Allotment essentials: the best spades, seeds and forks - everything you need to help your allotment flourish
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A decent tool that is fit for the job in hand will make tending your veg plot a whole lot easier and afford you more time to concentrate on the trickier aspects of allotment upkeep – namely encouraging vegetables to grow and then subsequently trying to keeping them alive long enough to reap the rewards.
As the old adage goes, ‘buy cheap, buy twice’ and this rings especially true with garden tools. You’ll find that implements lurking in lower price brackets will tend to bend and break more readily so it always pays to spend a bit more on something that will last a good few seasons.
For this reason, some of the items listed below may look a bit pricey, but these are quality-made tools built for purpose and you really do get what you pay for.
Finally, a word of caution before you go out and splash your hard earned cash.
Maintenance is key
Posh tools left in lonely sheds can provide rich pickings for unscrupulous types, so best practice is to store your prized implements at home and reserve your allotment shed for potting up plants and sheltering from the rain.
Here’s a list of ten, top tier tools to cover all your allotment-ing needs...
A spade is arguably the most important tool in your allotment tool arsenal so it’s worth spending a bit of cash on something that will give you many years of loyal service.
Wigan-based tool company Bulldog have been bashing out quality gardening implements since 1780 and we really dig their spades.
This sturdy, soil-shifting tool sports a smooth, extra long ash handle to help minimise bending and associated back strain, and its large steel digging head bears welded treads on top of the blade to help prevent welly slippage in muddy conditions.
Giving the spade a run for its money in the allotment usefulness stakes is the garden fork.
There are various types of fork available, from ones that have extra fat tines to help lift root veg through to narrow, nippy ones designed for close border work and weeding.
For general, every day allotment use, this four-pronged fellow will see you right. It’s super-strong, light in use and the carbon steel head and handle are covered with a powder-coated paint job to help prevent rust and scratches.
We’ve been using ours for years without trouble, but should yours fail to live up to its ‘Neverbend’ moniker, Spear & Jackson have you covered with a 10 year guarantee.
We could quite happily populate this tool list with tools made by ace Dutch toolmakers Sneeboer but one of our absolute favorites and most often used is this wide-bladed transplanting trowel.
It’s built specifically for extracting and replanting plants (hence the name) but the sharp shield-shaped blade and large soil-holding capacity of this sturdy steel tool make it a great allotment all-rounder.
It’s also worth keeping an eye out for the special edition version of this trowel which comes with a handy bottle opening notch cut into the blade, perfect for opening a post-graft brew.
We’re going Dutch again for our choice of hand fork – this one hails from De Wit, a family run business specialising in hand-forged garden gear.
It’s a beautiful looking tool, constructed from black patina boron steel with an ergonomic ash handle - it’s almost a shame to plunge it in soil.
The sharp, wide prongs of this nimble implement make it the perfect choice for weeding tasks and for transplanting plants.
The Japanese hori hori is a kind of knife/trowel hybrid, designed for poking, prodding and delving duties.
There are quite a few hori horis on the market, but we think that Niwakis super-sharp soil shifter is the pick of the bunch.
Featuring a 17cm stainless steel blade encased in a maple handle, it’s a lovely, well-balanced tool to wield and comes complete with a canvas holster for dangling off your belt, ready for action.
You’ll find that the hori hori is an indispensable allotment tool that you never knew you needed.