Home garden essentials: the best shovels, seeds and forks – everything you need to make your garden thrive Bedford News

A shovel is arguably the most important tool in your arsenal of attribution tools, so it’s worth spending a little money on something that will give you many years of loyal service.

Bulldog, a Wigan-based tooling company, have been selling quality gardening tools since 1780 and we really dig their shovels.

This heavy-duty, soil-moving tool features an extra-long, smooth ash handle to help minimize flexion and associated back strain, and its large steel digger head has welded treads on top of it. blade to help prevent well slippage in muddy conditions.

Giving the spade a run for its money in the allotment utility stakes is the garden fork.

There are different types of forks available, from those with extra fat tines to help lift root vegetables to narrow, tight forks designed for close edging and weeding.

For general and everyday use, this four-fold man will see you well. It’s super tough, lightweight to use, and the carbon steel head and grip are coated with a powder coated paint to help prevent rust and scratches.

We’ve been using ours for years without a problem, but if yours fails to live up to its ‘Neverbend’ moniker, Spear & Jackson gives you a 10 year warranty.

We could very gladly fill this tool list with tools made by Dutch tool makers Sneeboer, but one of our absolute favorites and most often used is this wide blade transplanting trowel.

It is specially designed for extracting and replanting plants (hence the name), but the sharp shield-shaped blade and high soil holding capacity of this sturdy steel tool make it a great all-rounder.

It’s also worth keeping an eye out for the special edition version of this trowel which comes with a handy bottle opening notch cut into the blade, perfect for opening a post-graft brew.

We are coming back to the Netherlands for our choice of hand forks – this one is from De Wit, a family business specializing in hand forged garden equipment.

It’s a beautiful tool, constructed from boron steel with a black patina with an ergonomic ash handle – it’s almost a shame to dip it into the ground.

The sharp and wide teeth of this agile tool make it the perfect choice for weeding tasks and for transplanting plants.

the Japaneses Hori Hori is a kind of knife / trowel hybrid, designed for poking, pushing and digging.

There are quite a few Hori Horis in the market, but we think the super-sharp Niwakis shifter is the group’s choice.

Featuring a 17cm stainless steel blade encased in a maple handle, it’s a beautiful, well-balanced tool to wield and comes with a canvas sheath to hang from your belt, ready for action.

You will find that the Hori Hori is a must-have attribution tool that you never knew you needed.

Maintaining allotment gardens can often feel like a long, never-ending battle against weeds rather than the bucolic buzz of the ‘good life’ playing out on many people’s Instagram accounts, but luckily help is at hand. handy for the busy gardener in the form of this handy hoe.

Its beak-shaped blade is ideal for pulling stubborn weeds from delicate crops, and by pulling the tool through the dirt, you can clear large areas of weeds in a flash.

A long-handled razor hoe is also available, but we prefer to get up close when waging the weed war.

If you find that melee weeding is putting too much pressure on your back and knees, grab a hoe.

One of our favorites to use is Sneerboers Royal Dutch Hoe which features a formidable row of zigzag teeth that slice through the push stroke, with a hook blade at the rear to cut through the pull stroke.

It also sports a unique pistol-style grip on the end of its grip to help reduce blisters and facilitate vigorous hoeing sessions for quick clearing of grassy soil.

For heavy-duty allotment jobs such as cleaning up rocky soil before planting or removing stubborn roots, a pickaxe is the tool to wield.

Similar to a pickaxe, a pickaxe sports a double-bladed head: a vertical blade for slicing and a wide horizontal blade (called an adze) for plucking and digging.

This rugged version of Roughneck weighs 5kg and sports a 36 inch fiberglass handle with a rubber grip.

It comes with a one year warranty but you really have to go to damage this dreaded tool.

Carrying an RHS approval as a badge of honor, this reliable rake will help prepare the soil for maximum plant growth potential.

Featuring 14 sharp teeth and an arched holder, it is well balanced in use, with a light, springy action that helps the rake bite into the ground. We also like the polished grip which helps create a smooth sweeping rhythm for quick ground preparation.

For a premium pair of scissors, look no further than Felco, the go-to pruning brand for many professional gardeners.

Their range of secateurs is quite extensive, but for the maintenance of allotment gardens we recommend the Felco No.2.

These are bypass pruners, which means the blades intersect like scissors to produce crisp, clean cuts and you’ll find that this particular pair will glide effortlessly through twigs and branches.

Carefree gardeners will also be delighted with the Felco red non-slip handles that make these pruners easy to spot if they inadvertently fall into fallen foliage.