Got a great garden tool?
Posted on May 29th, 2008 – 9:33 AMBy Robyn Dochterman
A few weeks ago, my favorite garden tool was easy to pick. It was once a hoe, but the hoe blade fell off, leaving just a little hook on the end of a long pole. I took one look at that and decided it was perfect for making rows when planting peas, beans, whatever. And I’ve used it ever since.
But now that things are planted, I might have to say my favorite tool is something called the Hula-Ho, a scuffle hoe or an “action” hoe. You can push it and pull it and it doesn’t take much muscle to turn my garden into something I could actually proudly show a visitor.
I’ve noticed, though, there are starting to be an awfully lot of options in the garden tool department. There are dozens of designs of hoes alone. The winged hoe, for instance, looks like it could be lethal to weeds. But maybe to my shins, too. Has anyone tried it?
How about some of the other options for de-weeding our world? Have you been tempted by the flamers, the infra-red weeders, the organic weedkillers? What’s your favorite garden tool — and why?
16 Responses to "Got a great garden tool?"
My favorite tool is a riddle. It’s a round-framed 1/4″ mesh screen about 1 foot wide. I use it to screen my compost every spring. (I tried to copy a picture, but I don’t see it. Just search “garden riddle” to see what it is.)
I got it in about 1993 and it makes the compost wonderfully fluffy, like sifted flour!
Judy, did you make the riddle or buy it? It sounds very useful and like something that wouldn’t be difficult to make.
I like to use my “winged wonder” It is a hand tool with a triangle shaped head. You push and pull it through the soil for weeding and I use the pointed end for row making.
I use it in my raised beds, which is the best tool that I have. Love them!
I am now obsessed with finding a Garden Riddle (what a perfect tool for sifting my compost bin!) but all online sources seem to be UK-based. Seems like it would be pretty easy to make with an old frame, screen, and a staple gun, no?
I have a compost screen homemade that was a snap and has lasted for years. I even was able to make it with 2X4’s, fine rabbit wire, staple gun and decking screws. If me and my 10 thumbs can do so can you.
My tool favorites are the scuffle hoe, a triangle hoe ( for digging small holes and rows) and the bulb planter which is good for planting tomatoes and peppers, bite out the dirt, drop in the transplant, cover with dirt from the bitten out chunk.
Robin — your winged wonder sounds like the hand version of the winged hoe I mentioned earlier. I’m glad to know it works well. Gotta love a tool that does more than one function, too.
Danika — let’s both try to make one of these. 1/4″ mesh screen sounds like hardware cloth to me. I wonder if the edges of the frame should be a tad higher to hold more compost, or if that’ll just make it too heavy to handle. Any thoughts, anyone?
Hello all,
I got my riddle through Smith and Hawken. However, they sell a different model now that is only 8″ across–not too pratical! Mine is round, but it could certainly be made square. In addition to the mesh, it also has some cross wires for extra support.
I load it with compost, set it on a bucket, sit down and shake it back and forth. This is time-consuming, but in the name of slow gardening, one of my favorite chores. I estimate it takes about two hours total to sift 2 cu feet of compost. I do it in bits in pieces, as I’m planting out in spring. My big orange cat usually tries to sit on my lap, but gets annoyed with all the motion!
My favorite garden tool? A kitchen knife. I use it for digging sod, weeding, dividing plants, loosening the roots of root-bound plants before I stick them in the ground . . . It’s a handy dandy all-around tool.
The sifter that I constucted is about 3′ by 3′, has 1/4″ hardware mesh and fits nicely on top of the wheelbarrow. I can dump a cople of shovelfuls of compost on it and run my hands around pushing it through or over to the side if it is still too chunky. The chunky stuff goes back to the bin corner til it is broken down further. If someone wanted they could put handles on the upper edge to shake it through but I guess I must just be a tactile person who likes to feel the texture.
My SO built me an electric compost sifter this year out of a hopper and a dryer motor (both found at the recycling center) and some hardware cloth stretched over a frame made of scrap lumber, because I was not in the mood for slow gardening this year. I owe him BIG.
My favorite garden tool? One of those foam-thingies that keeps your beer cold in the hot sun.
Oh, flytrap, that sounds so cool! I admit around the 54th riddle-full, I did dream of a bicycle-powered cylindrical gizmo to sift mine. But then all of a sudden, I’m scraping the bottom of the bin, and the compost is really broken down. It didn’t need to be sifted and I put it around my perennials.
Ha! Danika, your garden tool sounds almost as cool as Flytrap’s electric compost sifter!
I love buying garden tools, but it’s getting harder to justify new stuff when the old still works.
Last year, I broke the tip off a garden knife and bent the tines of a garden fork. I treated myself to heavy-duty versions of both.
I like the winged hoe. For a hand tool, I like the Garden Bandit, which has a looped knife. It’s great for working around established plants.
Here’s a list of oddball tools that one blogger likes:
http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2008/05/09/seven-gardening-gifts-no-one-will-give-me/
[…] this straight — I have to remember to turn the compost AND sift it, too? I thought GG reader JudyBusy was talking crazy, but riddles are no joking matter. They actually make a lot of sense — […]
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