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University Project - improving gardening tools
I am current'y doing an University project on improving a gardening/ lawn care tool. I would like to know
1. Which are the most frequently used tools and do you development emotional attachment to your tools?
2. Which tool will you get for an gardening newbie?
3. Are there any specific tools you would like to be improved as it could be designed better to make gardening easier and more comfortable?
Thank you so much for spending time on helping me out! Much appreciated!
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1: secateurs and my 75+ year old fork.
2: depend on the newbie's gardening needs. Is he making a window box? starting an empty plot from scratch, or taking over an established garden?
3: I find spades, forks etc have handles designed for people shorter than me ( 6ft ). Longer handled versions are out there, but prohibitively expensive, for reasons I can not understand.
I think we should set up a special part of the forum for these students. We seem to have the same question over and over.
Go and ask people at your nearest allotments and take a pen and paper to write down what they say
1.It depends what season it is
January till February...............Digging and soil preparing time
Chillington Hoe ( Destroyer of Worlds ) and Spade and Forks
Rakes
February onwards...................Plant tending
Hoes of different sizes
Hand forks and trowels
Watering cans
Anytime.................................Shears for cutting down Green Manure and hedging
Wheel barrows of different sizes
Trugs
Buckets
Secateurs
I have had some tools longer that I was married and they are dependable and dont argue !!
2. Not a relevant question
Its like asking a hospital surgeon what medical instrument he wants to start with
A Newbie needs whatever he needs for what he wants to do first
3. No ............they all work well if the operator works well !!
Good luck
tools with leery -coloured handles. Why do hand tools have camouflage handles? Maybe it's a marketing ploy to make us replace lost tools more frequently.
I agree and sorry to say that most of these surveys show a lack of very basic knowledge and some are full of grammar and spelling mistakes, as is this one. I have stopped doing them apart from the recent one from the psychology department at Sheffield University which did seem like a proper study.