What's your favorite gardening tool?

[barrelslime]

I love my oscillating, or stirrup, or Hula Hoe. Almost effortless weeding.
[img]https://i1011.photobucket.com/albums/af233/barrelslime/garden/0618121728a.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i1011.photobucket.com/albums/af233/barrelslime/garden/0618121727a.jpg[/img]

[mhannum]

My virtually indestructible, corrosion-proof trowel and bulb planter (similar to a trowel, but more of a blade with inch marks on it) that I got from Sears Hardware many years ago. They are both made in the USA and because they are a single metal piece, it is virtually impossible to break the handle off or even bend it... and they don't rust!

[mtmickey]

My favorite by far is my a.m. leonard soil knife

[url]https://www.amleo.com/Leonard+Deluxe+Stainless+Steel+Soil+Knife/p/4752/[/url]

[farmerlon]

Yep, stirrup hoes are great!

My current favorite tool is the Marrugg Scythe that I purchased last year. That sees limited use, but it sure is an awesome tool for "mowing" cover crops or harvesting grain.

As for tools I would have a hard time doing without, my watering can and Felco pruners probably see more action than anything else that I use.

And this may seem odd, but a set of suspenders is a very helpful tool to me . No more having to wear a belt too tight, or having to constantly "hike up" my pants after every time I bend over. I probably look goofy as hell in the garden, but for practicality... suspenders Rock !!!

[TheWaterbug]

[url=https://meadowcreature.com/broadforks/]Meadow Creature's[/url] indestructible, but expensive, [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=200613]Green Broadfork of Destiny:[/url]

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/SoilLayersAndBroadfork.jpg[/img]

Nothing comes close when it comes to breaking new ground or prying out big boulders.

[lorax]

My 16" Colombian steel machete, hands down. Running a close second is the narrow-gauge banana transplanting shovel and companion 5 lb steel mallet, and in a tie for third, the Felco pruners and my handy-dandy trowel.

[jal_ut]

My Troybilt Horse Rototiller. I run it between rows to cultivate and weed. I couldn't keep up without it. It also has an attachment for hilling potatoes.

If you mean hand tools, a butcher knife with wide blade is a great tool for weeding close around small plants, harvesting plants, and used as a trowel for planting starts. Those darned garden trowels always bend or break. Worthless!

And this may seem odd, but a set of suspenders is a very helpful tool to me

Amen to that!

[lorax]

Those darned garden trowels always bend or break. Worthless!

You mean you don't have a drop-forged one-piece iron farmer's trowel? That's what I meant when I said "handy-dandy trowel" in my post above, and I had to go to a farm store to buy mine. The ones sold for home gardeners are flimsy beyond belief - I have on occasion found myself wondering why even bother to make them if they're just going to bend to 90 degrees from the handle the first time you use them?

[dtlove129]

I'm going to have to look for one of those fancy hoes that was posted at the top. I just have a regular hoe and what I call a finger hoe (4 pronged rake hoe).

I would say that if my dad didn't give me his old tiller then I wouldn't garden because I would not break all this ground by hand!

[philjam]

Mantis tiller

[DoubleDogFarm]

Me hands, me hands are the best tools.
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Handtool.jpg[/img]

Eric

[Francis Barnswallow]

^LOL at pic!!

[DoubleDogFarm]

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Handtool003.jpg[/img]

Eric

[lorax]

Oh noooo! [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf_o_ynRRl8]You're crushing my head! You're crushing it![/url]

I'd have to agree, actually. Hands be the best tool of all, if you want to consider them tools. Anthropologists might disagree, though.

[Ohio Tiller]

I guess mine would be my wife she is 16 years younger than me and can weed them beans long after my back has givien out!

But I do like my stirup hoe alot also!

[DownriverGardener]

[/url]https://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/400/c3/c31a1159-2c25-44c4-acec-d74b4632504d_400.jpg

[DownriverGardener]

[img]https://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/400/c3/c31a1159-2c25-44c4-acec-d74b4632504d_400.jpg[/img]

[GardenRN]

I was gonna say my hands also...nothing is as precise or has lasted longer. They clean up well, and repair themselves when you damage them. Planter, weeder, bug picker, harvester, broadcaster, and diggers.

[estorms]

Stehl (sp?) rototiller. It's a little heavier than a mantis, but easier to control. I also love my Garden Way seeder. Right now my ground is too rocky to use it, but I am working on them. Working and working and working. Those stones just keep coming.

[dahoss2002]

my hoss wheelhoe with the cultivators, stirrup hoe. sweeps, and hillers