Thorny Problems

Back to basics Tools you need, and one or two you perhaps don’t Also this week: curing sick roses and how to make a happy pond

Choosing gardening tools is a highly personal thing, I know. My aim here, in airing my own choices, the result of a huge number of years of (literally) trial and more than occasional error, is to help readers to make their own decisions. So here goes: the Yemm Analysis, starting with…

SPADES AND FORKS

As with so much that follows, it is all about weight. Try to handle them before buying (rather than shopping online). The best material (in my book) is stainless steel: lightweight and easy to clean.

Those with little serious groundbreaking to do may reach for a fork more often than a spade. A recent, already beloved acquisition is a light fork with slightly shorter tines than usual and a comfortable T-handle (burgonandball.com).

RAKES

My go-to, useful for dozens of garden tasks, is a flat-tined, straight-ended plastic lawn rake (gardena.com) rather than a traditional garden rake. It is part of a range with interchangeable heads known as multi-tools (which I regard as fiddly and don’t otherwise go for).

HOES

Growers of veg in rows need hoes, others may not. On my allotment, on breezy/sunny days (so upended weedlings have no chance of revival), I use a strange-shaped “Swoe” (wilkinsonsword-tools.co.uk).

SMALL TOOLS, TROWELS AND HAND FORKS

Again, weight is key, as well as a really substantial handle. You need both trowel and fork (you really cannot weed efficiently with a trowel: it has to be done with a gloved hand and fork), and it pays to invest in quality. The wooden handles of sturdy Sneeboer tools don’t budge (even surviving “burial” in a compost heap, on one occasion). However, a budget, heavy-duty, soft-grip rubber-handled trowel that I have used for aeons (drapertools.com), still available as part of a hand tool trio, I notice, is a surprising star in my trowel galaxy.

I am not sure yet what to make of the rather Bear Grylls-y Hori Hori (Japanese trowel/knife), bought during last summer from niwaki.com.

SECATEURS

Felco (worlfoffelco. co.uk) is the go-to for quality-conscious gardeners, it makes a weight and type of secateurs to suit everyone who can afford it. Burton

McCall (burton-mccall. co.uk) runs a Felco renovation service, too. Cheap, supermarket Felco lookalikes just don’t cut the mustard, but Wilkinson Sword has an excellent range, while the truly self-indulgent might go for the Japanese Okatsune brand (also from Niwaki).

I have two secateurs that I particularly love, Posh and Becks. Becks (unlosable Gardena turquoise) sits in my back pocket for on-the-go snipping. Posh is for roses (OK, confession, they are Okatsune…).

SHEARS

Lightweight again: I use Burgon & Ball, extra light, long-ish handled and short bladed shears for small trimming jobs, and for tougher duty I like my intriguing tri-bladed, extendable (but fairly unwieldy) Darlac shears. Heaven knows, I have written enough in praise of my indispensable one-handed shears for cutting down perennials (handshears.co.uk).

Lastly, I must add to this list a small foldable Burgon & Ball pruning saw, mostly used for cutting the gnarled old roses and shrubs, and telescopic pruners (from Darlac).

ROSE SICKNESS

Ross Madmurchy has been “patching” threadbare parts of his extensive, 24-year-old, naturally suckering rugosa rose hedge with, he says, disappointing results. None of the replacement plants is growing well, and anyway they don’t seem to be the same variety as the originals, having darker flowers and hips. What should he do?

This is basically about socalled rose sickness, presumed to be caused by destructive microscopic soil-dwelling nematodes. Roses that have been in situ for more than five years are presumed to be immune. Until recently, the best advice on offer to overcome the frustrating problem of rose sickness, where new roses failed to thrive, was to replace completely a substantial quantity of soil in the area when replacing one rose with another. Bunny Guinness wrote recently about how planting in a cardboard box also works (Sunday Telegraph, Feb 28).

The problem is now more simply dealt with by using Rootgrow (natural beneficial mycorrhizal fungi) when planting. The fungi attach themselves to the rose roots and grow outwards searching for water and nutrients, forming a symbiotic relationship between plant and fungi that results in stronger and more disease-resistant plant growth. In this instance, I think the most logical thing to do would be to, using a spade, separate some vigorous suckers from the “parent” plants in the hedge, give them a season to form new roots in situ, and next autumn dig them up and replant them in the gaps. They will be the same variety as the old hedge, already tolerant of any soil-dwelling nematodes, and the Rootgrow will ensure that they get off to a flying start.

POND SLUDGE

Q

I have a new small garden with a tiny, weedy pond that has a sludgy bottom. The water, however, is clear and there is a clump of frogspawn. I feel the pond needs a clear-out, but I have no wish to be a wicked stepmother to a whole generation of tadpoles. Help!

– Lizzie Fellowes – via email A

Happy ponds, attracting all sorts of wildlife, are often crowded with vegetation that helps with the creation of a natural biological balance. The water, for example, needs to be a third full of oxygenating weed, and/or for a third of its surface to be shaded (by lily leaves, for example). A bottom layer of sludge in which aquatic beasties can spend most of their lives unseen and undisturbed is vital, too. This can take years to develop naturally and can easily be unbalanced by too much, too frequent meddling. This summer, doing as little as possible, top the pond up with rainwater as necessary and cull weed if it threatens to become overwhelming. If you feel you must sludge-scoop, do a little at a time, and from one end of the pond only, so that beasties can scuttle away to other parts. Use a fine nylon net (regularly inspecting the contents) and give the other half the same treatment next year. You may find that apart from these ministrations, the pond runs itself.

For further advice, visit ecopond.co.uk

Prong decisions: when choosing a gardening fork, opt for stainless steel because it is light and easy to clean