I have been enamoured with a cheap, battery strimmer. Cutting everything, especially weeds, to a uniform height, gives me a huge psychological boost...a bit like when doing sketchy housework, you make do with a quick top clear up and sweep the floor. If you squint, the whole plot, instead of a weed-infested chaos, looks like nice manicured lawn.

Losing my hori hori makes me cry. I have three and I'm down to one. I cannot imagine where I've left them. I've used them a lot this spring for weeding; with all the rain I have a fairly prolific crop of weeds. The thing that's so frustrating is that I know where I've used them and I still can't find them. I fear they were accidentally mixed in with the weeds I pulled and got dumped in the trash. :-( :-( :-(

im still hoping... Perhaps I put them down somewhere in my messy garage and they will turn up, though I'm usually good about putting them back in their spot.

I loose my hori hori at least three times a day. The wood has split due to being left outside ALL the time, and I carefully bound it with bright orange nylon string. Thank god for stainless ! You are my kind of gardener, Camp.

I lose my hori hori at least three times a day.

We are cousins then wantonamara ;). I keep intending to put colorful tape on it. A superb multi purpose tool.

I had black electrical tape holding the halves together and a year later, the tape started coming off and I was torn between replacing with yellow electrical tape but settled for the orange nylon string done carefully in the binding part of a hangman's noose. I forget that sailors knot name (Shame on me) . Atleast I didn't forget how to make the knot. That Half century old summer camp lesson was not wasted..

Okay, it's been a year since I originally started this thread and time for a tool update. One old tool that I originally thought would be on its way out has now become one of my most used pieces. It's a good old shovel, which the previous owners left with the house...it was cracked and i thought it was not so good as a result, so I put it aside and bought newer ones. Only to discover I really liked the crack - often it helps cut into root system, etc. So it's actually become on of my go to tools!

It's an unlovely looking thing! Kudos for not trashing it. In our culture, too many still useable things wind up in the garbage dumps.

Shovels could be a topic in themselves, but I have to say that this type of shovel is not my go-to shovel and I suspect I am a bit of a rarity in my preference, but for digging holes for plants and transplanting, I like the flat transplanting sorts. Makes sense, because I do a lot of that. But maybe it has more to do with the fact that it was the only kind of shovel my parents had and I grew up using it, but whatever the reason, I have a strong preference for it.

Here's an article about "Best" shovels and I must say I learned some unexpected things, particularly toward the end of the article under "Footnotes" that discussed "lift", the angle of the handle to the blade. Never knew there were these choices. Notably, my flat transplanting type is not even mentioned.

The Best Shovel

I’d call that a spade, rather than a shovel. We distinguish between the two on this side of the pond. You dig with a spade. You shovel with a shovel. I’ve never understood how it’s possible to dig with a tool that has no T or D handle. How to you get any purchase with just a straight pole? ;-)

Floral, I'm glad you brought this point up. Because before I posted I had to do a google research thing to make sure I identified the tool which I pictured correctly - shovel. Because I know I always mixup the two. Because my gut looks at the actual shape of the shovel, and says that looks like a spade (cards) and yet, it is not! And yet, it isn't only me...

"I’ve never understood how it’s possible to dig with a tool that has no T or D handle. How to you get any purchase with just a straight pole?"

See, I *hate* digging with a T- or D-handled spade (or shovel, or any tool, really). With a straight handle, I feel I have more maneuverability - my hands can go anywhere on the pole if needed for more leverage, I can dig in some really tight spots because of the slimness of the handle, and my wrists aren't bending (and consequently aching) from grasping/pushing on a shaped handle. I can wield a straight-handled spade like nobody's business...

Funny, though - DH is the total opposite, it's D-handles for him all the way.

neither shovel handles make a difference one way or another, They don't really do much in my dirt. One has to loosen the rock up with a pick first. The only thing a shovel is good for is to lift the loosened dirt out of the hole.

Yep, I am OK with a straight-handled spade too...I use my feet (and I like a nice wide flange on the spade head) to push the blade into the soil, while I tend to hold my spade very low down on the shaft so it actually pivots on my right hand grip while the left hand is just for stability and leverage. I like a good long handle for better leverage too. The handle is neither here nor there'

A shovel is what I use for moving sand - the head is at an angle from the shaft so it functions almost as a scoop...but a spade is a straight up and down vertical - the shape of the blade is immaterial.

There is an article in the current Fine Gardening magazine about top tools. I noted the Okatsune pruners were on the list, we had talked about these in another thread. I'm going to check out some of the other ones, like the telescopic pruner they recommended (I don't really love mine, so...)

