Best Gardening Gadget

I don't know
I've got several pairs of secateurs but only one favourite, and I've got three spades but only one favourite. I've got two kneeling pads but I prefer one to the other. I can't think of one specific tool that I like most of all.

 

I've got three favourite tools, my Burgeon & Ball Ladies Groundbreaker spade, great for those vertically challenged and for heavy clay soil it's just brilliant. Made from stainless steel.

My Spear & Jackson EasyReach Pruner, great for pruning roses and shrubs just out of reach.

My Mini-Mattock from Screwfix, makes easy work of digging up shrubs, perennials and hoicking up paving stones (there is a larger one also available.

 

I have three favourites too:
My hori-hori (cannot garden without it), my plastic-tined rake (great for gathering leaves without damaging plants) and my tripod ladder, which is a game-changer.

 

I guess those are tools, rather than gadgets, really. I think my favourite gadget is a string bobbin with integrated cutting blade.

Kind of like this: https://nutscene.com/products/shopgardensnippet-twine-dolly

 

Ooh I like the look of that @LG_ Im going to put one of those on my birthday list

 

May I ask @KT53 and @LG_ what you do with your Hori Hori?, how do you use it please? I am guessing it is for dividing plants?

 

Agreed. Being a small person a border spade and fork are much easier for me to handle.
My other favourite tool is a pointing trowel for weeding. Acts as a mini hoe and the point prises out weeds.

 

In no particular order: weeding, planting smaller plants, planting bulbs, dividing, scraping mud off other tools and my boots (probably shouldn't but definitely do!)... I'm off volunteering in a mo, I'll see if there's anything else I use it for today - I know if I don't have mine on me it's not usually very long before I ask to borrow one.

 

Certainly for dividing plants, but also cutting through roots of plants, holes for planting bulbs,...

 

@KT53, I have been thinking of getting a Hori Hori but they look very sharp and I'm worried that I would cut myself. Are they as sharp as they look?

 

They have good reviews K58 but all come with warnings that the blade is razor sharp.

 

Thanks @waterbut, I think I'll pass.

 

It does look a bit lethal @katecat58, but I've not found mine to be particularly sharp. My best use of mine is to dig around the edge of a potbound plant to extract it. More hygienic than using the bread knife .

 

Thank you @Plantminded.

 

Mine isn't as sharp as a kitchen knife, but will cut through root balls and clumps of herbaceous perennials OK. As it is also used as a trowel, any extremely sharp edge is likely to be taken off quite quickly. Mine does have a sheath for when not in use.