Tools needed to be selfsufficientish

[Andy Hamilton]

I make do with a spade, a fork, a hand fork, a bucket, a trowel and a watering can. oh and a wheel barrow.

I never use my hoe as I weed with the hand fork, it takes longer but I think it gets a better job done.

I have seen people using all sorts of tools on alltoments but do they really make life that much easier?

[Chickpea]

I love my hoe! I agree the hand fork method does a better job, but if you have a large area at all it becomes impossible.

I often borrow tools, either because I forgot something crucial, or just because it doesn't make sense for all 50 (or however many) of us on the allotments to buy a petrol-driven rotavator each when we could all share just one.

My sister has apparently bought me a gardening knife because I used a kitchen knife to cut my courgettes etc. We'll see if that turns out to be a "must have" tool. It might also replace the scissors I take with me to cut twine etc. Which leads us neatly to secateurs, which I couldn't be without. If you disagree all I can say if you clearly don't have brambles on your plot. Which in turn leads us neatly to a strong pair of gardening gloves, also a "must have".

[Muddypause]

Taking a slightly different perspective:

Top of the list has to be:
Hands

Then in no particular order:
Saw
Hammer
Mole grips

If power tools are an option, I'd have to say:
Drill
Router
Bandsaw

But the list really goes on indefinitely - you can never have too many tools.

[Millymollymandy]

Do you know, I have never used a spade in my life! Since living in France we have had stony soil of one sort or another so you just can't dig with a spade. So, garden fork.

Recently the fruit collecting basket thingy that you put on the end of a long Wolf tools pole has been invaluable for getting plums from high up the tree, and later on will be used for the apples.

Buckets. They have many uses. Peeing in them in order to add it to the compost is one good use!

Hoe, secateurs, trowel, scissors, twine, and gloves. Lots of different gloves for different uses.

Last but not least - chickens - to eat the bugs that you really don't want to have to squidge.

[supersprout]

Agree you can never have too many tools, but many of mine are redundant since I stopped digging and started mulching. Just can't bear to give those hoes, spades, forks and rakes away

In order of frequency of use, I could make do with:

1. Hands and gloves
2. Knife, dibber, bulb planter, scissors, string, secateurs, kirpi tool, blue plastic veggie boxes, watering can
3. Wheelbarrow, milking stool, broadfork

[wulf]

Contrary to Muddy, I think you can have too many tools... if you haven't got space to store them properly and can never find the one you want when you need it!

A lot of the tools will depend on what you are trying to do - for example, a range of spades, forks and trowels is useful for turning over the ground and digging in compost but you might not need any of those (or certainly not the same range) if you are committed to a no-dig approach.

It's good to build up a range of tools that are suited to your size and strength, especially with items like spades and forks that use a lot of muscle power. Too heavy or large and you wear yourself out too quickly (and you don't cover ground quickly enough if they are too small).

Most important of all is to care for your tools well - a good tool should last for years, even a lifetime, with a little care given to cleaning and storage, and that's got be the most self-sufficient principle of all!

Wulf

[Wombat]

Most important of all is to care for your tools well - a good tool should last for years, even a lifetime, with a little care given to cleaning and storage, and that's got be the most self-sufficient principle of all!

Wulf

Well said Wulf!

While trying the no-dig approach at the moment, I still have and use the hoe etc. The 3 prong cultivator is very useful too!

(as the little fellow in the depressed neighbourhood said when his teacher showed him an agricultural implement and told him it was a hoe, he said "No Maam, my sister's a ho and she don't look nuthin like that")

[the.fee.fairy]

i have a spade and 3 watering cans.

My most useful tool...ever, ever has to be a basket that i put stuff in to carry round the patch, and my compost bin. I love my compost bin...i think i might propse to it...

[Wombat]

Kinky!

[hedgewizard]

My garden knife is indispensible, I've taken to carrying it with me. Always. So watch out.

All this talk of compost reminds me of Tuesday's laugh, which was my erratic sense of smell returning suddenly while I was turning the greens-heavy compost pile, leading me to whinge "Ewww! This smells like poo!" like a little girly. Funny how the smell stays in your nose all day, isn't it?