A few years ago, I needed a new trowel as I got sick and tired of using my son's plastic beach spade to dig in the garden. I ended up buying a Corona transplanter and I'm in love. It's got a serrated edge on one side - making it a cross between the hori-horis shown above and a normal trowel. The serrated edge works really well to cut through tangled masses of roots in pot bound plants and I've even used it to saw through the pampas grass that I'm currently trying to get rid of.

I think a good old fashioned trowel is one of my favourite tools - my go to for so many of my gardening jobs. Thanks for pointing out the Corona transplanter - adding that serrated edge takes it to the next level!

I have a beautiful matching trowel and fork in stainless steel and beech. Something irresistible offered by the original Smith and Hawken store which had such a terrific selection of superior garden tools, mostly from England. (I miss that store!!) I'm sure I splurged to buy the pair of them some forty years or do ago but I rarely use either, especially the fork. The hori-hori is the tool I'm much more likely to grab; its in almost everyday use. For example, I just bought a six pack of Kohlrabi yesterday and I'll use the hori-hori rather than the trowel to plant them out. The trowel does come in handy for sprinkler system repairs when an upright pipe breaks and we have to do some precision digging to avoid damaging a pipe.

I actually have two trowels, the original one much much cheaper though of more than decent quality, and the comparison always makes a point for me, that you get what you pay for. There is just no comparison in the feel, the way the stainless steel one fits the hand and does the job is just so much better....

I got a Spear and Jackson trowel and fork set as a wedding present. In constant use for coming up to 40 years.

My trowel & fork set from Smith & Hawkin was a gift 20 yrs. ago. I love the trowel. The fork looks almost new as is rarely used but the trowel is well worn. I have searched high & low when the trowel was misplaced, including sifting through the compost pile and retracing my gardening day by the beam of a flashlight. The only other trowels I have are heavy black plastic that I bought for $1 each for the little kids who helped me pot up. Wish they were a bright color as the black blends in though it didn't matter if these got left overnight in a pail of damp potting mix.

I remember walking in Victoria, BC, and passing a shop called DIG This. Had to go in, my husband finally had to drag me out. Places like this should be against the law. Got my first Felco's there. Also a spading fork, which I cannot live without. The one tool that I have bought for my gardening daughters. I don't even remember how old they are(the tools, not my daughters)

I have a good looking Spear and Jackson spading fork, another treasure I acquired from Smith and Hawken many many years ago. (How I miss that store!)

flowergirl (and others), how do you use your fork? Mine has spent most of its many years in my garage looking pretty.

I have sandy loam soil, and I use the spading fork to turn in amendments in the veggie garden, loosen soil around planting holes or when I am digging root veggies or transplanting. It and my spade are two of my favorite tools. I grew up with sticky dense clay soil, and can't imagine using either one in that yard.

I use the hand fork for weeding and basic soil scuffling in heavily planted spots. I can also use it for planting in my heavy soil because the clods don’t crumble. I use a full size fork for most of my digging. On heavy clay and between plants it’s far more useful than a spade. I also use it for breaking clods, moving compost about and loosening the soil surface.

Mmmm, my hand forks are also completely unused but having am metalworking son has revolutionised my gardening prowess. For example, I have a handmade daisy grubber which is essentially a steel rod, hammered into a flat blade at the end, and shaped so it looks like a narrow kite on a pole - this is bloody fabulous for grubbing dock or other slippery taprooted things since the 'tongue' is fine and sharp enough to puncture and hold the slimy root but the shaft is far tougher than the commercially marketed daisy grubbers I have seen. I am going to get him to make a two-pronged version with longer flatter prongs than the short one I usually use...and also, I am thinking of getting him to make me a handhoe with a 2inch head like a tiny (razor sharp) dutch hoe, rather than the semi-circular onion hoe (with a draw-head) I own. If I had a decent gas fired forge, we could probably even make some money.

I am, sadly, a tool obsessive...a trait which runs through the family, hence our workshop is too full to be usable.

echo-I use my spading fork like everyone else uses a shovel, don't even remember the last time I used a shovel.

UPDATE (March 2018):

I love trimming branches and this is the tool for the job:

The F3015

Might need to start a crowd-funding site to buy those, rouge21. They look quite impressive though. I personally love my Corona compound-action anvil loppers.

Really! Where is my Sugar Daddy when I need one.

I love the highest rated comment just under that gif...

A bit disingenuous though - the branches in the ad are grapevines - not 2 inch tree branches. If you have ever sliced through thick wisteria, vitis, lavatera or roses, you cannot help but note the much softer growth (without the thickened layers of lignin and heartwood). For most tree branches, a toothed blade is still the most effective cutting edge once a ratchet lopper is not brutal enough for the job (I love the Silky pruning saws)..

