Often, these are timeless items that have truly stood the test of time, but there’s also room for innovations that have transformed the way we garden – battery-powered tools that have done away with electric cables and noisy, smelly two-stroke fuel, for example. We asked the country’s top head gardeners which tools they couldn’t contemplate gardening without.
Every gardener needs a pair of secateurs, preferably on their person at all times. Nip off wayward shoots, cut out reverted branches on variegated shrubs, deadhead roses, get rid of suckers, even cut a piece of string – they are constantly useful.
And when it comes to choosing which pair to buy, the UK’s head gardeners have one recommendation: Felco. “We always have them on us,” says Andrew McCoryn, head gardener at Leeds Castle in Kent. “They are to gardeners what a light sabre is to Jedi knights.” The model of choice? Felco No 2 Original (£54.99) linked here, a bypass secateur with hardened steel blades and sturdy handles that are comfortable enough to use for long periods.
They’re the secateurs of choice for Andrew, Martin Duncan of Arundel Castle, Stephen Griffith, curator at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens and Waterperry’s head gardener, Pat Havers. A left-handed version is also available (model No 9) linked here, and Bodnant Garden’s John Rippin also recommends Felco’s 903 Diamond Sharpener (£22.99) linked here to go with them. “You can keep it in your pocket and it’s easy to use – keeping your secateurs sharp is really important,” he says.
2. Pocket knife
A wooden-handled Opinel pocket knife accompanies Stephen Griffith around Abbotsbury. “It’s a little thing but it’s useful for cutting string and odd jobs,” he says. From £8.40, opinel.com
3. A ‘big’ knife
Whether
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