Work on a small UK plot is tool work. You cut, lift, water, peg, and put things away. The plants are there. The jobs are done with what is hanging in the shed.
Most catalogue kits are filler. A wallet of unmatched blades. A hose with fittings that do not match the tap. A cane too thin for the first autumn blow. You pay for a set and still do not have the one thing that works.
I write about tools and hardware through the year. Not seeds. Not live plants. Not a bag of compost. If it takes space on a hook or a floor, I want to know whether it earns it.
These notes are what I would keep. What I would check before I bought another. What I would skip.
I am pmac. There are no buy links yet. If I later add one, it will be labelled Advertisement.
Notes
- Secateurs that stop cutting are usually blunt A file and a drop of oil beat a new pair that will chew by June.
- A watering can still earns its hook next to a hose The hose is for the long run. The can is for anything you would rather not blast.
- Horticultural fleece fails when it blows off Pegs and a forecast matter more than the fabric.
- One thin cane will not hold a plant in autumn wind The cane stays. The stem kinks. That is not staking.
- A fork and a spade are not the same digging tool A spade slices potatoes. A fork lifts them.
- September cut-back is a tool choice Blades come off the hook because the jobs change, not because a catalogue says prune.
- Hose fittings leak at the washer, not the hose I have binned a good hose for a perished washer I never looked at.
- Winter tools need a wipe and a film of oil Wet tools in a shed corner are rust by March, not a finish.
- A compost bin is a box, not a bag of compost The heap is not the product. The lid, hatch, and uprights are.
- A spring prune kit is smaller than the catalogues say One clean pair, a stone, a rag, and a way to carry the waste.