Monday 18 May 2009

MY FAVOURITE GARDENING TOOLS

When it comes down to it, the pleasure you get from gardening partly depends on your tools. It is a delight to slice vertically through the soil to make a sharp edge if you have a nice, light, sharp spade but a dreadful chore if you have big, heavy, blunt one. Loosening a bed of soil is so easy with a good, strong fork with tines that aren't going to bend and a handle strong enough to lever on. Even carrying around a pair of secateurs in your back pocket can be difficult if your pants pockets are too shallow and if you don't have a ho-mi, I don't know how you get by at all. Here are my cannot-do-without gardening tools and why I love them.

image My bag holds all the small things I might need for any job at all, including  tools like a shifting spanner, screwdriver, heavy mallet, string, labels, watering nozzle, bits of irrigation fittings, and actual  gardening tools.
image This pen is UV resistant and will not fade so labels stay legible for years.
image Brass hose fittings like this one are a lifetime investment. I have had these particular fittings forever and they never leak or need repair, unlike every single plastic piece I have ever had.
image This was my father's sieve and I use it to sift compost for seed raising. It is ancient but so far has held together well and is very comfortable to use.
image The ho-mi....used for weeding, drilling lines for sowing, anything and everything as it is strong, well made, has a curved side and a straight side as well as a sharp point.
image image My small  spade that I keep sharpened and my fork that has strong tines that never bend. They hang on nails on this post, out of the rain but close at hand every day.
image This solid metal rake has an old handle that is smooth, strong and gets thicker at the end so you can pull on it and it won't slip out of your hand.... they just don't make handles like this any more it seems... especially on wheelbarrows.
image  image The star dropper.... can be hammered in to almost any ground, any time of the year. Hit it as hard as you like and it will not split like wooden stakes and will never break either. I have about 40 of them and rarely is one out of use.

6 comments:

chaiselongue said...

I haven't heard of a ho-mi before, Kate, but it sounds and looks as though it has similar uses to my favourite tool, the pioch, which you photographed me with when you were here. I couldn't garden without it!

Maggie said...

We all love the tools from the Gundaroo Tiller
http://www.allsun.com.au/HoMi.html
Maggie

daylesford organics said...

I too love the right tool for the right job and Gundaroo Tiller have the best collection for fast efficient gardening.

Maggie said...

Different Maggie checking in...I'm not sure what I'm seeing with the star dropper. Are those holes for trellis wires?

Unknown said...

Yes Maggie, for wires or twine to hold up frames for peas or tomatoes etc. These black, steel, star-shaped stakes are so strong and last forever.In some countries they are very expensive but here in South Australia they are quite reasonable, considering how long they last.... and forever is a long time!

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