Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Equipment Shed => Topic started by: TTG on August 11, 2009, 10:58
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Just a quick question about tools for starters. I am on the verge of taking on a plot and it will be the first garden or allotment (other than several family members') that I will be let loose on. This means getting my own tools. I reckon on a fork and a spade initially as I will be doing a lot of digging to start with. Things like secateurs, etc will be needed. What else to get me going? A lot of the gear will already be available for me to borrow (temorarily relocate) from my Dad who lives 2 miles away. I initially will need to sort out the main tools not the extras that make life easier (as I will liberate them ;) if needed), bearing in mind I will no doubt have a lot of other stuff to get to start out.
Are there any brands to look out for, is it better to buy well and othere questions? I have heard that some auctions have tools perhaps from house clearances that they sell or give away for practically nothing. Have anyone heard of that before? I reckon good old tools are often as good as good new tools and a lot cheaper too. Well polished spade handle and all that.
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I've got a border fork & spade, a dutch hoe with a very long handle and a mattock - oh and a small hand trowel and fork - and a reasonable pair of secateurs. Don't forget the gloves - lots and lots of pairs of gloves.
I constantly look at other tools - but to be honest I doubt I'd even use them. When clearing the garden the mattock was very useful but they're not to everyones taste or requirements.
Now its in reasonable shape the border fork and hoe seems to do all the work.
I certainly wouldn't run out a buy everything in the tool shop straight away. Wait until you find a need for a tool.
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I think I have a fork on offer. I just need to heat one of the tines to bend back into shape and then quench harden again. I think it was my Dad's old one with one of thee tines sticking forward. So that's a good start. Free tools.
Mattock you say? I thought they were heavy pick axe type of things with a pick one side and a flat adze the other. Good for cracking hard ground up a bit. I wonder if some form of cutting tool might be good. Kind of a sickle or one of thosefancy bilhook things you can get. I am fortunate to have used some real fancy bilhooks over the years with BTCV. One had a handle so long you didn't have to bend down. A Yorkie the guy said or was it a Staffie. Still not the dog varieties but a bilhook with a curved blade on one side a straight one on the other and a longer handle than usual so it can be used on undergrowth and larger growing things like young trees and shrubs (great for rhododendrum bashing).
Gloves? I hadn't thought of them. I reckon a good pair of contractors leather ones (I know where I can acquire a pair of those ;) ;) just don't tell anyone). I reckon shears and other cutting stuff can be borrowed until I get straight.
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Car boot sales are a wonderfull place for quallity tools at reasonable prices ,you could end up buying quite a few of the items you need for the price you could pay for a single spade at a garden centre! On Sunday I bought a Wilkinson Sword SS border fork for 2 quid! :)
smud6ie
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You may have to pay a bit more, but a spade and fork in stainless steel make digging etc almost a pleasure ::)
Well worth the extra bit.
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If you have any hint of a bad back, get tools with longer handles...... ;)
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Gwiz - good idea with the long handles, even if you have a good back. I have a long back so long handles would probably be good anyway (comes from being tall). I have also heard years ago of fancy spadea and forks with some sort of angled handles or something that which supposedly were more egronomic and minimized back and joint pain when used. Personally I don't have bad back (many years of kayaking) but fully expect to get aching back and other places after a long time spent working on the plot. Its all part of the process I guess. There'll come a time when all I have to do is a little maintenance and a few times a year digging over areas I am sure. Reckon allotments are very hard work at the beginning due to overgrown plots then eases off somewhat later on.
What is it about SS spades and forks that make them so much better? Also I saw in my local garden centre (one of those with a cafe) and they sold a "heritage" brand of forks, spades and other tools. They had darker wooden handles but they didn't look any better than the ones half the price. I think it was a XXXX & XXXXX brand name. Paying for a gimic I think.
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Some of its gimmick maybe (nice shiney tools), but for heavy work the stainless makes the work much easier: the blades stay perfectly clean, and earth doesnt stick as much as on ordinary steel.
Now Ive tried them, certainly wouldnt go back.
Good luck with plot :) :)
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tode - SS I can understand as a good spade blade material being a material engineer but not the tools with the dark wooden handles and a heritage tag. Those tools seem to me to actually be inferior to the sword brand in SS next to them for over 1/3rd off the price. Unless the dark wood is something special I'd go for the usual lighter wood with the SS blade not the ordinary spade blade material with the dark wood. I'll have another look at them but to my eyes they are selling to people with more money than sense. Could be wrong of course.
That is why I wondered if there are any brands out there that are worth paying extra for. If two SS bladed spades are in the shop next to each other, one is 25% more than the other I would always wonder why. Even more so if the expensive one is not SS!
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"What is it about SS spades and forks that make them so much better?"
Not sure I know any more. I have very heavy clay, and when digging in winter less sticks to the blade for sure. But I find it easier to work with a lighter weight spade with a drop forged (is that the right term?) blade that is nice and sharp, and a wall paper stripper / pallet knife to clean it off every so often. At my age I need a short break every so many minutes anyway .:)
I went to a country house contents auction recently (actually not the house's contents, the outdoor contents - garden tools and the like) several Spade + Fork + Pickaxe lots went for a couple of quid. And clearly tools that had stood the test of time, and been chosen by people who knew how to choose.
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Sorry Gwiz, dont know what this "heritage" range is (been away too long :ohmy: :ohmy: ).
I think I'd be suspicious of anything sold as "Heritage" anyway.
Of course, whatever you're buying, you must keep your ears & eyes open and compare the prices.
Seems to be common practice now for shops to have the same thing sold at various prices.
