Kitchen Garden Forum

I also have what I call my 'tickling fork.' It is a good quality beach fork that was with shovel and bucket for making sand castles for my children some 40 yeas ago when such items were made of steel and not the nowadays plastic.
It is fitted to a normal hoe stem with a 'D' handle on top. It is very handy for just refreshing the soil.
JB.

I have a couple more favourites to add...

I have just being doing a job at home here which in previous years hasn't been mine to do...preparing the ground in a cold frame for some lettuce plants to go in...
So I add some more handy tools... I mentioned 4 sizes of Wolf 3 tine cultivator drag, make that 5 sizes as I forgot the very useful hand version of the Wolf 3 tine cultivator along with "Uncle" Maurice's little old Onion Hoe.

Whilst working on the frame I was knelt on Mums old Croydex brand plastic kneeler. I go a bit soapbox here again as this is the older type plastic kneeler that has the short extensions each side to help stop it tipping if you use the handles to push yourself up on. The more recent plastic ones, of another make, don't have these extensions and feel a bit rocky.?.......

Clive.

My favourite at the moment, is less of a tool and more of a gadget, i.e. my padded kneeling stool with side supports. These days, because of a deteriorating arthritic knee, it's just about the only way I can ease myself up again after kneeling to weed or plant out. It's a strong plastic one and conveniently turns itself upside down for a seat when its "cup of tea" time.

But I too have an ancient hoe which used to belong to my dad which I'd be very sad to lose.

My fav tools are quite small, old and picked up second hand a slim stainless trowel with graded depth markings, very useful when planting to get depth right, and another slim stainless fork, very useful for getting tap roots out whole. As I garden no-dig, and mulch regularly weeding is minimal and the soil is moist so any weeds that do show are removed easily.

My favourites change from day to day depending on what I've been doing. Today's favourite is my daisy grubber which is fantastic for getting creeping buttercups out roots and all. It has a nice deep curved piece underneath which levers them up without any force at all.

My others are a very old trowel with a comfy handle and measurements marked on the blade, my border fork, and an adze/hoe type thing with a lovely shaped hickory handle and a bronze, quite sharp work end that can be used for hoeing, weeding, making trenches and earthing up etc.

At this time of year, one of my favourite tools is one of my OH's screwdrivers - I find it perfect for lifting seedlings out of their trays when I am pricking out. I do hope my OH doesn't read this, as he can be quite precious abut his tools!

the one thing ive aquired in reccent years and find im using a lot and wondering how i managed without is my ryobi strimmer with the chain saw extension.... these strimmers split in the middle so the power unit and working end come apart so it fits in the car boot... ive got the 2 stroke petrol engine , which doesnt get a lot of use, a 1kw electric motor which i use mostly , the normal strimmer head, a hedgecutter and a chainsaw head. im finding the extended chainsaw is so much more useful than the conventional chainsaw. with the pole extensions in appletres can be pruned up to about 15 foot with my feet on the ground... not fiddling with step ladders saves a lot of time. even on the short setting so its the length of a strimmer its so much easier to get into shrubs or hedges to cut out bits... stuff youd normally do with a normal chainsaw but have to get in among the prickely bits... it just makes most sawing jobs easier and a lot quicker.... and i guess its safer aswell ... the moving chain is always well clear of body parts.

During this winter I have developed a particular affection for what the under-gardener calls the "Abu Hamza" http://www.worldofwolf.co.uk/images/new/IEML.jpg from the Wolf Multichange range. So impresssed that I also gave one to my sister.

Stephen, I have seen these hoes and have been tempted to buy one. Can you tell me: presumably the flat rather than tined part serves as a "normal" hoe, does it? and then you can just flip it over to use the tines. Is that the idea and, judging from your comments, it works well, does it?

I have the BEM which is the 3 tine without the push hoe blade.

I too have looked at Stephens, the IEM version. I thought that the blade could make it cumbersome and catch plants being cultivated around when in use as the 3 tine drag....but then I have found myself removing a stubborn weed with with the side of a tine and then it would have been advantageous to have the blade option to flip over to.

Clive.

Hi Monica, Clive
I do have a BAM as well as an IEM (through ignorance really ). Which I use depends a bit upon the condition of the soil although all three of Wolf's offerings are much the same size and much of a muchness.
The soil here is clay over chalk and stoney and I am on well sloped ground. I find that in winter and summer a crust develops and I use the tined side to loosen the soil and use the blade (as Clive suggests) for stubborn weeds but only a little (Often I just pluck it out by hand). If I don't run the tines through the soil, hoes tend to dig in/go off target. The IEM being heavier and with those flattened & broadened points is also useful to bash lumps with.
As well as getting lots of weeds out today, the tilth looks great after the work and the manure on one area got well bashed up/mixed in with really very little effort.

That's been very helpful, Stephen and Clive. Having just today received £25 from Premium Bonds (after a 5 year dearth of prizes!), I shall treat myself next week!

Monika. Are you boasting or complaining over the size of your Premium Bond win.

I think with that amount, complaining would be more appropriate, shallot man! But, no, it was a nice surprise.

I have some lovely old tools and like many other contributors have a hoe of which I am particularly fond, however these small hand tools are amongst my favorites.

The Brades Trowel is about 70 years old, the RolCut Secateurs are from around 1950 - not sure about the knife, its a CK (no! not Calvin Klein - Carl Kammerling), but had it ages.