Ideas please, furious with myself.

I have excelled myself recently. Traveled back from a holiday on Thursday and left a rather nice pair of sunglasses somewhere in the airport, not pleased! Got home, weather not at all bad for time of year and really dry so thought I'd get cracking on tidying up my large herbaceous borders. We are only at Monday and I have managed to loose not 1 but 2 pairs of secateurs, despite 1 pair being florescent orange (bought because I thought even I couldn't loose them being that colour...wrong!
Is it possible to buy some kind of homing device whereby you could stick the sensor on the item and then have a button round your neck/on your wrist which you could press and the item mislaid would then beep? Knowing me tho I'd loose the homing device
I gave up buying the likes of Felco/good secateurs years ago as my garden must have many hand forks/secateurs/pruning saws etc etc scattered about in it...funny never found any yet!!!!but to loose 3 items in 5 days is good going even for me. If anybody has any good tips for not loosing tools in the garden I'd be delighted to hear them. Tried 1 of those tool belt things ages with little success. Off to buy yet another pair of cheap secateurs which might last till Christmas but probably not knowing me!

 

My garden is probably tiny compared to yours silu but it's amazing how easy it is to lose things in it. I got fed up not being able to find anything so now when I'm doing any gardening I have a bright orange bucket by my side. I've tried to be more methodical and tried to remember that anytime I stop using something like secateurs, scissors, a trowel or string I put them in the bucket so I can find them. I tend to get distracted, go off and do something else in the garden and then can't find the tool etc I've been using.

The thing is, you've got to remember to put your stuff in the bucket and not lose the bucket somewhere.....my gardens small so in a big garden you could lose the bucket too although maybe not a bright orange one!!

 

I can soooooooo sympathise Silu,no matter how careful I am I always misplace secateurs,and glasses.

 

Like you my garden is like a secateur cemetery, and I've given up on decent pairs, I've also a fair few trowels buried out there as well. I currently have two pairs secateurs from Asda, cost £2 not great but not bad and at least they have not gone MIA (as opposed to the £30 pairs that I lose within a few weeks of purchase). I don't have any tips, though a friend of mine who is similarly cursed has an old pair of secateurs with a slot in one handle that he attaches to one of those plastic coil like keychain that retract (often see bikers with them) that he attaches to his belt for the day when secatuers in use. http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/coil-key-chain and there are quite a variety available. Seems to work well for him.

GG

 

It's not funny when you find your secateurs, loppers, etc. with your petrol mower.

 

Been there done that. Try looking in a.the compost heap.b the green waste bin.

 

Love the extremely apt expression secateur cemetery Gay gardener and the fob idea just might be worth a try...anything to try and stop the massive losses! Thanks Wise Owl, again a good idea but unfortunately my garden is about an acre and the range of the key finder wouldn't really be far enough I feel. Good for keys tho which funnily enough I don't loose? At least I can see that I'm not the only 1 to loose gardening stuff on a regular basis. "Proud" (dubious) owner of a new cheap bright orange AGAIN pair from B&Q so will see how long they last. The info re Asda at £2 a pair sounds very interesting, definitely will have a look for those, they sound a great idea like the many many pairs of £1 reading glasses languishing god knows where about this house. I cannot understand how I can still see the carpets as they should in reality be completely smothered in pairs of specs which grow legs and disappear with monotonous regularity PS Palustris, tried the compost mountain as agree often has good results,1/2 hour later after much ferreting zero result. However neighbour in passing was intrigued by my very good impersonation of a dog looking for the bone it had buried and upon hearing the reason why I was hurling dead vegetation about has offered to come over tomorrow with his metal detector. With any luck by tomorrow night I might have dozens of extra gardening tools, altho somehow I have a feeling the majority will be heading straight for the waste bin having been buried for a considerable time. Neighbour made a wonderful find of Saxon gold a few weeks ago (away being valued by The British Museum atm), fingers crossed he just might find something other than rusty old nails.

 

when I can, I spray paint my handles bright hot red. And if I do leave them in the garden, I try to lay them up right against a tree. But, if you can instill habits, they do pay off when trying to find objects. Like only placing certain objects always in certain places. When I travel, I keep things close to my luggage, unless staying a long time somewhere, then its triple checking everything before I leave.

 

I buy cheap secateurs from the likes of Wilko & Tesco whenever they get reduced to 50p or so each as I constantly mislay them and only have one fairly decent pair reduced from £10 to £2(that still gets lost occasionally).

Another item I constantly lose is penknives, so whenever I place an order for £10 or more from Amazon I get some of these which are a fraction of the cost of Swiss Army/Victorinox/Ect. but still last for years. They're now £2.25 each, but I think I've bought some for as little as £1.75 incl P&P. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004GKFX6G/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?

Another cheapo 'Add on' offer from Amazon is these secateurs for £2.87 with free P&P if ordering with other stuff (next cheapest £4.49 from ebay) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-3447...TF8&colid=1CVRB2TYJJZQW&coliid=I3BRGW6B64W4RE Has anybody used them and are they any good?

 

Silu the Asda secateurs I bought have lurid green handle grips and are adequate. I think an excellent pair of secateurs are essential but I really could not justify the great annual expenditure so the £2 jobbies do the job.

Scrungee I've had Draper secateurs before and they are well iffy IMO. In any case, I never buy from Amazon anymore, Dickensian working conditions for the employees, don't pay UK taxes, so I'm on a complete boycott. Sad as I used them often before I became aware of their ethics (or lack thereof).

GG

 

On from redstars hot red, how about fluorescent paint, then you might spot them by torchlight, to retrieve next day.
Had a peek on flea bay, a spray can is about a tenner, looks like you can buy it in diy or motor factors.

 

I think i might try the retractable key fob thingy....I'm forever losing toolsbut just as annoying is when every time i need something it's always at the opposite end of the garden and spend more time trudging backwards and forwards....

 

All gets rather difficult to choose if boycotting Asda (Walmart!), Google, Amazon, ebay, Apple, etc. I've settled for just boycotting Starbucks (cos I can't afford them) and not buying an iphone/pad/etc (same reason). And then there's all the cheap stuff sold by supermarkets who stuff the farmers ................ Unfortunately I can no longer afford to buy my shopping from the village shop (who are part of a chain who probably also rip farmers off), or buying only locally produced, organic, fair-trade stuff from a local not for profit co-operative any more because we're existing solely on a small early retirement pension, supplemented by what we grow.

But we're much better off than some, because we have a friend in her 80's who goes and sits in her greenhouse on a sunny winter's day to save on putting her heating on.