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Fiskars Trowel
by juicy_lucy
Fiscars Hand Trowel
Right now I'm busy potting plants in pots and needed a hand trowel.
I picked this up in b and q and I believe it cost around the £3 mark so not an especially pricey garden tool. It can also be bought on various online sites.
The trowel is plain black matte with an orange tipped handle which ... features a hole for hanging the trowel up; I fully intend to get a hook for this before I lose it!
Basically it's a trowel but with a few features which appealed to me. The trowel is about 11inches long from end to end with the digging part being about 6" long. The thing I liked most when I bought it and continue to find a useful feature is the very deep scooping part of the trowel. This part is much deeper that on other trowels I have had, which makes it much easier to get a decent amount of compost out of the bag without said compost falling off the trowel before it gets into the pot.
The end of the trowel comes to a rounded point so I can get the dig a bit at the soil but its not sharp or pointy enough to dig through hard earth. I think you would need something metal or more pointy for this.
It's nice and lightweight (about 1/2 lb) and smooth and quite comfortable to hold. There's no fancy bits on the handle to help with grip or comfort but for the kind of limited gardening I do this is fine for me.
The trowel is one piece of graphite apparently of my glass construction. I don't know anything about this but it is good in that it is constructed of one piece of the material. My previous trowel was an old one with a wooden handle and metal scooping part and whilst it did last for many years, the Hadley did start to get a bit wobbly and I would imagine it would have come off completely after a while. Even so, the fact that it wobbled about made it uncomfortable to use. I have also found that the metal trowels start to rust when I invariably leave them in the garden.
This shouldn't happen with this one and even if it does, it has a lifetime guarantee although whether this would cover rust or not I don't know.
The website is www.fiskars.com and there are lots of similar products to try out.
VERDICT...
This is a great little trowel. It's light enough for children to use with ease and the deep scooping part means that I feel my pots quickly without ending up with compost all over the ground.
Inexpensive, good quality and effective, I would recommend this and will certainly be buying another as my spare.
Thanks for reading
Daniela xx
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Draper 88791 Carbon Steel Border Fork
by houseofberries
My need for a good garden fork came about when we took on our allotment late last year. It was very overgrown and serious digging was required! I have a fork at home for my small garden plot but was fed up lugging the heavy thing backwards and forwards.
**Selection**
I chose the Draper 88791 Carbon Steel Border ... Fork purely based on price, it had been heavily reduced on Amazon. It's currently reduced with an RRP of £18.89, it's currently £14.36 delivered.
**On First Glance**
The fork itself is made of carbon steel that has been hardened. It felt incredibly solid but was very light (it only weights 998g). Great news for me as occasionally it needs to be moved back and forwards from our allotment. The handle is made of plastic, it feels very sturdy and well made. The fork and handle are well fastened together. I've had a few forks in the past with pretty ropey joins but I'm happy to say that this is solid.
**Road Testing the Fork**
Well if there's any good test for a new fork, it's got to have been the overgrown jungle that was our allotment. Boy had it been left to go wild. This fork made things so much easier for me. The spikes went into the ground with ease. The fork was very sturdy and allowed me to put all my weight on it at times with both feet and then turn the ground over. It's lasted throughout the main bulk of digging the very overgrown plot over. I found it very easy to use, the handle was well shaped and easy to grip, it's clear Draper had ergonomics of it's use firmly in mind.
It's helped me tackle a massive project, even Doc Leaf plants (the roots on these are massive) were tackled with relative ease. This fork is very light and easy to use, but certainly doesn't mean it can't tackle harder ground.
This fork is actually quite short compared to your average garden fork. It was the perfect size for me - I'm 5'2" I usually have some difficulty working with standard garden tools for this reason. My husband (much taller than me) complained that it was hard to work with, he found himself bent over it much more than our other fork.
If you're on the smaller side, I'd highly recommend this fork for allotment or garden use. I'm so pleased with mine, that I'm buying a second one to keep at home.
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Wilkinson Sword Stainless Steel Border Fork
by MEL0611
We have been sorting out our garden over the past year or so now, we moved house 3 years ago and we didn't really touch the garden up until the early part of last year. We used to have a small garden in our old house but this was gravel and a patio area so I didn't have many gardening tools, I have since made quite a few new purchases as ... we have a large back garden that has been in need of a lot of attention. The item that I am going to reviewing today is my Wilkinson Sword Stainless Steel Border Fork. We have duck quite a few borders out and seeing as I was getting nowhere with my small hand trowel the investment was a must. Here are my thoughts on the product.
The Wilkinson Sword brand is one that I have heard of many times in the past and so I felt that when making the purchase I was getting a reputable brand. The border fork will cost you around the £20.00 price tag which in my opinion is not to bad a price to have to pay. The border fork can be found in a number of different places, I have noticed that most garden centres tend to stock the brand as well as being able to purchase the tool online. I have even seen the brand stocked in places like The Range store and Wilkinsons on the high street. I did do a little bit of a price check before I made the purchase and it tended to be the same no matter where I got this from.
The fork arrive sand you can see that it looks like it is of a good quality. There is a handle that is made from ash wood and there is also the stainless steel fork. The fork comes with a 10 year manufacturers guarantee which is excellent but fingers crossed I won't need this! There is the Wilkinson sword logo on a silver plaque across the top of the wooden handle but this is very minimal.
We are told that the fork is good for maintaining flowerbeds, lifting plants and forking. The main reason for us in wanting to make this purchase is that we wanted to be able to move some plants around from the existing border as well as extending it slightly. The fork is 1.4kg in weight and it has a loop in the handle so you are able to get a good grip on the fork when you begin digging. I found the fork really easy to grip, even when I had my gardening gloves on.
I found that the metal spokes on the fork were fantastic for lifting and moving the plants, it got really stuck into the roots of the plants and I was able to move and replant them with ease. It also is excellent for turning the soil around in the borders; it churned it up really well. I did find it a little bit more difficult to dig with but then in fairness this is not what the tool is really designed for.
I would have no problem in recommending this tool, it is definitely worth having and as time goes on I can see me using it again and again to keep my borders looking great. The only thing I would perhaps like is for the handle to be slightly longer but that is just my personal preference.
4 out of 5 from me on this one
Thank you for reading.
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