Last fall, I described my five favorite tools: D-handled digging fork, Japanese weeding knife, bypass pruners, garden snips, and well-fitting gloves. Whenever I browse the booths at a garden show, I'm tempted to add to the collection.
With any new gear, I like to know whether it fits my working style and whether it's a sturdy, dependable, and useful tool. I'll leave it up to you to figure out the former, but I found a terrific resource for figuring out the latter.
At the recent San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, Joe Lamp'l of The joe gardener Company demonstrated the ten garden items that he calls “the best of the must-haves” for 2008. Now in its third year, this list of “the coolest garden gear and gadgets” was selected from hundreds of products that the company considers and tests each year.
The most practical items were Atlas Nitrile Touch Gloves, which the testers found to be both tough and comfortable. I've been using these gloves, and other nitrile-coated nylon gloves, for several years. For heavier-duty jobs such as rose pruning, I use West County Gardener gloves, which made the must-haves list in 2006.
If I needed to replace my manure fork, I'd consider the Unifork. It's a tough, flexible plastic fork with edges that can scoop up compost or mulch. It won't rust, so it can be left outside. I've found that keeping a tool near where I need to use it reminds me to do routine tasks.
The Ames True Temper 7 in 1 Planter's Buddy is one of the best examples of a multifunction tool that works: trowel, bag opener, twine cutter, tamper, weeder, sod cutter, and more. But for the way I work and the tasks I do most often, the hori hori is a better tool, so I'm not trading it in.
If you're the type of gardener who sits or kneels a lot and sometimes needs to lean on a tool to get back up, the Folding Kneeling Bench may be what you need. It has handles for hoisting yourself back up, and it flips over to make a bench to sit on. I like knee pads, because once I put them on I don't have to think twice about kneeling in wet spots or on hard, uneven surfaces. I've been using the same pair of inexpensive rigid-foam knee pads for at least five years.
Did you ever put a rake down and then trip over it later? With a Spear-It tool, you plant the rake or hoe in the ground instead of laying it down. This is one of those “why didn't I think of that?” inventions.
Other products on this year's list are biodegradable pots made from composted cow manure, a device that feeds weather data to your irrigation timer to conserve water, inserts for large containers that help reduce the amount of potting soil needed, rechargeable yard tools, and a plug-in watering can that oxygenates the water to aid plant growth.
Details about the must-haves for all three years are at www.joegardener.com.
© 2008 Tanya Kucak