The tools employed in cultivating plants, very similar to those of today, were used both in gardening and horticulture: hoes to break up the soil, sickles to mow the fields, rakes to clean them, pruning knives to prune the trees, grafting knives to graft plants, and grindstones to whet the edges of the tools.
Greenhouses too were widely used. They consisted of wooden boxes or wicker baskets mounted on wheels so they could be easily moved, and covered by panes of glass or specular stone. The Emperor Tiberius was the first to use them for the precocious ripening of cucumbers, his favourite vegetable.
Hoe
Iron, 1st cent. A.D. Pompeii, House of the Menander Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei, inv. 20755
This hoe was found along with other farm implements in the House of the Menander. These hoes, of the wide-bladed type, were used to work "loose" soil, where no great pressure was needed to break up the clods; they differed from the narrow-bladed type, used for "heavy", clayey soil.
