I love old gardening tools, but how do you refer to them? Are they vintage, collectors items or just plain old and worn out? A favourite occupation if passing a junk shop or reclamation yard is to go and explore and see what gardening “treasure” can be found. We are now amassing a collection of interesting old tools and it’s fun to try and work out what some of them would have been used for. We bought an old hoe last year that has got a vicious looking spike on the reverse of the head. The obvious explanation, to me anyway, is that you hoe off your weeds and then turn the tool over and use the spike as a dibber. A bit of research brought up a website selling vintage tools and a similar hoe for sale – labelled as a “Field Hoe”. I think hoeing a whole field would be a job too far, but we are thrilled with our find and will use it very carefully! Some old spades are so heavy, just lifting them up would be enough for me, but imagine double digging with them. No thanks! What I find fascinating are the different sizes and shapes of spade heads and the angle at which the handles of some are fixed. Another recent purchase is an old turf lifting spade with a long wooden handle and a curved iron bar joining the heart shaped head. It is stamped with a makers name, C T Skelton, Sheffield, and again a little research tells me that company was founded in Sheffield in 1855 and traded until the mid 1960’s before being taken over. In 1914 there were 400 employees but by 1961 there were only 250. An interesting item to own and by doing just a little research a bit of social history is unearthed too. I think this turf lifting spade will be for decoration only but it would be quite interesting to see how easy or otherwise it would make lifting turf.
Some of our old tools have been inherited from both sides of the family, it is a nice feeling to use something that was once used by a parent or grandparent. It connects those that are no longer with us to our current garden. A set of long handled edging shears is the tool that takes me back to my childhood, with memories of getting completely tangled up in them as I tried to “help” my father edge the lawn and also of his exasperation as he tried to get the job done quickly. They still work perfectly and I use them every week during Spring/Summer. We also inherited a heavy old garden roller made of concrete and cast iron. It was back breaking getting it into the car, in fact I think it broke the piece of wood we used as a ramp! Luckily the car suspension remained intact! However with just a repair to the wooden handle we can now use it. It is heavy but once it is rolling is fairly easy to manoeuvre and is ideal for flattening the bark path through our Spring Borders. Luckily we aren’t on a hill so there’s no chance of it running away out of control!
Garden shears are the bane of our life, most new ones we find are absolutely useless whether it be for clipping a hedge, topiary or grass. We have one fairly new pair that are fairly serviceable as long as you remember to tighten up the blades every few minutes. We have one pair though that are relatively small, old and are a joy to use. Trimming the box topiary around the garden has become a much more enjoyable task.
I’m not sure if they count as “tools” but collecting old metal watering cans is becoming a bit of an obsession. One very pretty small can was bought as we wandered round an antique fair prior to bringing our daughter and her mountain of belongings home from University one year. There was no room in the car for anything else, barely room for daughter to squeeze into the back, however the watering can travelled the 140 miles or so home on my knee and is now happy in the greenhouse. The only stipulation I make with watering cans though is that they must not have rusted through, if I buy them I want to use them. So much nicer than their plastic counterparts.
Again not “tools” as such, but we seem to have accidentally acquired a collection of old tin baths! Ideal for growing different varieties of mint but one has now been pressed into service as a small containerised pond. It’s been filled with rainwater, pebbles and bricks have been put in the bottom and it currently has three plants – Iris and Marsh Marigold, courtesy of a friend. More plants will follow and hopefully wildlife too. Years ago we did the same thing in an old belfast sink on the basis that we had toddlers at the time and didn’t want the worry of a “proper pond”, that worked well so hopefully this one will too.
The garden is open for the National Garden Scheme every other year. We were open in 2017 and displayed some of our small collection in the lean-to shed, along with other gardening ephemera. We plan to do a similar thing for our NGS opening this year. Details at http://www.ngs.org.uk – Astley Country Gardens
And a few spring bulbs.
Tales from a Country Garden 