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I did wonder if everyone had gone into hibernation for the winter so just for a matter of interest, I wondered what would members top three items of gardening accessories would they put on their wants list for Santa Claus.
Mine would be a new electric propagator, a bag of 6x fertiliser (I don't know if it's better than any other fertiliser but it smells as though it's good) and a supply of 9cm plastic pots as they are never returned when I give my extra tomato plants away).




Answers

 

I don't wear gloves very often as I cant find a pair to fit. I have quite small hands and getting a good fit is difficult so a really good pair would be wonderful. over the years I have had lots of good 'tools' etc and the best was the shredder followed by stainless steel spades and fork.

22 Nov, 2018

 

I have to agree re the small ladies gloves. I have tried looking for large childrens sizes but no luck. I have also requested the longer handled trowel and fork brightly coloured so I can find them again in the flower beds.

22 Nov, 2018

 

I’d like a cold frame please, Jimmy, and sunshine :)

22 Nov, 2018

 

A new to us house, a new to us garden and a pain free back (If I got that I would not need the first two though).

22 Nov, 2018

 

I'd ask Gardeners' Santa for a big compost tumbler, a good scythe & a machine to turn all my waste plastic packaging into pots of all sizes. I don't want much😄

22 Nov, 2018

 

I'd like a hedge trimmer with a 4' cutting blade. I'm also looking for a plant called 'Turtleheads' (Chelone) and 'Primal Scream' day lily. That would be awesome.

22 Nov, 2018

 

I'd like some stone slabs and some decorative gravel to make a short pathway, a new hosepipe that really does reel in and out easily without getting kinked and a new strong rake.
On the subject of gloves, I was never able to get on with gardening gloves until I found the 'Showa' ones. These fit so closely and that I can do fine weeding and tying in etc. They are not thornproof though.

22 Nov, 2018

 

Hmmm....Maybe a good book on organic soil care in the deep South--too much to hope for one for the desert! Add a few bulbs of the better Crinum hybrids, and a dwarf sweet pummelo tree, and that's a Merry Christmas!

22 Nov, 2018

 

I'd dream of a trowel which would whistle at me if I was getting even close to finding the darn thing. A gigantic table at the exact height for filling pots without having to bend. And an extension into next door's totally frustrating empty garden, nothing but grass in there, ha-ha!

22 Nov, 2018

 

I'd like whistling secateurs please, and a nice new bench for cuppa tea time...

22 Nov, 2018

 

I don't want any equipment but I wonder if there's a fairy god-gardener who would wave a magic wand and make my decking less slippery, the slabs on my path more level, and construct a raised bed for me to grow my vegetables in next year ;)

22 Nov, 2018

 

Hywel, we had decking in our previous house, and a power washer was very good at keeping it free of algae :)

22 Nov, 2018

 

They make things that you can attach to your keys to make them easier to find, but I have no idea how weatherproof they are.

22 Nov, 2018

 

I'd like a large cold frame - and a balcony 4 times the size of the one I've got to keep it on! As for not being able to find the secateurs, I cracked that one years ago after mislaying several pairs - I only buy red handled secateurs (Wolf Garten ones), much easier to spot in the undergrowth... never yet seen a hand fork and trowel with red handles though...

22 Nov, 2018

 

wolfe do red handles of varying lengths and they have interchangeable 'heads' so one handle with swapped heads is brilliant. Over the years I have several of them now. also they do long handles so you can add a brush to sweep paths and then swap it for a hoe/rake. Not cheap mind but well worth it. they don't always shine out when left on the garden though.

22 Nov, 2018

 

I've already had one present (to myself) - half a trailer of wood chips from a tree surgeon. I'd also like a decent trowel that doesn't bend as soon as it hits hard soil, a
and plastic flower pots that wash themselves after use :-)

22 Nov, 2018

 

Thank you Sheila. I have a power washer but it still becomes slippery after a few weeks.

23 Nov, 2018

 

What a pain Hywel . . . best stay indoors then, and not risk the decking or the uneven path. (just joking - I sympathise really!)

23 Nov, 2018

 

Wow, self cleaning pots - brilliant!
Bamboo I do lose red handles secs - if anybody wants anything losing give it to me and I'll do it for you...
I once read a suggestion to tie on a length of red binder twine or something similar. Bit of a nuisance but I guess it might work.
Hywel have you tried washing the decking with a path algae killer?

23 Nov, 2018

 

Andrewr: your remark about trowels is interesting - my neighbour (an absolute novice) recently asked about my hand fork and trowel, since she didn't know such things existed. Having bought a few down the years (or worse, been given a posh 'set' as a present) warned her that some designs are pretty poor and a waste of money, so I looked online to try to find decent ones to recommend to her, because mine are both years old, bought quite cheaply and entirely separately from one another, no special make either. And I could not find anything that seemed robust enough, didn't have silly twisted tines (for the fork) nor with the right balance of handle to tool end ratio... I'm fairly sure I would have bought mine somewhere like Woolworth centuries ago, and they're still with me now - seems they don't make 'em like they used to

23 Nov, 2018

 

I think you’re right Bamboo . . . I have had my ordinary “hand” tools forever. In 35ish years no replacements necessary :)

23 Nov, 2018

 

I would ask Santa for a couple more bags of white stones/gravel to cover a raised bed as the shallow layer I put down looks pathetic! Also, some more supports for Sedums that grew taller than expected.

