Hand tools

[Rutabaga]

Is there anywhere left where you can actually buy decent garden hand tools?

We live on heavy clay soil which I'm slowly converting to veggie gardens. It's good fertile soil (for clay), but it's hard on the tools. Garden forks are the worst, no matter how careful i am I invariably bend or snap off the tines. Shovels are just about as bad, i usually go through a couple of those a year due to the crappy handles they put on them.

Is there anywhere left that actually sells decent tools that aren't just spot welded Chinesium? Bunnings is rubbish, but unfortunately they've driven just about everyone else out of business now, and those who are left sell products just as spotty to compete on price.

Id be quite happy to pay $200 for a garden fork is it was well made and i didn't need to replace it every six months!

[No1Mk3]

Best bet is to hit the 2nd hand and Charity stores, you can often find old tools for little outlay, I have 2 good Stanley shooting planes (the woodworking kind guys!) I found for $5 each.

[flashman]

Hi all im the same looking 4 a good half axe , no not from bunnings , had a plum it went missing a while back any advice ,,,,,,,,,,,thanks

[JohnV]

Trying to condition heavy clay soil is hard and sometimes still not a good veggie growing medium. It can soak up just as much money than just buying in some good garden soil and building the garden bed up more . Just break up the top soil down to the first clay layer then put good garden soil on top of that . Build a containing wall around it with sleepers or rough saw timber , rocks whatever . 200 to 300 mm is all you really need above the original ground level for the plants but some people go much higher for their backs . However then it takes way more soil and gets too expensive . I have had good service out of Cyclone shovels and other Cyclone garden tools . When you dig with a long handled shovel into virgin soil , once you work the head down don't just yank it back . Push it back and forward a bit as you work it down then push more forward to break the soils hold then pull back and lever the sod out . If digging with a fork go over the patch and just push holes in the ground and then water the patch really well . Leave it overnight then fork it . For garden forks look at Ames or Spear and Jackson .

[JohnV]

Hi all im the same looking 4 a good half axe , no not from bunnings , had a plum it went missing a while back any advice ,,,,,,,,,,,thanks

What do you want to do with the axe ? Fiskars make good stuff and have a large range of different axes and mauls etc. and it's available from Bunnings . Or you could buy something like this semi comp axe which is a bit worn down but still quite usable
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/18606704223 ... %3A2047675

Then you could buy a full comp racing axe head , names like
Stewart , racing axe
Keesteel Aussie speed axe .
Tuatahi New Zealand
Mike Osborne -- Bluey
Brute Forge
Some may still be available .

[Rutabaga]

Trying to condition heavy clay soil is hard and sometimes still not a good veggie growing medium. It can soak up just as much money than just buying in some good garden soil and building the garden bed up more . Just break up the top soil down to the first clay layer then put good garden soil on top of that . Build a containing wall around it with sleepers or rough saw timber , rocks whatever . 200 to 300 mm is all you really need above the original ground level for the plants but some people go much higher for their backs . However then it takes way more soil and gets too expensive . I have had good service out of Cyclone shovels and other Cyclone garden tools . When you dig with a long handled shovel into virgin soil , once you work the head down don't just yank it back . Push it back and forward a bit as you work it down then push more forward to break the soils hold then pull back and lever the sod out . If digging with a fork go over the patch and just push holes in the ground and then water the patch really well . Leave it overnight then fork it . For garden forks look at Ames or Spear and Jackson .

Yeah we have raised beds too for the delicate stuff and the things the kangaroos like to steal, but it's not really practical for everything. I've got about 80m2 of potatoes and sweet potatoes in at the moment, which would be a lot of raised beds.

It's not ideal still i know but it lets me do what i can with what I've got. My general approach is to make a new bed with the fork, plant potatoes (they aren't fussy with soil) and wait. Potatoes add a lot of carbon to the soil and do a surprisingly good job of breaking up clay. After a season, the soil still isn't perfect but it's 10x better than what you started with. After that, amend with woodchips, manure, etc.

It works, as long as you don't break too many tools doing it.

[JohnV]

Ok that's a bit bigger than normal but you could still build it up a bit without a border and achieve less digging . I would not use wood chips especially eucalyptus chips as they have a tannin in them that suppresses other plant growth . Don't use sugar cane mulch either because it is riddled with sugar cane moth eggs and you end up with a plague . I am not a big fan of out of the bag mulch straight onto the garden bed . You don't know what contamination is in it . I prefer to put everything through a rotting process first add some fertility and turn it into a better safer mulch product . Hay and straw sourced locally would be ok as top mulch to conserve water and block heat and should not introduce anything that's not local anyway . Lay it down on the yard and mow it back up to chop it up if you don't have a shredder . On the bigger beds it might pay you to buy a rotary hoe .

[wanneroo]

Track down some Amish, they make good tools.