Tools, Books and Other Great Things…

I’ve just brought our big bed out of winter hibernation. While scraping away weeds with the hoe, it occurred to me that a list of all the tools that have genuinely won us over would be worthwhile. Something like the hoe is far too little known – we only discovered it through a blog post years ago. Good for you, as you might discover something new, and good for us, as we might earn something through the odd link 🙂

Tools

Hoe

A hoe (* Affiliate) (we have a slightly different one) has a blade about 15 cm wide at the bottom, sharp on both sides (front and back). This blade is attached with a little flex, which is where the name comes from – it swings back and forth. You don’t hack with it at all; instead you run it about 1 centimetre below the soil surface, back and forth. It is pulled and pushed.

This motion cuts weeds just below the soil surface, leaving them without roots so they usually die. If you haven’t mulched during the year, the hoe can also be used between most plants without damaging their roots. It not only destroys the weeds but also breaks up the capillary channels through which water evaporates from the soil.

Felco Secateurs

We have several pairs of secateurs at home, but the only ones we actually use are the Felco. They sit well in the hand, never jam and cut cleanly. Every spare part is available to buy individually – though we haven’t needed that yet. The motto here is “buy well once rather than buy cheap several times”.

We have the Felco 6. But since hands come in different sizes and requirements vary, I won’t link to a single product – here’s the overview page instead: Felco Store (* Affiliate)

Leather Gloves for the Annual Bramble-Pulling Festival

Our garden is surrounded by brambles. On two sides they pile up to quite some height and you feel as though they want to swallow you up. But brambles don’t only come from outside – once they’ve been somewhere, they are very hard to get rid of. The key is always to get as much of the root out as possible. The best approach is to loosen the root system with a sturdy digging fork and pull on several shoots at once.

And that’s where the most important tool comes in: good leather gloves…

We’ve tried a great many different pairs. From cheap to genuinely expensive. The search ended when we bought these rather reasonably priced gloves: EINSKEY Leather Gloves (* Affiliate)

I’ve pulled out a great many brambles with them and have never had a thorn in my hand. With other gloves, one usually manages to get through a seam or some other weak spot. Not with these – even really nasty thorns you might feel, but none has ever pierced the glove.

Books

Gertrud Franck – Gesunder Garten durch Mischkultur

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In Gesunder Garten durch Mischkultur (* Affiliate), Gertrud Franck not only explains her revolutionary row companion planting system but also shares a great deal of additional knowledge, for example on composting, herbs in the garden and slug control. The original is hard to find, but Brunhilde Bross-Burkhardt has republished the book in an edition that stays very close to the original.

A detailed article on this companion planting system is here: Row Companion Planting by Gertrud Franck

Margarete Langerhorst – Meine Mischkulturenpraxis

Margarete Langerhorst published the book Meine Mischkulturenpraxis (* Affiliate). In it she describes her experiences with companion planting and explains in detail the changes she made to Gertrud Franck’s system.

She offers examples of successful companion planting that she and her husband Jakobus tested over decades at their farm in Upper Austria. The book goes further still, covering topics including storage and nutrition.

Sister Christa Weinrich – Mischkultur im Hobbygarten

Mischkultur im Hobbygarten (* Affiliate) was our first book on the subject of companion planting. With this and the book that followed, we took our first steps in row companion planting.

Sister Christa Weinrich describes classic row companion planting in beds, where row spacing is set flexibly according to the plants grown. The book also contains many well-proven neighbourships.

Andrea Heistinger and Arche Noah – Das große Biogarten-Buch

Das große Biogarten-Buch (* Affiliate) is probably the standard reference work for the ambitious organic gardener. This book is expensive, but worth every penny.

The largest part of the book consists of detailed descriptions of a very wide range of plants. But it is not just about vegetables – fruit, herbs and much more are covered too. Alongside the plants, it also explains techniques of the organic gardener, such as laying out beds, fertilising and composting. Storage and preserving are also addressed.

For Claudia it was always a faithful companion.

Other Great Things

Coming soon… For example the genuinely brilliant Nutscene Tin of Twine garden string…