Border Forks, Hand Trowels and Hand Forks

Border Forks, Hand Trowels and Hand Forks: The Barnsdale Gardens team have lost count of the smaller hand tools that their gardeners have accidentally lost in the borders and compost heaps at the Gardens, this is because the majority of these tools are rather dull in colour, especially when they’re covered in soil, but Burgon and Ball have found a solution…

Burgon & Ball FloraBrite® Hand Trowel and Hand Fork

These Florabrite tools have hardwood handles painted in a very bright fluorescent paint, which makes them easy to spot if left in any foliage or amongst weeds and prunings in a wheelbarrow.

The team have been using the fluorescent yellow versions and they really do stand-out, the Florabrite range also come in pink.

Other than the bright handles the tools are a really good quality, both the trowel and fork have heat-treated, stainless-steel heads which are very strong and unlikely to bend. The handles are very comfortable to hold and have a loop of string attached so they can hang in the shed and, just in case you want to find them by torchlight when it’s dark, the string has reflective elements.

Conclusion: Both tools have a high-quality, solid feel to them and time will tell how long the paint will last but it looks and feels hardwearing. The bright colours are a great idea and come highly recommended.

Border forks are a must for the Barnsdale team and need to be easy to use and hardwearing for their day-to-day work in the gardens.  Below you can read how this border fork fared this month for them …

Burgon & Ball RHS Endorsed Border Fork

As this is a border fork it’s smaller and lighter than a traditional digging fork (98cm overall length, 14cm wide, 1.46kg); it has a Y shaped ash handle and stainless steel tines.

The team found that the fork looks and feels like a quality tool, the tines are a good thickness and feel strong, the handle is very smooth with double rivets at the base for extra strength, this fits into the double riveted strapped socket of the tines giving a breaking strain of 90kg.

Border forks are generally used to lightly dig over the surface soil but it’s good to know that this one is capable of digging deeper if needed.

This fork was used to to dig through a mixed border between the plants and to prepare some planting holes; it was a joy to use. The tines had enough strength to turn the heavy clay mixed with chunks of limestone and gave a fine finish to the soil.

Conclusion: A small, strong and good quality tool which will last for many years if treated well. If one thing could be changed it would be how the shaft and blade are joined, the rivets and blade protrude out from the wooden shaft; although this isn’t really a problem and has not deterred the team from recommending it, although they would suggest wearing gloves to avoid chafing.

You can read all of the teams Tools On Test here: https://shop.barnsdalegardens.co.uk/blogs/tools-on-test

There’s plenty to see and do all year round at Barnsdale Gardens!

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