The Right Tool for the job.

Another lesson learnt from that first planting was how useless normal garden tools are when you are facing a landscape of rocks. You can have the fanciest spade (have you seen the beautiful, shiny tools from Britain in the Lee Valley catalogue?   I don’t know if I’d be able to them to use. Every little scratch would make me cringe), but they’re not much use when there isn’t anywhere you can actually dig.

 

Aren't these beautiful. They wouldn't look out of place in your cutlery draw.

In the beginning we used hand tools to break the ground and extract the many rocks that seemed to form the landscape.  Larger rocks were pried out with the shovel, a real no-no. You can void your warranty if you use a shovel to pry rocks, though how they know that’s how the handle broke is beyond me.  Early on we realized the value of tools that workers on a chain gang would use, pick-axe, mattock, crow bar, and industrial sized shovel. 

Well, we don’t have a pick-axe, but it’s on our list. We do have a really good mattock though. 

This picture makes me laugh. Why on earth would you need to use a mattock here!

And the piece de resistance is this pair of gorgeous tools from Japan. They are strong, refined, and elegant. And most important, they are very, very useful.

These are beautiful. And they don't look like they belong in the cutlery drawer!

 Lesson # 5. Buy the best tools you can afford. They will make your life easier, last longer, and give you the greatest pleasure.  Cheap tools are really not worth the "savings"

Note:  Thank you Lee Valley Tools for the loan of the photos. We have purchased most of our tools from them. The staff are delightful, the selection incredible and we love to get the catalogue in the mail.