Garden tools

[StillHope]

My garden tools were gone during our moving once.
I need to buy them again.
What to buy?
Anything from mainland is useless on "popcorn" lava we have in Seaview?

[leilaniguy]

O'o bar should be your first purchase.

[DanielP]

Soil

[Carey]

Luckily, most garden tools are here (do miss the really good contractors shovels we had for clay, but do not miss the clay!)
I would not buy just to ship unless you had a favorite brand/tool.

I would also recommend that you wait until get in your yard/garden, as there is so much variation in the soils & gardens here, tools that are indispensable in my garden would be totally worthless in my neighbors yards - I have the only lot with 6-10" of soils in the area - due to a cow in the lot for 20yrs, my neighbors didn't have a cow, and only have an inch or so of soil.

The 5' chisel point breaker bar (o'o bar) is a great tool to have, but an even better one to borrow (and not a bad one to lend, as it is one of the more indestructible tools in the tool shed). Others include a sturdy pick adze, rake adze or pick rake - all are good for popping out jammed rocks. Pruning shears & lopping shears for attempting to control the growth of most plants, and a pruning and bow saw for when you don't contol the branches in time. Clipping and basket fruit pickers for the fruit on the higher branches. A sturdy rake for many raking tasks, inc. ripping out vines that overgrow your plantings. We have found that a 3 prong potato hoe is great for plucking out potato sized rocks out of our cinder soil, only good if you have loose rock & soil...and great for plucking purple potatoes from the deep Hamakua soils. You may want a shovel, mainly for moving the cinder soil that you purchase around, and a transport devise (although wheelbarrow is the first term to come to mind, most of our carting is done toboggan like with a large mortar tray, esp with plant trimmings, just trim into the tray, no lifting)

As I think of it, the absolute BEST tool to get is the one that the cute hired laborer is using...

[asly]

hmmm... cute hired laborer... I think I asked about recommendations for yard and land maintenance, but the question got lost in an earlier thread. So.. Carey, referrals?

And thanks for the description of the o'o bar never really knew what that was, yet had an idea it was something along those lines.

[Carey]

If I had the referrals, do you think I would have the tools, and the experience... best not to get the experience & tools in the first place....

The weedwacker thread was running when I was having a war with my weeds & stringeater...er weedwacher. All I could think of was if I didn't have the fool thing, I would have hired it out & not had to deal with it. Most of my neighbors have perfectly acceptable yards & most of them have narry a yard tool (course most of them put years of time in service to the cane fields, so they have earned the no tools stance.)

[Hotzcatz]

One of my most used tools is a garden cart. It carries more than a wheel barrow and doesn't tip over.

My new absolute favorite tool is the backhoe. Not exactly a backyard tool and I asked for a tractor with a mowing deck, but my DH brought me a backhoe/loader which has a LOT more levers. It is a hoot to play with and great to dig with. We are Hamakua, though and have dirt to play with.

Some pick axes have a tendency to curl up when used on hard soils or rock. If you can get FORGED tools instead of cast tools, they will be a lot stronger.

---

"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[EightFingers]

That's funny, I have had an o'o bar for 30 years and didn't know that's what it was called. 5' long, chisel on one end, point on the other and about 1 1/2" diameter and HEAVY. I use it mainly for demolition (brick and rock walls) and prying rocks out of the ground.

Guess I'd better keep it

[leilaniguy]

You'll need some good leather work gloves for handling A'a, cloth gardening type gloves won't last more than a few minutes. For pulling weeds, get rubber palmed gloves. Some weeds, like sensitive plant have spines that penetrate leather glove seams and will get you.

[StillHope]

Thank you,everyone,for the advice.
I really appreciated it.