Just wondering what everyone's favorite garden tool is! For example if it is a hoe, what kind, how do you use it(applications), perhaps who made it, ect! Sue
Favorite Garden Tool
If I was limited to just one gardening tool, it would be my trusty 4-tined spading fork. Not only is it a great cultivating/digging tool, it's a very effective weeder. It's a very servicable rake also, and I've been known to make furrows for seed planting with it. Good fork to turn compost with, and I wouldn't think of harvesting potatoes without one.
I have a wedge shaped light weight aluminum handled hoe with sharp teeth along one side of the head that has become my favorite tool. It's versatile and does a multitude of chores.
Dandelion weeder, with the long slim neck and forked end. Helps me take care of deep tap roots without destroying a square foot of earth.
The old reliable Kentucky high wheel cultivator. This one is over 100 years old.
My trusty hoe!
I have to say my husband is the best weeder I have found yet - I don't have to do any work. He also digs holes, tills, and mows the lawn. But I wouldn't call him much of a hoe.
Mobi, I think you have the most versatile tool of all!!lol! I love the picture from FarmerDill. Love the tools that have been around for a long time. Once in a while, someone will have a barnsale around here and the old garden tools is the first place I head to! My favorite tool is a hoe that my dad bought for me when I was little. I've had it for 30+ years and it always reminds me of the great times I had with my family when I was young. Even the end of the season's rotten tomato fights with my brother when we were supposed to be pulling the plants and putting them in the compost heap!!
My favorite hoe is one with "bunny ears" on one end and a straight-ended blade on the other. My favorite hand tool has a sturdy triangular head and an 18" handle for good leverage. Although I certainly have other tools I like and use often, these two are the ones I don't want to garden without!
A friend sent me a wonderful Japanese soil knife (similar to the tool in the link Eggs posted)... he swears I will like it better than my little triangle digger, and I'm sure it will be great for weeds, but I don't think it will be much good for digging planting holes!
I use my hand mattock constantly and when I head for any of the garden beds, it's always in my hand.
http://www.homegardenandpatio.com/cat.cgi?s=MRC-41004&c=garden_tools_cultivators It's great for planting, weeding, cultivating, digging holes in my rocky soil.
The other tool I use a lot is my Garden Claw. Good for weeding and even breaking up and cultivating soil.
http://www.gardenclaw.com/
Today I'm the proud owner of a brand new honda rotovator!! It's a beauty!! so it has to be that
biscomb, I have the same tiller/rotovator and it is a good machine. My husband loves it!
I couldn't live without my broadfork...at least my back couldn't! It's like a huge earth fork with stout ash handles on both sides. Step on the top, the long tines slide in, then step back, holding the handles. The tines lever up and crumble a large bite of earth. It's a cinch. The broadfork's not cheap, ca. $115 from Johnny's Selected Seeds but a hell of a lot cheaper and quieter than a tiller. Huge, gnarley dandilions can be winkled out with satisfying ease. Especially popular w/kids and people old and smart enough to take care of their backs. -Brian from NW Pennsylvania.
Unappreciated but necessary are my foam kneepad & gloves (boy, do I have alot of gloves!). I treated myself to some Felco pruners this year, after years of cheap pruners, & another new tool that I think will be great is my 'Tiger Trowel'-it has serrated edges, sort of a combo weeder/trowel...
I think I may try the kneepads this year or at least a padded kneeling cushing! :)
I love seeing everyone's favorite tools! And I must say I have gotten some great ideas for myself! Thanks, everyone!
Any other favorites? Love to hear from you!
Sue
My favorite tool are mudgloves.
I LOVE them and use them to do everything. I found these and have never looked back. Here's a link. I think you can get them in other places so this is just one place.
http://www.mudglove.com/ProductIndex.html
Thanks Mobi! We have so many stones on the property we are constantly building stone walls everywhere and I think this may be useful in handling the stones(they can really roughen-up your hands plus the gripping will help from dropping any) Thanks for the link! :)
Since I square foot garden, I depend on my wood extendable folding ruler for dividing my beds into square feet. It belonged to my dad (my gardening mentor)...need I say more?
This message was edited Mar 23, 2007 1:17 AM