I lost something near and dear to me. It was rusty and faded. Weakened by the exposure of thousands of hours of sunlight. Degraded by moisture and eaten away by acidic substances. I lost my trowel, I had the curse of broken tools ravage my garden.

What Happened?

I started my first garden in 2007. It was the first summer after purchasing my house and money was tight. As a result of my relative poverty, I bought a good old Walmart Special for a few dollars. It came with a trowel, whose corpse is in the picture. With my trowel, I also received a garden fork and a weed stabber thing.

Since I square foot garden, in raised beds the later two got very little use. My trowel however was my go to tool in my garden. I pulled up weeds, dug transplant holes, fluffed up soil or added small amounts of amendments with it. I was transferring the last of my strawberries from my main bed, where I let them just run wild to get the daughter plants for this year’s crop. Then a snap crackled through the garden. My last strawberry transplant stayed put and trowel was shaped like an L. I had an epic fail. I had my first major tool failure.

All This Drama Over some Broken Tools

Yep. It had been my go to for 14 years and it was sad. At least to me, it was. Anyway, as I am slightly better off than my younger self, I acquired a new set, a fancy set, a kind of expensive set. This one traded out my weed thingy that I never used and gave me a transplanter to never use.

Well, maybe never use is an overstatement. Make sure to clean your tools if you are going to lie about not using them. It gets used. Mostly for scoping dirt from my bag of potting mix into pots for seeds and seedlings. I don’t have any bulbs so it is mostly a less effective trowel in my garden.

While getting my second Moderna vaccine, I stopped off in my old stomping grounds and picked up a new set of snips. This sucker will prune.

If you notice everything are Fiskar products. Why?

How Did I End Up with My New Tools?

My first set of snips, that I bought for nothing as an impulse purchase. I love this tool. As a result of my love, I gave them more money and bought additional tools. Hopefully, I will love them as well. This set is over a decade old and still look gorgeous. They have never caused me issue so on a leap of faith, I brought home its cousins.

Setting up so many new beds have caused my garden fork to get more use. The compost I bought this year is mostly garbage so there has been more amending of soil. I fear it won’t be until next year, that I am going to get good healthy plants. Everything needs to breakdown some more. That is a different story.

My trowel and my snips are still my main tools in garden but the rest of the cast of characters makes life easier. My new snips tore through a baby Pak Choi like butter in the summer. It is going to be tasty dinner tonight.

*Edit, here is one of the Pak Choi’s from the same container.

Wrapping this all up, it is sad when your old mainstays fail but it gives you a new chance to improve your kit and hopefully make everything easier in garden. Easier gardening, even in the face of broken tools, is a big part of the pragmatic part of Pragmatic Gardening.