Expert Advice for your Lawn & Garden TV Host of Today's Homeowner^® and home expert for The Weather Channel

If you spend a lot of time gardening, you know how handy a potting bench can be. Not only does it give you a convenient place to work with your plants, it also keeps the inevitable mess that goes with it confined to one spot.

A lot of home and garden centers will have yard tools, but not all of them are going to make yard work simple. Here are some really cool tools that, not only do the job, but make your day in the garden a walk in the park.

A lazy susan comes in handy when potting or trimming a plant. Partially fill the pot with soil and set it on the lazy susan. Position your plants and slowly spin the lazy susan as you finish topping off the soil. When trimming plants, you can easily cut with one hand while carefully turning with the other. This technique would also work when decorating or painting pots.

If you waste time and energy running back and forth from the garden to the shed for tools and garden supplies, use an old golf bag and cart to “caddy” both long- and short-handled garden tools.

Whether you’re creating a brick landing for a new set of steps or forming a small brick path, the trick is to get a nice sub surface to support the bricks. You’ll need a nice smooth surface but also one with a consistent depth, otherwise some bricks may be higher or lower than others creating a tripping hazard. To create a smooth surface create a screed (the same tool concrete finishers use to smooth out concrete).

For a professional finish around trees planted in the lawn, loop a rope around the tree trunk and the shaft of a spade. Adjust the length so that the spade reaches to the drip line of the tree. Scribe the outline of a circle, then remove the rope and retrace the circle, sinking the spade vertically to make a neat, clean edge.

Maintaining your metal garden tools is important. Tools that have become rusty probably haven’t been cleaned at the end of the day. Brush off all dirt and debris and make sure the surfaces of the tools are dry before you store them. By simply adding a little lubricant to the edges and surfaces of your loppers, trowels and shovels and then wiping them with a soft cloth you can help prevent the surfaces from rusting.

A simple, easy way to measure postholes as you dig them is to mark 6-inch graduations up the handle of your posthole diggers (a permanent marker is ideal for the job). A similar approach works well for a shovel handle; only here you can measure from the handle end instead of the blade end so you can invert the tool to measure as you go.

Certain times of the year nurseries will have bare root trees such as fruit trees and roses. Late winter and early spring are great times to find and purchase these. The nursery will typically have them in wood chips which need to be completely removed before planting so that they do not rob the tree of nutrients.

There’s nothing worse than spending a lot of time getting leaves raked and loaded into the wheelbarrow only to have a bump on the path or a gust of wind empty them out for you. Here’s a solution that will make collecting leaves easier and keep them in the wheelbarrow.