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Game Changing Tools

westcountrycatwestcountrycat Posts: 8
in Tools and techniques
Hi, does anyone recommend any Game Changing tools or Particularly good brands of tools ?

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  • FireFire Posts: 17,116
    edited December 2021
    It's an interesting question. Some for me are:

    A Bosch electric garden saw. It makes such like work of branches, but is also good for diy, cutting up pallets in minutes etc. The bracket thing holds a branch in place to stop everything shakingabout so much. I cursed when I found the saw, thinking of all the hours I had battled with my elder tree. I'm a big fan of Bosch.




    I love my hori-hori trowel. I use it for plots away from home and it's a kind of light 'all in one' tool that I can easily carry in my bag.

    Not so much a tool as amazing stuff. Sugru is a kind of easily mouldable silicone putty. It can be used as modelling clay, glue, plugging material or sealant. Out of the sachet it stays soft for half an hour then cures for 24 hours to set like hard rubber. It can be sanded, painted or ultimately removed with a knife if you wanted. It can be used as an electrical insulation. It's fully waterproof and good from -50⁰C  to 180⁰C. Good for fixing white goods, cars, pipes, cables, amending tech, great for all sorts of things in the garden. You can make hooks or stands, plug pond holes, attach wires to statues, attach things to concrete. It lasts for years in the fridge.

    The downside is that it comes in small quantities, but for smallish jobs it's ideal.






  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,279
    Does Sugru work in the hands of the inept? I don’t yet know why I want it but I’m buying some.

    My game changer in the garden is the auto rewind wall-mounted Gardena hose.
    Rutland, England
  • FireFire Posts: 17,116
    edited December 2021
    Yes indeed, I would think Sugru works in the hands of anyone. You just kneed it a bit to make it soft and then do what you want with it. The casing of my Mac cables have tended to crack while using them for many years and I have fixed the breaks.




    Fun for modelling with too.


  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 13,706
    Agree with Hori Hori, use it constantly.
    Stainless steel compost scoop, it just makes things so much easier.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,279
    On that recommendation I think I’ll buy the scoop. My cheap thing from Wilko’s has given its £1.50’s worth of service and has never worked very well.
    Rutland, England
  • B3B3 Posts: 25,227
    My absolute favourite multipurpose tool us a wallpaper stripper. You can slice weeds off at the ankles, scrape moss off paving slabs or get between the cracks, slice slugs, slice off manky  pulmonaria leaves, Jiggle clay soil you've been leaning on. You can even strip wallpaper!
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ColinAColinA Posts: 370
    Two of my best garden tools are a small Honda petrol cultivator and a Mattock this being brilliant for taking out shallow trenches for peas beans etc.
  • B3B3 Posts: 25,227
    A mattock. My second favourite😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 11,174
    My ladies (small) stainless steel spade, my stainless steel compost scoop, my Screwfix mini-mattock and my super duper ratchet lopper. I still need to get a Japanese herbaceous sickle (they'd sold out before Xmas) and I quite fancy a Hori hori knife as well.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 2,280
    edited December 2021
    A long handled weed fork, good for weeding, breaking up soil, tidying up between plants and avoiding bending!  Here's one brand and one supplier (others are available!):

    Spear & Jackson 5510WF Traditional Stainless Steel, Long Handled Weed Fork, 42-inch : Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.
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