Recommendations for tools!

I know we all probably have a good selection of garden tools in our sheds, but is there anything you have tried and tested and felt that it really was the best thing you ever bought? or the worst?!! Any other little gadgets that were bought for a specific job elsewhere, but are far better used for something entirely different in the garden?
Lady Gardener, I have looked up the 'azada' you have mentioned with praise....is there a knack to working this tool, and can it have multi uses? Would be interested to hear.
Lyn

 

One of my best tools is an old bread knife for dividing perennials - it is just like a little saw.

Another favorite tool is a very cheap wallpaper scraper. The sort with a wooden handle and a thin square ended blade. Being so cheap, the metal blade is very thin and consequently very sharp. It is wonderful for weeding. Being so sharp it pushed easily into the ground and cuts the roots.

 

My favorite weapons are

A steel pinch bar, heavy 5 footer, one end pointy the other chisle edge. Gets used for all the difficult jobs from tree roots to demolishing rockeries. (Folks - there is more to making a rockery than a heap of rubble you can't find any other room for!)

A hand sickle, Found it rusting away in an old heap of tools. The balance is perfect unlike the modern ones with the removeable blades which are light, bend and dangerous. I keep it sharp enough to shave with!

An old lawn edging spade. Came from the same heap of tools. The blade is so thin and now I've resharpened it just slices through turf.

Again from the tool heap - a long ash handled hoe. These tools were made out of real metal by blacksmiths who understood agriculture, not pressed out of a bit of tin that loses the edge first time you look at it!

My newer tools include an electric hedge trimmer, fast and furious though sometimes on delicate bushes I prefer a pair of shears.

A heavy axe - just look at the hatchet job on the leylndii roots!

A sack barrow - Will efortlessly shift a 3cwt rock or a planted half barrel complete with tree!

And my latest addition - which I haven't tried yet - a 14" petrol chainsaw. Should have been practicing with it today but the weather's awful.

Finally, a 'tool' I liberated from the kitchen. A large flour sieve. Ideal for chaffing collected seeds or for dusting over the top of fine seeds sown in trays.

 

Wouldn't be without my stainless spade

 

ive just bought a pair of geared light-in weight geared shears from spear and jackson..... and the matching geared loppers .... black plastic handles and orange handles.......... they are brilliant ........... best tools ever, no comparison with the heavy loppers and shears of days gone by , they slice thru the wood like butter, and clip hedges like there is no tomorrow
i used my ice axe for removing montrbretia from among drains and found it amazingly accurate and no effort

 

re azadas,,,,,,,,, there is a technique, working in a rhythm, but one needs more than one size cos each task has different parameters, please bear in mind most of the gardens i work in are problems and need a lot of elbow grease to get back in to shape

 

i must admit i was slightly disapointed with my left handed felco secateuts at first, as i had always used rt handed ones, but upside down [ as it turned out]
but over the long term i have been happy with them because my RSI [repetative strain injury] has now gone [i asssume this is due to shock absorbing capacity]
i have also bought a shock absorbing spade from S&J i use a spade to skim off weeds and to cut thru roots, it is carbon steel and i would like to sharpen it to a razor edge

 

Best tool is one of those builders 1 tonne sand sacks - cost 3 quid and can hold so much stuff - also keeps the crud off the car when I take garden stuff to the dump.

Favourite tool - just bought a 5lbs pick axe for the garden - i think its called a matlock. Marvelous tool - just slices into virgin soil.

 

Saws and Chainsaws and Hedgecutters
at one time i decided to go for a chain saw.. even tho this is in a different insurance category and there is possibly a need for certification [�£200-250], also chainsaw clothing and boots, helmet and visor [ �£140 - �£250]
as it happens the saw arrived without a "nose" !...... but i phoned up local tree surgeon to ask him to teach me to use them...... he advised use of japanese double toothed handsaws .[average �£50 each]..... and i have found them wonderful,being portable, easy to use [left or rt handed], long lasting , good results,. google silko saws
the only prob is they dont look as macho as bow saws [which blunts in about a week]
re hedge cutter, i bought a pro quality petrol driven machine, which is tireing to use and does not have a "brake" [oops i nearly sliced open my leg] ...... ok it does what it claimed.... cuts thru hedging and makes a good clean job, i only use it when i have to ......... but then it does the job well ...... i would buy it again, but not recommended for the regular gardener

 

PS there are lightwight petrol driven hedge cutters, which would be ideal for domestic use in a large garden, i just was uanble to find one when i needed it

 

I use a coarse 'Jetcut' hand saw in place of a bow saw, they are easy to handle amomgst the branches & cut effortlessly. Each time I buy a new one the first thing I do with it, is draw blood.

 

I have a flour sieve too, very useful. I used it last year for spreading grass seed. The tool I was most surprised by was my pruning saw- so easy to cut larger branches- demolishing rather than pruning.
My favourite tools are a spade and fork inherited from my Aunty, hardly more than child size but longer handles.
I also use my dishwasher a lot for plant pots, trays etc.

[ 20. January 2006, 10:45 AM: Message edited by: Liz ]

 

Liz,sorry we are not posh enough for a dish washer,but if we did have one,I would find it very useful like you have.I have to do my washing up in the sink and that is where I wash up my pots and trays etc; We are not even posh enough to have a utility,where we could do all that sort of stuff.Ah well perhaps in another life :D