What a shame your faithful spade has broken then, Fairygirl
I've never managed to form a bond with any of my tools although I did like my metal fork. I found it in the shed when I moved in. I was recently digging up a lupin to split it and it must have hit a piece of brick or something because two of its prongs twisted backwards and I couldn't correct them. It was the sort of fork you could use for all sorts though - levering up old conifers, lifting slabs - and then I broke it on a lupin
Get a pick axe or a mattock. These are usually pretty cheap and I have to say they have been the best tools I have bought. They help break up the ground into more manageable pieces and then you can easily use your fork.
I have yet to break one, and I've been gardening for 15 years, and mine get a lot of use and abuse. I lost one once having accidently chucked it in a pile of weeds in the compost heap. I found it again two years later when I unearthed the compost to use it, and it was still perfectly useable!
I have a border spade and fork that belonged to my grandfather. I don't know how long he'd had them but he died in 1973. My dad used them from then until 1984 when I got married and I've used them and abused them for the last thirty years. The heads are forged steel and the shafts and handles are ash. I don't really know how old they are but I'm guessing at around 50 or 60 years at least (grandad was housebound from about 1960 so he wasn't buying garden tools after that).
I still use them regularly and wouldn't swap 'em for anything new.
Im the same as you Vic, ive just given up now, with the exception of hand tools, i just buy cheap stuff now as i know it will break, i never buy wooden handled stuff as i leave my tools out
Think the breaking tools thing can sometimes be because we arent strong enough, so put more stress on the tools, well thats what i think my problem is anyway
I do tend to use tools like a lever, that's why I like artjak's crowbar idea. I dug a 8" deep lump of clay out my front garden today - quite near the surface too which surprised me and it's heavy stuff. I've left it in a big sticky pile to break up.
On the other hand I bent one trowel digging an un-established coreopsis out of nice soil so some tools are just plain weak.
I'm getting my new tools tomorrow and will document their weaknesses carefully
The answer to Victoria Sponge's problem is, to be a bit blunt, that if you're complaining about broken tools you are blaming them for your own shortcomings, which might come under several headings:
You aren't assessing the job properly - you can't do hard work with inadequate implements. That's why they don't attach car wheels with a 1mm Allen key. Digging out 25-kilo lumps of clay needs a big tool.
You're impatient, so you don't swap the tool you've got in your hand for one that will actually be more suitable.
You're buying cheap and expecting quality - nothing more to say.
Your technique is all wrong.
You aren't up to the job and you need to hire someone that is.
You're trying to do something that is completely impracticable.
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I use a tool called a 'hubby' it does break occasionally but seems to repair itself quite well if left alone to recover for a few days
What a shame your faithful spade has broken then, Fairygirl
I've never managed to form a bond with any of my tools although I did like my metal fork. I found it in the shed when I moved in. I was recently digging up a lupin to split it and it must have hit a piece of brick or something because two of its prongs twisted backwards and I couldn't correct them. It was the sort of fork you could use for all sorts though - levering up old conifers, lifting slabs - and then I broke it on a lupin
http://www.gogarden.co.uk/wolf-garten-fixed-handle-planting-trowel-5cm-lu2p.html?language=en¤cy=GBP&gclid=CLKaranhnMACFRHHtAoddwwAEw
I have yet to break one, and I've been gardening for 15 years, and mine get a lot of use and abuse. I lost one once having accidently chucked it in a pile of weeds in the compost heap. I found it again two years later when I unearthed the compost to use it, and it was still perfectly useable!
I have a border spade and fork that belonged to my grandfather. I don't know how long he'd had them but he died in 1973. My dad used them from then until 1984 when I got married and I've used them and abused them for the last thirty years. The heads are forged steel and the shafts and handles are ash. I don't really know how old they are but I'm guessing at around 50 or 60 years at least (grandad was housebound from about 1960 so he wasn't buying garden tools after that).
I still use them regularly and wouldn't swap 'em for anything new.
Think the breaking tools thing can sometimes be because we arent strong enough, so put more stress on the tools, well thats what i think my problem is anyway
I do tend to use tools like a lever, that's why I like artjak's crowbar idea. I dug a 8" deep lump of clay out my front garden today - quite near the surface too which surprised me and it's heavy stuff. I've left it in a big sticky pile to break up.
On the other hand I bent one trowel digging an un-established coreopsis out of nice soil so some tools are just plain weak.
I'm getting my new tools tomorrow and will document their weaknesses carefully
Even the cheep spear and Jackson tools are really good.
The answer to Victoria Sponge's problem is, to be a bit blunt, that if you're complaining about broken tools you are blaming them for your own shortcomings, which might come under several headings:
You aren't assessing the job properly - you can't do hard work with inadequate implements. That's why they don't attach car wheels with a 1mm Allen key. Digging out 25-kilo lumps of clay needs a big tool.
You're impatient, so you don't swap the tool you've got in your hand for one that will actually be more suitable.
You're buying cheap and expecting quality - nothing more to say.
Your technique is all wrong.
You aren't up to the job and you need to hire someone that is.
You're trying to do something that is completely impracticable.