What's your favourite garden tool?

[Roseburn]

I bought this dandelion weeder earlier this year and I love it.

It lives by my back door and I take it out with me on the way to the bins and dig out a dandelion or ( two or three) on the way, or I just go for a wander round the grass if I'm at a loose end and look for zig zaggy leaves to dig up. So satisfying.

Are there other tools I should know about? Tell me what else I need in my garden bag!

Do you mean types of tool or a particular actual tool? I think if I had to choose what I couldn't live without I'd say spade and secateurs.

Though loppers and fork would be next

I have pads that attach to my knees via straps. Saves sore knees!

Secateurs every time. Love a spot of pruning!

My parents bought me Felco secateurs and super warm leather gloves. The gloves are wonderful but I really really love my secateurs

Ha! I read your thread title and thought about my favourite garden tool -which is exactly the same as yours. Aren't they fabulous? It's great for weeding between plants in my borders too. Love it!

I found one of these rusting in a decrepid shed when we moved in and it's absolutely my favourite go to tool.

The knee pads sound ace!

Great question. I love my secateurs and have to hide them from DH.

However my favourite tool is a small hand fork. It was probably as cheap as anything and bought when we first got a garden but I use it constantly.

My Japanese hori hori knife - a very indulgent gift to myself last Christmas! Beautifully crafted, it almost seems criminal to use it and sully its pristiness, but it is a true multi purpose tool for digging, weeding, cutting and betters everything else, in my opinion, for stripping ivy off walls, fences and tree trunks. Would not be without one now.

My tree loppers. My Dad takes them each Autumn to sharpen them and they are fabulous.

"Sully its pristineness" that should read

Ah, if you love that Op, you'd love a hori hori knife!

Knee pads. The best ones are from DIY stores and weigh nothing. You totally forget you're wearing them, but they're busy doing their jobs anyway. Knee heroes.

I’ve seen mention of hori hori knife here before and wondered what it was all about.

Does anyone have a picture? I know I can google it but it’s nice to see personal items , specially when they are so loved!

Love my garden loppers that give a satisfying metallic click when they cut the larger stems like ivy and roses.I get a bit lazy forcing the cuts with secateurs when my loppers sort them easily .

this is the one I have, bought as a gift for me and I bloody love it

The hori hori knife is what the link is!

.I get a bit lazy forcing the cuts with secateurs when my loppers sort them easily That's not lazy, that's looking after your tools. If your secateurs are the bypass type, not the anvil type (bypass are less likely to crush stems), you should never force them - in time it will force the blades apart so they cut less well.

I can't think whether my favourite tool is my new Christmas present long handled loppers (like a litter picker, but with a blade at the end instead of a grabber) or my beautiful pruning saw, with sharp blade that cuts on the backward pull. Or my lovely stainless steel border spade -narrower than a normal spade, so less heavy for an elderly not much more than 5ft ... it always amuses me that when I'm on a conservation working party, erecting a stock fence on moorland, all the he-man types with me make a beeline for my spade (while still referring to it as my girlie spade).

Vegetale Hoe

It's brilliant for my soil that is full of Cotswold stone

That dandelion weeder looks exactly like an upholstery tack remover I bought. I might try it for the weeds!

Yes it is a bit like a tack remover, or the claw of a claw hammer - same idea! The dandelion weeder is quite long though, and has a bend in it, so you can get right down and under the pesky tap root.

I like the idea of the 'lady spade' too. I think I have a smaller gardening fork, ( I dont know where it came from, but it's in the shed) which I enjoy using. It feels more accurate and nippier than a larger one.

Hori hori knives sound like a total gardening all-in-one. i followed the link and have now got lost in lovely things from Japan.

I have a lady spade and she is just right for me

I've also got a set of Aldi kids tools which are great to use especially the take as it can get the leaves out from tight spaced plants

I've just bought a block paving knife for dandelions between the slabs