Monday, November 21, 2011

101 uses (well, 10) for a garden knife

I do love my garden knife.

It's the one thing I wouldn't be without. It was probably the best freebie I've ever been given in all the years I've been a garden hack.

It looks exactly like the one in the picture. I can't even remember which particular press event it was: just that those nice people at Marshalls (and here's my chance - even if they have had to wait several years - to give them the mention they were no doubt after in exchange for the freebie) included one in a goody bag.

But I realised the other day that I very rarely actually use mine for proper gardening. I don't do much T-budding (for which you'd need a finer knife anyway); I find secateurs more useful for things like dead-heading; and I don't bother chipping seeds.
Gardening knives, I've discovered, aren't really for gardening at all. Oh no - they're much more useful than that, which is why I have mine in my pocket at all times. Here's what they are for:
  • cutting up little bits of string for tying in sweetpeas (and beans, and peas, and achocha)
  • hoicking those bits of hair and string and wool and stuff out of the brush on the vacuum cleaner
  • gouging dirt out from under your fingernails
  • acting as a stand-in screwdriver to undo the cross-head bolts on greenhouse staging
  • ditto to tighten up the arms of your glasses when they come loose
  • slitting open compost bags
  • cutting x-shaped holes through planting membranes and into the tops of grow bags
  • prising out mud from the treads of gardening boots
  • going armed against potential thugs on the Underground while convincing police you're just a batty middle-aged gardener
What do you use yours for?

5 comments:

Su said...

What great uses! Especially love the vacuum cleaner one!

BTW, don't take it on the London Eye as they'll confiscate it and then make you queue up like a criminal to reclaim it - don't ask me how I know, it's a long story but caused much amusement to those around me!!!!

Helen said...

I have one of my grandfather's bone handled knives in my garden toolkit. In addition to all the things you mentioned ;^) I find it very handy for dividing perennials, especially those with thick or woody root systems.

The Constant Gardener said...

thanks Su, I'll remember that :D and one day I'll get the full story (can just see the newspaper headlines...)

Helen - I love inherited garden tools. I have a flat-tined iron fork I 'inherited' from an old gardener I once knew: still one of the best digging forks I've ever used. And one of the heaviest (and rustiest): but that's what makes it work so well, and anyway, that's the weight of history on the handle, I reckon.

Dard said...

Nice Post...Sharpening serrated or straight blade kitchen knives is relatively easy. Gardening or woodworking tools, on the other hand, can look a bit more challenging to sharpen, especially if you are not an experienced knife sharpener.
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VP said...

Confession time - I don't have a garden knife :o

It must mean I'm not a proper gardener :(

Perhaps Santa will take pity this year...

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