[Boots]

When I met my mate, he took me round to meet one of his mates. After we greeted each other, his mate turned back to him and asked. "Is this the chick that comes with all her own tools?"

My mate nodded and grinned from ear to ear, like I was some sideshow prize or something and I was real quick to tell them, "And she's also the chick who doesn't lend a single one of them, so don't get too ruddy excited!"

Needless to say, this is now the bloke who often has me doing laps of the farm, cussing and muttering, because my shifter or a certain socket has not been returned....

I like tools and buy what I need when I need them. I don't borrow tools and it bugs me when folks borrow and they are slow coming back. I tend to be a bit resourceful with what I have. I use the claw of the hammer for hand weeding/hoeing and just use a hand cultivator if I'm scruffing up or sowing a whole bed. I have several different shovels for different jobs but tend to dig with a mattock if I do dig - which says something about the soil. I have slowly replaced pretty much all the garden machinery with natural animal behaviours (except the dam pump...and don't think I haven't considered putting those donks to work! ) I haven't had to start a mower, whippersnipper or rotoplough in several years now.

When it comes to building I like my electric tools - am way to impatient for hand saws and drills. Just want to get the job done.

My tools are always in a chaotic mess though. No matter how many times I tidy them, they just seem to end up out and in 'job piles'. And I clean them before I use them instead of after. I have a tool belt for fencing which is just brilliant. My girls gave it to me for Christmas and I swear it was the best pressie. In terms of sish stuff, I think that would be my best tool of sorts.

[Stonehead]

Fingers, nails, teeth, knees, feet, shoulders...

More seriously, from the most important down:

Clasp knife
Hatchet
Axe
Sharpening steel and/or scythe stone
Crowbar
Any handy lump of wood
Twine
Tie wire
Wheelbarrow
Claw hammer
Screwdrivers
Sledgehammer
Hoes (digging hoe, weeding hoe, trenching hoe, onion hoe, pointed hoe)
Muck fork
Tattie fork
Shovels
Spades
Bow saw
Block and tackle
Brush hook
Reaping hook
Digging fork
Fencing maul
Post driver
Brace and bits
Augers
Heavy duty adjustable spanners
Molegrips
Froe
Steel wedges (for wood)
Coachbuilders axe
Drawknives
Spokeshaves
Wood chisels
Saws (crosscut, rip, tenon, coping, dovetail and keyhole in particular)
Mallet
Bench plane (trying, 20in)
Jack plane
Smoother plane
Small, low angle block plane
Bullnose plane
Spokeshave
Rasps
Rake
Club hammer
Cold chisels
Files
Boltcutters
Stone mason's chisels and drills
Bolsters
Scythe (with meadow and orchard blades)
Battery drill
Electric hammer drill
Radial arm saw (1960s vintage, very efficient and absolutely terrifying)
Blowtorch (an ancient petrol-burning potential bomb!)
Brushcutter
Rotavator
Anvil loppers
Secateurs
Heavy duty scissors
Good mechanic's toolbox with quality socket sets, ring spanners etc

Then the power tools - router, circular saw, angle grinder, planer, sanders, jigsaw.

Things I'd like because they'd really make a difference:

Small forge, anvil and smithing tools
Mig welder
Gas blowtorch
Chop saw
Table saw
Drill press
Planer/thicknesser
Band saw

And things I'd like just because...

A steam engine driving an overhead shaft and belt system to power all my power tools!

PS Yes, I really do use all of the tools in my main list on a regular basis.

[Wombat]

Hey Stoney!

Can't you get hold of a kero, blow torch? They are a crapload safer!

Nev

[Stonehead]

Hey Stoney!

Can't you get hold of a kero, blow torch? They are a crapload safer!

Nev

I managed to get the Pommie equivalent - paraffin - off ebay but part of the valve is missing. Besides, the petrol one makes a great sound....

[hedgewizard]

It sure does, particularly if the feed valve is blocked and you keep pumping the thing to see what's wrong. My mate Colin got the nickname Browless after one adventure in his back garden... although he was lucky it wasn't Lungless!