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Kirsten - I have my scouts out at auctions looking for stuff. They told me that some auctions have tools effectively being given away, some even being free. BTW they are not boy scouts but my retired parents.
Tode - You're not wrong! Shops close by all seem to sell the same stuff at vastly different prices. I do think the bigger chains and those "destination" centres (those with a cafe or tearooms/coffee shops) sell at higher prices. While those smaller ones can have quite good prices but some things are also high in price. I know as I am one of those people who spend a lot of time checking things out before spending my cash.
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I've been to the shed and had a look at the long handled spades I bought last year from a well known garden centre chain.They are called "heritage".
They had them on sale at £19.99, or you could buy two for £25.
Guess what I did.......
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Gwiz - so what is special about them other than the price for two. BTW do you want to sell one? Never mind. The heritage ones I saw were more than that I think? Do yours have darker handles?
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they do have the darker handles, but as to what was special about them, well, nothing much really :)
I tend to break the handles a lot, as you tend to get a bit more leverage than is good for the handle when it's so long ;) I like to get plenty of linseed oil into the wood where it goes into the blade, it tends to preserve it a bit (stops it drying out).
I reckon at £20 they are a bargain for my back. :)
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I' m in a similar postion having just taken on a plot. Are the cheaper carbon steel tools on offer for around £5 each really not worth bothering with? I guess the answer is probably obvious (i.e. you get what you pay for!) but thought I'd ask. It's just I need some tools fairly quickly and thought this might be a short term option.
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My friend bought two cheap forks from supermarkets, probably cost no more than £5. Each one lasted a very short time, bent when it hit a stone and one actually snapped a prong. Wasn't worth the economy.
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You do get what you pay for BUT
Some tools have so much metal in them they would be difficult to break by human strength alone (shovel) and others are more subtle (hoe)
Useing a bit of sense money can be spent wisely
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I got 3 cheap one's then broke them one after the other. Went and got an expensive one broke that took it back andgot a replacement with out any problems the manager said it was the first they had back broken since they had stocked that range. Go for quality tools that what my teacher always told me.
I didnt tell them how i broke it but there was no problems with changing it wrong tool for the job.
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Thanks to everyone for the feedback, as always it's a case of weighing up how much the tool will be used and how hard it is likely to be worked.
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Oscillating hoes avaialable here (http://www.implementations.co.uk/shop/hydra_hoe.html)
Quite curious - anyone got any long term experience of using the things?
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Oscillating hoes avaialable here (http://www.implementations.co.uk/shop/hydra_hoe.html)
HOW MUCH? :mad:
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Oscillating hoes avaialable here (http://www.implementations.co.uk/shop/hydra_hoe.html)
HOW MUCH? :mad:
Ditto.... :blink:
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There are some here http://www.suffolkherbs.com/kolist/1/SUNDRIES/TOOLS for about £23.75 i think
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I've got a garden claw which is great for removing single weeds, including roots, such as docks, couch grass etc if you have a rough patch. The weed usually stays in the claw and and you can remain standing rather than having to keep bending when cleaning the soil off. The action is a simple push down with your foot, perhaps a sideways movement if the soil is hard, and then a twist on the handle - much easier than a conventional fork and causes less disturbance to any nearby plants.
Auctions can certainly be good places to buy tools but you do need to view them beforehand and know the retail price and decide on your limit Bidders sometimes get carried away and end up paying more than they would to buy new! Worth a google search for retailers selling them over the internet when buying new.
Buying the cheapest make will usually be a false economy as they will bend or break as soon as you put them under any pressure in my experience.
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Never, never buy trowels with the thin stainless steel shank - they're's loads of them about, but no matter whose you buy, they bend (mine even snapped). I've had two of them and sent them back and contacted the manufacturer - Wilkinson Sword. They asked me to choose another and I could have it free of charge - so I bought one with a wooden handle which connects straight to the spade part. Never any trouble since. But I agree with everything else, 1) Get good tools - don't buy cheap, it costs in the long run. 2) Again get gloves, thick padded ones, a must if you have brambles and 3) kneeling pads. Mine are a god send. And the enjoy yourself. Take the good with the bad, and when you have bad harvests - and you will - don't give up. It comes part and parcel with working the land.
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I'm back in the market for tools having been offered a plot that is workable for me. The first one had too many problems. This means I need the tools (or at least some time in the future when my Dad is sick of me always having his tools). This means I probably need a fork, spade and secateurs. What else do I need to buy initially for my plot? A hoe for example or trowel and hand fork. What is your minimum tool requirement for starting out?
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Yes to hoe, trowel, gloves in addition to fork, spade and secateurs.
I eventually got a pruning saw but that will depend on what you have growing.
At this time of year it's probably worth seeing what the plot is like and prioritising your purchases accordingly. If it needs a bit of clearing then a hand trowel isn't going to be your main concern, nor a hoe until you've done some clearance.
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I believe it is the one I was shown as coming free shortly when I was shown around the allotments a while ago. If it is that one it has weed suppressing sheets down (been down for best part of the year). This should mean I just need to dig it over to aerate a bit and perhaps put something in with it while removing any weeds that remain. I reckon a spade and a fork might be best for that.
Then for a while I reckon the spade could be used for everything from creating seed rows to heavier tasks. It will be a while before I need to prune any fruit bushes (gooseberries are a must for me) and I do have access to borrowing tools that really must be used. I do reckon that you can always get away with minimal tools afterall a lot of third world farmers are self sufficient with simple tools such as those hoes someone suggested earlier. I think we can get too hung up on tools and the like that we don't really need. Put your back into it as me old Dad used to say when I got roped into digging over his veggie plots in the past.