Ruud Kleinpaste: Cool tools for the garden

I’ve been pretty busy in the garden, tunnel house, and grassy building site. That always seem to happen with me just before spring emerges – it’s a frantic time. 

 

Spades 

When you’re digging out flax or any plant, tree, shrub for that matter, some soil types make it difficult to get into with a regular spade. We had a rather dry late winter period with soil becoming pretty hard to open up. 

My best investment for these conditions is my trenching spade: 

A long and tapering blade that ends up with just 10 centimetres of bottom edge, easy to drive into the soil and allowing you to tackle the hard clay with a minimum amount of effort. 

I tried to dig out large, old flax plants and the only way to do that is with a trenching spade – no contest! 

Of course, as the name suggests, trenching spades were invented to create long narrow trenches for power lines of water pipes.  

Why dig our more than you need to? 

 

Weeding implements 

We all know what a hoe is; a push or pull device that can cut plants off their roots. I am really simplifying the various hoes in existence – there are many different varieties, but the system is quite simple: you either push the blade through the top-layers of the soil, or you pull. 

My favourite hoe is the one created by a Dutchman Jaap Sneeboer. I think he calls it “the Royal Hoe” – how Dutch is that! 

It has a double attack ability: a regular pull hoe that is made from very sturdy metal, and a three-tine fork that can go deeper to remove rather sturdy roots. That fork is also brilliant for aerating the soil. 

It’s a tall, and solid hoe that will do a multitude of jobs before you start sowing new seeds or planting new veges. 

 

Cutting Flax leaves 

Always a real pain in the bum. Flax leaves are so resistant to secateurs and knives. 

I have them on the sides of our driveway and you can literally imagine how these long and resistant leaves always grow out over the drive... 

The “knife” that works well is the Niwashi Flax knife and the Maruyoshi flax cutter (there are all kinds of models on the NZ market now). Make sure that you get a sturdy one that lasts for years. 

It’s a mean tool! The curved blade has extremely sharp teeth that will go through flax leaves without any trouble at all. The teeth are angled towards the bottom and therefore will always work in a downward motion. Of course, they will also cut the leaves of Cabbage trees.  

 

A Cultivator 

This thing weeds, pulls out roots, and cuts out all the undesirables from within the rows of edibles and ornamentals, without accidentally hitting the desirables! 

The Clark Cultivator was designed in Christchurch and is used as a hand-tool. The main blade emerges in a 90 degree angle and is super sharp. 

It rips roots off the weeds and the pointy end can be manoeuvred with incredible accurac

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Me oh Man in the Gardener's Road climb pass Yoda.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Road, Kyoda Jack and he is in the garden actually
because it's finally clearing up on this wonderful winter's day.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, it is a busy time of year. It is
a busy time of year. I know it's been chilly
and wet. We you are, I know it's been pretty
wintery in parts of the country. But you're recommending to
us this morning some of your favorite tools for getting
your hands dirty at this time of year.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Well, there's a.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Couple of things that you know most most gardeners that
have been doing this for ages. No, for instance, what
a trenching spade is. A trenching spade is one of
those thinner, narrow spades that's quite long. But the cool
thing is it digs quickly and deeply, and it makes
wonderful straight If you're like trench places where you can
plant trees, trenches that's the word.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Yeah, where you can plant your trees.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
So that I don't really want to talk too much
about it, just saying this is something that really saves
your back.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
And your arthritis. I can tell that for free.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
So that's number one. Number two weeding. If you want
to talk about weeding implements. Everybody will know what a
hole is, but there is there is a fabulous one
that I got from a Dutch guy that I met
at the Meggis. No not the Meggis, the garden festivals,
you know the stuff there Elleslie garden shows and Meggie
was theirs too, and that was yap snay boy. He

(01:30):
has a hole from the Netherlands that you can get
in New Zealand, which he calls the Royal Hole, and
it has a wonderful pool head on it, but also
a three timed other side that you can actually cut
literally down to the roots of all your weeds.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
This is fabulous stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
I mean it's not terribly cheap or anything, but boy,
they work for decades and work.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So just to explain this again, So you've got the
traditional hole on one side, and then on the other side,
it's like one of the three fingered implements, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
That's right YEA that goes deep into the soil and
takes all the roots out that you don't want there
of the weeds and this.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Is the good turn it over where you go. Excellent stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Nice number three And we've talked about this before. Actually
people ask me a lot also on Sunday morning, how
do you cut these blinking flex leaves that constantly go
over the drive. So the Japanese have invented the sharpest
tool in the toolbox. It's called the knee washy flex knife.
Knee washy is the thing, and it is sharp as

(02:37):
it's got tiny teeth sticking downwards, and you're going to
be so careful with it because it really really causes
troubles if you don't watch out with your finger. But
you can cut literally even the dead flex leaves are
cut in a wivvy.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
No problem at all.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Oh, very nice.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Finally, finally something I'm going to give you one day,
and it's I will. It's a cultivator. It's it is
a hand hole if you like, which has got a
nice ninety degree bend and it is actually made here
by the Clocktivator. It's called by mister Clark here in
christ Church.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
It's a local one tongue at four and I thing
if you like, and it is ninety degree angles, very sharp,
and it is really quick to use for ripping the
roots out of weeds, and the pointy end can of
course be used for.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
Incredibly accurate weeding between the rows. So have you got
a whole lot of sins there you can just get
in between the rows without literally hacking your new plants apart.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Verse are my favorite toys.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And we will put them all on the News Dogs
it'd be website.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Thanks Rude for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame.
Listen live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Saturday,
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