The Long Handled Stone Scratcher and Knife from Sneeboer will certainly make the job of kneeling down to remove unwelcome weeds from paths and paving a thing of the past. It is a thankless task that doesn’t do much for your back and knees either.
• The ash handle measures147cm, the pointed tine (8cm long) is capable of scratching out weeds from the smallest crevice, whilst the 9.5cm long, 3cm deep blade can be used to cut unwanted growth at the flick of a wrist. • Don’t just concentrate on your paths however – this tool (175cm overall length) also makes short work of weeds in walls and brickwork.
Occasionally the garden requires some heavy work in difficult conditions – the new Sneeboer Long Handled Fork and Mattock is tough enough to cope with almost all soil types and situations. This ingenious Sneeboer design pairs a robust mattock blade with a sharp, three-tined fork in a 23cm wide head, allowing you to both break up the most compacted soil and create a reasonable tilth - without changing tools. This double-purpose tool gets to grips with cultivating soil and decimating weeds and is particularly good when you need to work between plants.
The fork side is great for loosening up compacted soil and the mattock blade can chop away and dig in deeply for weeds as well as making seed drills or thinning out.
• The mattock blade measures 10cm long by 6.5cm wide and the fork tines are 10cm in length, with a 2.5cm gap between each. • The solid ash handle is 150cm long, giving you ample opportunity to generate a hefty, soil-busting swing.
"I used this digging tool for breaking up the compacted soil in my borders, prior to planting. Its two heads meant I could use the forked side for breaking up clumps of earth, while the mattock made short work of digging the beds. The long handle enabled me to get to the ground beneath my shrubs, which is not so easy to reach with a spade. My only quibble is that I would have liked the blades to have been slightly bigger so that I could have covered a larger area in a shorter amount of time, although this may have impacted on manoevrability." Rating ****. Tested by Laura Fanthorpe, 'Tried and Tested', Garden Answers magazine, June 2008.
Although the title insists it’s one for the ladies this Sneeboer long handled hoe has so many uses (combining the accuracy of a hand tool with the reach of a full sized hoe) we are sure that the man of the garden will be soon be raiding the potting shed to find it.
• Combining the accuracy of a hand tool with the reach of a full sized hoe • The extremely manoeuvrable blade measures a mere 6cm in width and is 5cm deep; small – but perfectly formed – enough to negotiate densely planted crops such as onions and carrots. • This new Sneeboer hand hoe gives a high level of dexterity in crowded borders, where the length of the 113cm solid ash handle is invaluable. • The overall length of this long handled hand hoe is 132cm.