TGN Community members:
Do you have any favorite tools that you use around the homestead or garden that you just couldn’t live without?
Please leave your reply in the comments below, or in the Forums by clicking here: https://thegrownetwork.com/forums/topic/favorite-homesteading-tools-and-supplies/
We’ll compile your answers into an article soon!
Marjory Wildcraft is the founder of The Grow Network, which is a community of people focused on modern self-sufficient living. She has been featured by National Geographic as an expert in off-grid living, she hosted the Mother Earth News Online Homesteading Summit, and she is listed in Who’s Who in America for having inspired hundreds of thousands of backyard gardens. Marjory was the focus of an article that won Reuter’s Food Sustainability Media Award, and she recently authored The Grow System: The Essential Guide to Modern Self-Sufficient Living—From Growing Food to Making Medicine.
COMMENTS(10)
Best ever tool for weeding/cultivating is my hula hoe/stirrup hoe. And the second necessity is a plastic manure fork for picking up garden debris easily and quickly.
I love that also for weeding.
I am looking for a good forged steel broadfork at a somewhat reasonable price. Any suggestions?
Hi Bonnie, Oh! I was just at a new local nursery and talking with the owner Ross – he was raving about broadforks and when I used it I was amazed. I live in sand so it isn’t that as useful to me as it would be in other soil types.
Ross absolutely loved the “Meadow Creature” brand and told me he had used quite a few.
Here are some quotes I’ve taken from thier site https://meadowcreature.com/broadforks
JOEL SALATIN: PERFECT.
“I’ve always thought broadforks required too much effort for the benefits, until I began using the Meadow Creature model. The flat tines go in easily and I can work up a bed faster than with a motorized tiller. The leverage, weight, and design are ergonomically friendly. This is a perfect tool.”
Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm
MOTHER EARTH NEWS: EUREKA!
“Eureka! We found it – the Vashon Broadfork with its sharp, superrigid, slightly curved 14- or 16-inch tines … penetrates soil (sort of like how eagle talons work) with less operator effort than any other fork we’ve tried .. the Vashon Broadfork would make a great holiday gift for the gardener on your list.”
I love my bulb planter – it’s awesome for planting seedlings and so much more.
I found this heavily rusted head that a neighbour was throwing away. I think it is a hoe head but I have not been able to identify it anywhere on the internet … google images, gardening tool manufacturers, hoe collections websites. Nada. I suspect it is some local blacksmith’s copy of a swoe hoe. It looks something like this:
http://greenandgorgeous.typepad.com/.a/6a01310ff5e544970c01901c090a36970b-320wi
but it does not have a spindly neck and there is no welding of any sort. The blade has a tapered tang which I attached to a sturdy handle. It did not come with instructions so I had to reverse engineer it. It is a single piece cut from a thin but strong enough sheet of iron. The blade is rectangular and is twisted at a slight angle to the tang/handle. This slight angle means that I have to use it kneeling on some padding. Kneeling is not a problem because when I thrust this into the soil, I can deliver more grunt than if I were standing. It is no ordinary hoe. The edge parallel to the handle and the inside edge is sharpened. I thrust to break the soil and pull to cut the weeds or snag roots. If the root is big, after clearing most of the soil around it, I can chop it in the manner of an axe. I have tried many tools to break dry hardened ground but nothing does it better than this particular swoe hoe. i don’t even need a spade to shift the broken earth because I can quickly twist the shaft and fling the dirt to the right or the left. The blade is tilted in slightly so I can snag stuff closer and I can also push stuff away. I am not limited to using the blade horizontally, I can also wield it vertically to break up a smaller footprint. I can also use this to snag low hanging fruit. Lastly If I meet a tiger/zombie who fancies a quick meal, I can wield this in self defence. It is really that sturdy. If a war arrives, wielding this in a kneeling posture reduces your visibility to enemy bullets. This baby rocks. Pry it from my cold dead fingers.
All my tools were given away last year. Hope who ever is enjoying them. I am trying not to think about any of those. I have a hoe, a shovel and a garden fork. Do out of those my favorite is my garden fork. Not nearly as nice as the one I had before. But I couldn’t make it through all this clay without it.
I love my garden fork. I really use and abuse that thing, and it shows. Some day I’ll have to spend the money to get a real beast of a digging fork. But for now, I’m loving this one.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/96/c9/62/96c962b7cbcb9569c0d6efdca7489237.jpg
I don’t think Amazon has this …… yet.
This is not a tool but an essential aid for all my tools – half-inch masking tape. This helps me to carry tools comfortably. For a spade, find the point on the handle that balances the tool horizontally and mark around the handle with the tape. If you hold the tool there, you can carry it a long distance without tiring. The same goes for guns. A well balanced gun does not “feel” heavy.