[Jake]

Just thought I'd pass on a mistake I made.

I bought a cheap gardeners starter kit from B&Q, it came with Spade, Fork, Rake, Hoe, 2 trowels and 1 hand fork.

The fork is fine for my needs.

The hoe bends when I hit a big stone, useless, I got bought a good one though for my birthday last year. The wide trowel bent and is useless but the narrow one (for bulbs I think) is quite good. The hand fork may as well be made out of rubber, and I need a new one. The spade would rather bend than dig into quite solid ground, I bought a really expensive stainless steel spade though when we got the plot.

Sometimes "value" things can deffinately be a false economy.

[Heather_S]

Not that I've used it yet but tesco were doing very nice stainless steel wooden handle spades for £17 or so. We've bought one but we've not managed to go out to the lottie with it yet since we're a bit beyond the needing to dig phase. It's quite sturdy feeling in any case.

[Jake]

oh I bet you'll love it. £17 is a much better price than I paid. Stainless Steel is prone to fracturing eventually but I think the effort it saves will be worth it. Soil just seems to slide off not get all clogged up.

It is also a bit of a conversation piece, I've talked a while about it on 2 occasions.

[John]

I reckon any tool you use a lot is worth paying high for. Cheap things often aren't a bargain. Second hand tools can be just as good though.

I've got some Wolf hand tools - the hand fork is as tough as the big one and will last me out!