OTOH, I am an enthusiastic convert to lithium ion batteries (I hate, hate, hate petrol tools) and have no mains for standard electrics). I got a metabo reciprocating saw last year and although it weighs a ton, I love it - my vicious moyesii rose got the full treatment this year.

not 2 inch tree branches.

FWIW, the company's website states that the maximum cutting capacity is a smidgen over 2 inches. (Of course the type of wood would make a difference).

ELECTROCOUP 3015

Corona compound-action anvil loppers

I bought a pair recently and they are calling to me.

I am an enthusiastic convert to lithium ion batteries (I hate, hate,
hate petrol tools) and have no mains for standard electrics). I got a
metabo reciprocating saw last year and although it weighs a ton, I love
it - my vicious moyesii rose got the full treatment this year.

Small gasoline engines and I do not get along. I even have a cordless electric lawn mower. I use a lithium-ion hedge trimmer but so far have managed with a conventional pruning saw. A cordless reciprocating saw may be in my future.

Paul, I have gone over to the other side in a big way. Only the chainsaw still uses petrol. Just bought a 56V De Walt drill (for building our treehouse) but I have the full set of Metabo cordless. They are fast charging and pokey and still weigh less than petrol equivalents... so I am fairly sure a lithium iron chainsaw is going on the list.

Although I bloody love good hand tools still.

Finding it hard to see the price too - the only UK dealership is doing that 'must sign up and be assessed before you can get prices' - although I seem to banish my usual cheapskate attitude when it comes to tools (that and having handy contacts in the tool world (youngest).

I love my cordless sawzall but I find it is good for spot pruning . When I am in my rip 'em up and whack em down mood when I brush clear a large area, the sawzall is not fast enough, nor do the two battery charge last long enough. Both tools have their place.

I saw a price for that Electrocoup 3015 at north of $1600.Enough to make me cry.... I Definitely need for a generous sugar daddy here if I am ever going to own one. There would be a long list of priorities before this purchase.

$1600 GTF! For that, it would buy another decent chainsaw, 36inch bar, chain sharpener and an Alaskan mill (and mini-mill for side cuts). The means to make my treehouse, for free, right there...as opposed to mincing about doing topspeed brash cutting. Lemme see... priorities...yep, think I can miss out on fancy power cutters.

What?! Coolest ever tool, but $1,600?! That’s for the gentlemanly farmer...those kind of vegetable farmers I see in magazine with pristine thick cedar raised beds flanked by expensive fieldstone paths and artistic/decorative tomato and vine supports, all surrounding a koi pond with a calming cascading stream running down into it. Yes, those vegetable farmers can trim their fruit trees with the Electrocoup 3015.

I use these gloves the most and have for years, I have others but these are my go to gloves. Atlas gloves I wouldn't say I cry over them though. I would cry if I lost my Felco pruners ;) My latest gardening tool isn't really a gardening tool, it's a "dumpling fork" for shoveling horse poop, I had brought one home from the barn for hubby to fix and found it works great to lift pruning debris off the lawn and pavement into the yard debris recycle bin. Works better than any rake or bare hands so I bought a new one the other day when they were on sale.

I am crying today at the realization that soon I will have to get out the bird netting and battle wind, branches, and the netting itself. I am gradually getting enough of the heavier, knitted-like netting to cover everything ( much easier to use and I've never seen a bird caught in it), but will still have to use some of that evil, flimsy, tangles on everything within a mile and catches every stray leaf cheap netting.

I have an old gazebo frame that I put up around the blueberry pots and one of the in ground apples, so I can fairly easily string the netting on that. I need to come up with something similar, maybe make one out of piping and pex tubing, to cover the peach tree and other dwarf apples (more to keep the raccoon's hands off than birds). Last year he defeated the fencing netting combo I tried -- openings too big and too close to the fruit so he still got to it.

Oh effity eff, bleep bleep, BLEEP! My beloved garden hose, which I finally settled on after all the drama with Costco hoses and the like - I just brought out for the season...and the darned thing is big time leaking! One of those weird leaks too, right by the connecter. Tired two new washers and that stretchy white sealing tape - minimized the spewing a bit, but this is going to be an issue. AARGH!!!!

