They start in my pockets and end up under the potatoes, among the irises, in the bathroom, or just possibly in the bed. I am the most disorganized secateur user on the planet. We own a dozen pair of utility scissors just for the slim chance that at least one of them is available when you need them.
My big problem is I don't have a SEPARATE gardening time, my mind does not work that way! If I could say, "Ok, NOW i'm gardening!" I'd go all German about it (my hubby is German, so I know how it's done), and get a belt with all the tools in it (there's a description of THE belt in one of Vita Sackvile West's gardening book... she got one from a reader), and I would go, and Garden. Then I would come home and be at Home and all would be well in the tool department.
But it's not like that. I go out in the morning with my coffee cup, in my pajama (if it is pajama weather, or less, if it is hot), "just for a walk in the garden", you understand, no intention of doing anything at all, and before you know I am on my hands and knees weeding, AND ALSO MY COFFEE CUP (half full... I am a half full kinda person). IS FORGOTTEN IN THE POTATO PATCH!! .
Have just snipped off lupin heads with wall paper scissors dare not ask the chair man if he's seen my secateurs (got 3 pairs and can't find any) I bet he's a hidden them and is waiting for the me to own up to losing them aggain
I use a caddy like this (below). I have had it for 40 years - I first used it to carry our baby's nappy-changing kit around the house, and that "baby" is now 40!
I use my hands to carry my tools. As I head out to the garden I pick up my gloves, my secateurs and my trowel, sometimes my fork. I pick up my trug at the back door for weeds and clippings. I garden, My tools move round with me. All together. If I need another tool for a job, I fetch it from the garage. Then I return it when I have finished the job. When I have finished what I am doing I pick up my trowel, secateurs, gloves and trug and go back in. Drop the trug at the back door, return my secateurs, gloves and trowel to the shelf in the kitchen where they live. It is all discipline! Easy. No missing tools and always where I expect them to be. A place for everything and everything in its place! I have never lost a tool in the 40+ years I have gardened. And none of my tools have ever spent a night alone in a dark garden, abandoned to the elements...........
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
It's the best thing in the world and I wouldn't be without it! I keep all my small tools, string, labels, gloves etc in it and I sit on it to do all my weeding, planting, tidying etc. I can push myself along on it to work my way along a border and it saves my back and legs from getting tired. I mostly use my secateurs and a small hand fork so I just put the secateurs in one of the holes in the handle and they stay with me all day. At the end of the day I pick up the whole thing and put it back in the shed.
I admire your methodical system, hogweed, but it wouldn't work for me. In my caddy I carry not only a fork, trowel and secateurs, but also gloves, scissors, string, a small table fork (great for transplanting seedlings), a knife, a marker pen, spare labels, pegs for netting or fleece, a small dibber, a plastic container of bone meal, another of slug pellets ..... and sometimes some seeds or bulbs. I am not very organised, but this way I usually have everything to hand that I need. I do still lose things - it's a big garden, and sometimes I even mislay the whole caddy - but mostly I can find what I want.
Posts
Forks and trowels often get thrown on the bonfire along with the weeds and rubbish, only to be found weeks later as charred remains.
They start in my pockets and end up under the potatoes, among the irises, in the bathroom, or just possibly in the bed. I am the most disorganized secateur user on the planet. We own a dozen pair of utility scissors just for the slim chance that at least one of them is available when you need them.
My big problem is I don't have a SEPARATE gardening time, my mind does not work that way! If I could say, "Ok, NOW i'm gardening!" I'd go all German about it (my hubby is German, so I know how it's done), and get a belt with all the tools in it (there's a description of THE belt in one of Vita Sackvile West's gardening book... she got one from a reader), and I would go, and Garden. Then I would come home and be at Home and all would be well in the tool department.
But it's not like that. I go out in the morning with my coffee cup, in my pajama (if it is pajama weather, or less, if it is hot), "just for a walk in the garden", you understand, no intention of doing anything at all, and before you know I am on my hands and knees weeding, AND ALSO MY COFFEE CUP (half full... I am a half full kinda person). IS FORGOTTEN IN THE POTATO PATCH!! .
Even the coffee cup is a garden tool!.
(German hubby does regular coffe-cup-retrieval-trips in the greenhouse... either that, or we'd be out of china by nightfall)
Have just snipped off lupin heads with wall paper scissors
dare not ask the chair man if he's seen my secateurs (got 3 pairs and can't find any)
I bet he's a hidden them and is waiting for the me to own up to losing them 
aggain
I use a caddy like this (below). I have had it for 40 years - I first used it to carry our baby's nappy-changing kit around the house, and that "baby" is now 40!
http://www.stewart-garden.co.uk/planter-collection/49-garden-tool-caddy.html
I use my hands to carry my tools. As I head out to the garden I pick up my gloves, my secateurs and my trowel, sometimes my fork. I pick up my trug at the back door for weeds and clippings. I garden, My tools move round with me. All together. If I need another tool for a job, I fetch it from the garage. Then I return it when I have finished the job. When I have finished what I am doing I pick up my trowel, secateurs, gloves and trug and go back in. Drop the trug at the back door, return my secateurs, gloves and trowel to the shelf in the kitchen where they live. It is all discipline! Easy. No missing tools and always where I expect them to be. A place for everything and everything in its place! I have never lost a tool in the 40+ years I have gardened. And none of my tools have ever spent a night alone in a dark garden, abandoned to the elements...........
I have one of these
It's the best thing in the world and I wouldn't be without it! I keep all my small tools, string, labels, gloves etc in it and I sit on it to do all my weeding, planting, tidying etc. I can push myself along on it to work my way along a border and it saves my back and legs from getting tired. I mostly use my secateurs and a small hand fork so I just put the secateurs in one of the holes in the handle and they stay with me all day. At the end of the day I pick up the whole thing and put it back in the shed.
I admire your methodical system, hogweed, but it wouldn't work for me. In my caddy I carry not only a fork, trowel and secateurs, but also gloves, scissors, string, a small table fork (great for transplanting seedlings), a knife, a marker pen, spare labels, pegs for netting or fleece, a small dibber, a plastic container of bone meal, another of slug pellets ..... and sometimes some seeds or bulbs. I am not very organised, but this way I usually have everything to hand that I need. I do still lose things - it's a big garden, and sometimes I even mislay the whole caddy - but mostly I can find what I want.