Gardening Tools Survey

Hi all,

I am a university product design student undertaking some research into the process behind gardening along with the tools you use to accomplish different tasks at different stages throughout the gardening process from beginning all the way to maintenance.

What I hope to find out is:

• What type of setting do you garden in (indoor/ outdoor)?
• What do you commonly plant?
• What tools you usually use?
• What problems have you encountered with those tools?
• How long have you had those tools?
• What part of gardening do you struggle with the most?

Feel free to add any other information regarding your experience with gardening along side your answers!



*Please note that personal information such as username etc, will be removed when processing information as part of anonymous data collection*

 

Hi Matteo,

• What type of setting do you garden in (indoor/ outdoor)? - Both, having a collection of houseplants, and plants outdoors - in the garden, plus greenhouse (unheated) for seasonal growing of tomatoes, herbs etc.
• What do you commonly plant? - outside - decorative plants, flowers, berries (strawberries, black currents, raspberries etc.), other edibles - tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, herbs...
• What tools you usually use? - spade, rake, hoe, watering can
• What problems have you encountered with those tools? none
• How long have you had those tools? 2-6 years
• What part of gardening do you struggle with the most? - hard/heavy jobs or jobs on height, pruning cherry laurels, ivy.

 

• What type of setting do you garden in (indoor/ outdoor)?
• Outdoor, Greenhouse, Indoor.
  
• What do you commonly plant?
• Vegetables, Chilli, Sweet peppers, cucumbers, melons and tomatoes. Soft fruit and tree fruit. Annuals, perennials, climbers, shrubs, bulbs
  
• What tools you usually use?
• Spade, forks, hoes, rakes, trowels, heavy mattock, pruning saw, bush saw, dagging shears, secateurs, loppers, garden knife, battery strimmer, electric shredder and petrol mower
  
• What problems have you encountered with those tools?
• Very few really.
  
• How long have you had those tools?
• The oldest are about 70 years old, fork, spade, loppers and mower 40 years, the newest (strimmer) 1 year.
  
• What part of gardening do you struggle with the most?
• Health issues, lack of time.

 

@Matteo are you interested in domestic (to the U.K.) gardeners only or ??

 

International gardeners are welcome to complete the survey as well

 

I have 2 acres in France. Orchard, veg plot, polytunnel, ornamental garden, ponds and tender tub plants on the terrace for 8 months of the year. Tools: secateurs, hand forks and trowels, hedge trimmers, pruning saws, chain saws, hoes, spades, forks, rotovator and tiller, strimmers, telescopic pruners, loppers, ride-on mower. 21 watering cans and 6 x 50m hosepipes. Peripheral stuff pulled by ride-on: Trailer...used every day between Feb and Nov. Lawn spreader, Sprayer. Spades have been regularly repaired/ welded due to clay soil. Forks usually just need new wooden handles. Ride-on regretfully replaced once in 17 years. New blades for Felco secateurs and pruning saws. The most frequently replaced items are 7l sprayers. They're crap, frankly. Use and chuck.

 

I only have a small suburban garden in what the UK and US growing zone maps designate as zone 5. Our ground freezes down to about 18" below grade in the winter.

I grow many annuals both flower and veg and try to add to my perennial collection every year. I start gardening indoors Boxing Day by using lights and heat mats down in my cellar to encourage germination of seeds for planting out in the upcoming spring.

I use many hand tools (up to 25 years old) and some power (3 to 15 years old).

The power equipment includes a gas mower and "strimmer" (electric trimmer) , a gas leaf blower, an electric chain/pole saw, electric edger, electric leaf vacuum and mulcher. I have an electric hedge trimmer that collects dust as I now have no hedges.

I think rust is the biggest enemy of gardening tools whether they are hand tools or power. We're regularly grooming/cutting things that are not dry.

I have 3 small greenhouses that are used as season extenders only because it is too expensive to heat them in our winter. They have manual side louvers and automatic vent openers on the roofs. I do have a heater in one however I only use it to keep the interior above 40f 4c in early spring so as to acclimatize/harden off new seedlings. Then the greenhouses are used as segregation zone for my super hot peppers to keep them from trans pollinating. The greenhouses are powered during the day directly from solar panels and then at night by batteries which had been charged up during the day by more solar panels. The overhead fans run directly from solar during the day - when the sun shines, the fans spin to help circulate air.

 

Cant find a big black dot on my keyboard so I will try to keep things in order.

I'm an indoor and out door gardener summer and winter.

I grow all kinds of stuff but prefer things which are a bit different or considered slightly exotic for the UK. Some veg as well as trees and shrubs.

Most of the usual tools, spade, shovel, digging fork, hoe, rake, trowels, motor hand mower, bow saw, chainsaws, one on an extending pole, secateurs, axe, sledge hammer, club hammer, pick axe, shredder, strimmer electric, shears, hedge trimmer electric, I have a Mantis tiller but not used it in years.

Not really encountered any problems as such with tools, great believer in you only get what you pay for, so buy the best you can afford and it will last much longer.

Some tools are new this last 12 months some of the hand tools are over 50 yrs old.

I only struggle with gardening when the old body lets me down these days, 10 yrs ago nothing was a problem at all, but as I get older things just take longer, but then I now have more time, which kind of offsets that problem to some extent. I think in a lot of cases, if you enjoy doing something you will find a way. Probably my biggest problem is digging over the veg plot.

 

Tomorrow (19/01/2024) will be the last day of this survey running,
Thank you for all the support you have given me, It goes a long way!

Happy gardening

 

Both :-
I have lots of tender plants commonly called 'houseplants' many of which spend the summer months outside, and others indoors all year round.
I have quite a collection of cacti and succulents spread between a greenhouse, some cold frames, and a perspex shelter.
I also have a long garden where I grow other things.

As stated above - cacti and succulents mostly, which I've been collecting since I was a teenager in the 1960s.
I also like colourful plants - meaning not only flowers but different shades and variegations in foliage, And also different growth habits such as climbers, trailing plants, deciduous and evergreen shrubs, as well as 'ordinary' perennials and annuals.
And lots of spring flowering bulbs.
I grow a few salad vegetables in a raised bed and some big tubs, and I like to grow a few tomatoes, a cucumber and peppers in a perspex shelter.

A trowel. Spade for digging big holes, and a cracked watering can which has seen better days.
Also a thing to kneel on, which has handles for holding on to when getting up.
And seccuteurs too ...

Watering can is a bit heavy when full but that's because I've got arthritic hands shoulders and knees.

Trowel, 10 yrs plus
Spade, 1 year. Bought last year because the handle of the old one snapped.
Watering can about 30 years.
Kneeling 'thing' about 30 years.
Seccuteurs - don't know, probably about 20 - 30 yrs ?

Weeding - can't bend to do it now. Kneeling 'thing' is useful sometimes, but it's a faff moving it around with me.

Good luck with your research !