Very interesting to read of requests by others .....

23 Nov, 2018

 

Thank you Sheila I'm going to hibernate :) x

23 Nov, 2018

 

Hi Jimmy, I think I have all the tools I could possibly need now, collected over the years, but 1 thing I would like is a gardening robot, to do all the weeding, and hedge trimming, the rest I can do myself, Derek.

23 Nov, 2018

 

Bamboo - I used to have a good one but managed to lose it (it's probably at the bottom of a compost heap). I've bought a couple of replacements that have the RHS Seal of Approval, but they have a weakness where the blade joins the handle and soon bend :-(

23 Nov, 2018

 

Bamboo, Flexrake's Classic line is pretty decent, but, again, I don't know if they are available in the UK.

24 Nov, 2018

 

Andrewr: exactly what happens with some, that bending where the tool joins the handle, no use at all...
Tugbrethil - some Flexrake stuff available at Amazon, but the trowel has a long section between the tool end and the handle, which looks risky from a bending/strength point of view, and even worse, it costs £38.92... crazy price, but possibly its a typo...

24 Nov, 2018

 

I was given a set of three last Christmas, a hand trowel, a bulb planting trowel with depth marks in it and a nifty knife for weeding slabs (which is brilliant) So far I am very pleased with them And they have leather thongs through the end of the handle to hang them up by too.
There is quite a range of tools made by Moulton Mill - worth looking at their website.

24 Nov, 2018

 

I've been using Corona Bypass Classicut pruners. No complaints & 5 stars on Amazon.com.

24 Nov, 2018

 

A Drone with three attachments. Attachment #1- a pruner to remove neighboring overhanging branches from my property...#2-an attachment to spot spray weeds and last but not least...#3...some kind to gizmo to chase cats away from my garden.

24 Nov, 2018

 

just checked the tools I have they are Wolf and Garten tools red and some yellow handles. very strong and with multi change heads. Hubby loves their loppers and pole pruners.

24 Nov, 2018

 

I am hibernating except for a look in the g'houses a couple of times a week, I know I won't get it but top of my list would be a roll of weed represent, a mix of gravel, granite and pebbles, included would be a little gardening Gnome to do the job I have in mind at the back and side of my top g'house......Now that is wishful thinking, sigh....Seaburn my son has a collection of these tools, I certainly recommend them...

25 Nov, 2018

 

Bamboo: almost $50?!! Five times what I have seen here in the U.S. What a racket!

26 Nov, 2018

 

Tug: it might be a mistake - I saw something not garden related on Amazon last week that would usually cost around £10-£30 (depending on the materials used) offered for sale at £3,999.99! I reported it as a typo, so it does happen... In some cases, I've even seen the same item offered for sale at a price in the hundreds with the exact same thing beneath from other suppliers for around a tenner... obviously a mistake... I think the suppliers are responsible for all the information and pricing posted under the description of items, and they don't always get it right. There was a description of something I saw last week that was very long and wordy, but it appeared to be a collection of random and largely irrelevant phrases, made no sense at all. Posted by a supplier whose grasp of English was obviously poor... but it was very funny!

26 Nov, 2018

 

I'd like a garden half the size again (ours is about 40m square) and which doesn't have a brick house wall at the end which makes me feel hemmed in. Space is what I'm looking for.

Also neighbours who look after their plot so that I don't get all their weeds and seedlings.

26 Nov, 2018

 

I'd second your wish about the neighbours Arbuthnot. On one side, I have a housebound 85 year old (she has a 'gardener' in every two weeks), but it's the other side who let their plot go

26 Nov, 2018

 

It suddenly occurred to me during the middle of last night that in my quest to become metric literate I made a mistake about the size of my garden. I should have said it’s 40ft square! I’ll stick to Imperial in future.

27 Nov, 2018

 

Ha ha, that's funny Arbuthnot... big difference between 40 feet and 40 metres - a metre's about 3 inches more than a yard. But I still can't think in metric when I'm deciding what to plant in a brand new bed or border; that process requires visualisation, and I default to 'seeing' and estimating how many feet a plant will (visually) take up... seems impossible to do in metric, though thinking of a metre as more or less a yard helps a bit...

27 Nov, 2018

 

When I asked the original question, I didn't know how many comments it would generate. On the subject of gardening hand tools it did put me in mind of an event. Many years ago, I used to do a turn in my local allotments trading hut. The secretary was a bit of a crafty old rascal. He was going to a national allotments association meeting and was given a book of raffle tickets to sell. So when he approached me to buy one for a pound I accepted; thinking that would be the last I would hear of it. About a month or so later, I was again on duty in the trading hut, when he came up to me and presented me with an pair of Sandvik secateurs from the raffle. Although this was 25 years ago, they are still in excellent condition and still cherished. This was possibly the one an only time that I had ever won anything in a raffle.

28 Nov, 2018

 

Not bad for a £1, Jimmy!...

28 Nov, 2018

How do I say thanks?

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