So, in my continuing efforts to be a grown up and learn how to help myself, I’ve finally gotten around to looking into hose repair kits; in this case it’s a hose end repair kit. Supposedly, the plastic ones are junk, and the ones with the thin clamp can cut you, so I ended up with this:

https://m.homehardware.ca/h5/m/en/r/hh//en/rec/index.htm/Outdoor-Living/Yard-Maintenance/Watering-Systems/Watering/Miscellaneous/5-8-3-4-Female-Metal-Hose-Repair-Kit/_/N-ntlnlZ1z140r9/R-I5043019

I had had to order it in because- of course - it’s not one which they keep in regular stock. Hope it works!

I’ve had good success with the junk plastic ones. I have one of those hoses that puff up with water and extend in length. Can’t remember what they’re called. I love love love love them. After I’m done watering they shrink back up, are easy to carry, and even easier to store, and no kinking. But, I’ve found out that the canvas coating on the outside wears as you drag it around, and when it rips the flexible tubing inside balloons out like a hose hernia. I had those plastic repair things for the middle of the hose on hand, and no plans to head out to civilization to a store for a new hose, so I fixed my bursts one with a few of those. Then I duct taped everywhere that the fabric looked worn. I felt like an industrious homesteader. My plastic-repaired duct-taped hose is lasting pretty well, and looks homey besides. (Actually, it probably looks more homely than homey.)

I actually spent big bucks on an extension-type hose on Amazon with industrial fabric on the outside. It’s so thick it actually interferes with the hose stretching enough unless you have high preassure. But, it’s holding up wonderfully. And compared to the cost of a standard hose, it really wasn’t big bucks.

Well, took a day off from work this week and ended up doing all the niggly little things that are supposed to only take a few minutes each, but you never get a chance to do in our busy lives. So on the list was the hose surgery. Gotta say, struggled a bit. First, pushing the fitting into the hose - not easy. I had seen online where they recommend applying some form of lubricant or soap - definitely required. Then when I first fitted it, and attached the hose - water went flying everywhere. Thought I did something wrong, so repeated the process. Getting some bloody fingers and cursing all the while. On second try - it did the same thing...but after I left it in for a few seconds it just stopped and now seems to work perfectly.

This cool post about what to do with old garden hoses makes me wish I still had my broken hoses!

My hose boxes. These things are not inexpensive, but aren't made to last more that a couple of years. Last year I got repair kits (not expensive) from Suncast and got them leak free again (it was very easy), but this year one of them is again a problem.

First I had to repair the connector hose like LaLennoxa did. Then, when I reattached that to the box inlet, that part (replaced last year) decided to leak. It looks like it is a case of the part not staying firmly in place so I am going to try a bit of my trusty JBWeld and some caulk to try to salvage it again.

I have to use very long lengths of hose to reach all parts of my garden so I really need reels to manage -- and I hate to have those ugly non box types on my patio.

For me, indispensable tools are: my Silky pruning saw, my Corona pruners, telescopic rakes (they double as soil and leaf rakes, 2 tools in one) and my "lady shovels" (which I often use in place of hand trowels). I also like the long handled grass shears I found in the trash, so useful and able to cut a small lawn in a pinch. Garden forks are awesome but I've broken the handles on two. I used to have a generic Loblaws brand hand trowel that was actually really good, but I may have lost it, rounded hand trowels are useless to me, they must be sharp and sturdy. Garden knives have yet to prove their worth with what I do and the soil around here tends to be heavy clay. I just splurged on Corona hedge shears and they've been great so far. I used to use a dutch hoe a lot, but less so lately as the work I've been doing tends to be more heavy duty.

One of my favorite tools is a rabbiting spade hubby bought me for Christmas one year, my favorite trowel is still the same one we found in the yard when we bought this house in 1965, it has had several replacement handles made for it and as far as plant supports go I made my own out of lengths of Rebar and wire. They never wear out, you can coil the wire around the Rebar tightly or make the coil loose so you can slip it up as the plant grows. I've even used a clothes peg to keep the loose coils in place.

Rebar usually gets hidden amongst the foliage, I guess you could paint the wires green but I never have. Shown here on Alma Potschke .

Health issues have severely cut into my gardening abilities but I still have my row of this girl, thanks to the generosity of someone here:).

Annette

Losing my hori hori makes me cry. I have three and I'm down to one.

I lost my only hh earlier this spring. I looked everywhere w/o success and eventually had to give in and purchased another. I cant garden w/o it.

I have mine stuck on an earth magnet stuck to the iron rail by my step. It is the first thing I see when I walk out my door. It beckons.

I was so sure that I would lose mine, because I seem to lose 2 trowels every year, that when I saw (a somewhat different) one on sale at a great price last year I bought it.

I haven't lost either yet. Maybe because I value it so much that I pay extra attention.