrow and does the everyday chapia along a fence; a machete flares at the tip, so its weight sits forward for chopping heliconia stems or a fallen branch. Bellota, Imacasa, Truper and Tramontina are the familiar names, mostly in carbon steel that sharpens with a file and rusts if put away wet. For pruning, bypass shears slice like scissors and suit live green growth, while anvil shears crush and are better kept for dead wood. A round-point spade digs; a square one moves gravel and soil. Trowels and snips for potted plants go with plants and planters.

Cortadora de zacate, motoguadaña or a battery set:

the ground decides. A wheeled mower, the cortadora de zacate, wants a flat, even lawn. A motoguadaña goes where wheels cannot: a steep garden, a fence line, the ditch along the road. Two-stroke engines run on a gasoline and oil mix and four-stroke ones on straight gasoline, and filling a two-stroke with straight gasoline is how many trimmers die. Battery tools are quieter and suit a condominium yard; the batteries are the dear part, so stay with one brand. Costa Rica runs on the same mains voltage as the United States, so a corded tool or a charger brought back from a trip plugs straight in. A battery blower clears leaves off a terrace or the edge of one of the swimming pools faster than any broom.

A generic mower against a dealer brand:

a small gas cortadora de zacate from a generic brand starts around ₡180,000 new, while a dealer brand such as Stihl sits near ₡300,000 and climbs from there. Their resale values split hard. The generic mower drops fast, because a new one is never expensive and its carburettor and wheels are hard to replace; the dealer brand holds more of its price because parts and workshops for it exist well beyond San José. Either way the engine sets the figure: one that starts on the second pull and runs without blue smoke is worth paying for, and a deck rusted through by wet clippings is not.

Compression, gearheads and the copied Stihl:

on a two-stroke trimmer, pull the cord slowly and feel for firm resistance. A cord that runs free means worn rings or a scored piston, often from straight gasoline; a torch shone into the exhaust port shows which. Grip the gearhead at the end of the shaft and rock it, since play or grinding there is a repair. On a mower, heavy vibration after start-up usually means the crankshaft was bent on a stone. Copies of Stihl and Husqvarna machines circulate across Latin America: lighter than the real thing, with rough plastics, smudged decals and no proper serial plate, so ask for the documentation that came with it. Ask what a backpack sprayer carried, because one that held herbicide can scorch whatever it sprays next. Shears with side play in the pivot will only ever chew.

A whole shed after a move, or one good motoguadaña:

hand tools sell best as a lot and machines one by one. For each machine give the brand and model, whether it is two- or four-stroke and the mix you ran, roughly how much use it has had and what comes with it: blade, line head, harness, battery and charger. Photograph the serial plate and the cutting edge, and film a cold start, because a buyer coming up from Pérez Zeledón will not cross the Cerro de la Muerte to Cartago for a machine that might not fire. Before it goes into their car, run the tank dry and show them which side to lay the mower on, since tipped the wrong way it soaks the air filter in oil.