Secateurs Arrive

Spear & Jackson Kew Gardens Razorsharp 6659KEW 

Heavy Duty Bypass Secateurs

My competition win arrived today and I had to look on line to see what they are worth. They have a RRP of £34.99 and Amazon are selling them for £20.43 and on ebay someone is selling them at £14.99 that is a huge drop from the RRP. 

As always it pays to shop around but in my case I got these for my favourite price of FREE

Spear & Jackson Kew Gardens Brochure

After all the cheap £2 from Tesco & ASDA Secateurs I have bought at the end of season sales It's going to be nice having a quality pair to play with and add to the other better quality hand tools I'm gradually gathering. 

Spear & Jackson - The Kew Garden Collection

I love Facebook when friends tag you in on competitions, the latest one that I entered was from the Spear & Jackson UK Facebook page, to give away 5 pairs of their Kew Gardens Collection Heavy Duty Bypass Secateurs

To enter I simply had to like the Spear & Jackson UK Facebook page, like and share the post and tag 2 friends in the comments section.

The five lucky winners were announced today Wednesday, 28th September at 11:59am.

I came back from lunch looked at my Facebook notifications and I'm one of the Lucky Winners. Now that I have provided my address it looks like I will have a nice Heavy Duty set of Secateurs on their way to me shortly.  

• Kew Gardens Collection Heavy Duty Bypass Secateurs
• Maximum cut: 20mm (3/4") diameter
• Overall length: 215mm (8 1/2 ")
• Blade size: 69mm (2 11/16")
• Part number: 6659KEW

Heavy Duty Bulb Planter

I've received another item selected whilst sat in the hospital waiting room for 9 hour and thumbing through the Marshalls catalogue repeatedly over and over again. The catalogue first got the scan read slowing down to look at stuff that was interesting when I first arrived at the waiting room, but during that long day I read every word and looked at every picture a number of times to pass the time.

I have a number of different tools for boring holes in the ground especially as I tend to grow through planting membrane to reduce the amount of weeds I have to deal with. 

What I didn't know, and the publication and come to that the web site does not tell you is what the diameter of the bore is and the depth of the bit. It only gives you the overall height of the beast when the plunger is at the bottom of the tool. I've measured added the key dimensions to the photo above for your information. 

Without doubt these tools save you time and even in loose soil you can wiggle the bit around and apply lateral force to the soil enough for the sides to hold up whilst you extract the tool to reveal the bore to plant your bulb, seed potato, sweetcorn plant etc.  

The instructions on the side of the tool says 

• Push the planter into the ground and twist 3 to 4 times. remove and place bulb in the hole, press the plunger to eject the soil back into the hole.

• For ease of soil ejection make sure the soil is well dug prior to planting 

• Black powder coated for longer life   

As you turn and work the tool into the ground the soil inside lifts the plate with the plunger that extends up from the middle of the handle bars, then you can replace or expel the plug of soil by pushing the plunger back down. 

If the soil is too cohesive you may have to turn the tool upside down and apply force to the handle bars to ease the soil out of the tool or in the extreme dig some of the soil out of the end of the tool with a small trowel to reduce the frictional force holding the soil plug in. 

This is standard for all of these types of plunger tools and is why the note about "For ease of ejection make sure the soil is well dug prior to planting" is on the side of the tool. 

The tool is made from powder-coated heavy-duty steel and appears to be of a robust and durable fabrication. It is manufactured in the UK and is branded Worth Gardening by Garland who manufacture a huge range of products that retailers like of Marshalls sell.

At the moment the cost of this tool from Marshalls is £19.99 and here is the Link to the Marshalls Web Page for it. Garland are currently selling the same tool at the RRP £24.99 on their web site.

I don't get any form of commission for providing the links. I do however occasionally receive the odd product to test or new variety of seeds to trial from various suppliers who value my blog and those that follow it. 

UPDATE  14th May 2019 

As a result of my post I was informed by a Marketing Manager at Marshalls that they have added the additional dimensional information to their web page... 

It's nice to know that the blog gets read by suppliers as well as allotment plot holders. 

TESCO Long Handled Weed Knife

I had to do some shopping today and now that Easter is over and the last of the Easter Eggs are being sold off at less than half price the seasonal gardening stuff is hitting the shelfs again on the seasonal aisle, and I just had to treat myself to a couple of Long Handled Weed Knifes one for the allotment and the other for home.

At £3 each they didn't break the bank, and the weed knife is one of my favorite hand tools to use, and as I have problems getting down on my knees at the moment is a sensible purchase. 

You twist the top and the inner tube is telescopic and extends making the tool extend from 690mm to 1000mm or 1m.

Care Instructions - Wipe clean with a damp cloth and dry thoroughly before storing.     

Spear and Jackson Razorsharp

I've seen this set on the internet selling for £24.99 Tesco at the moment £10 It just had to be done

Spear and Jackson Razorsharp

Anvil Secateur and Bypass Secateur Twin Set

Part No. CUTTINGSET16

Anvil action minimises stem twisting on woody stems
Bypass action minimises stem bruising on green stems
High carbon steel blades for lasting sharpness
PTFE coated upper blades for rust resistance and smooth cutting
Hard chromed lower blades for rust resistance
Ergonomic soft feel handles for increased comfort
Adjustable cutting width
15mm Maximum cutting diameter

Making More Compost

The weather has been great, but with the leg still not 100% I keep being warned not to do too much and not to knock or injure my leg again by the wife and kids. My youngest daughter cut my grass yesterday and I was only allowed to empty the lawn mower and not strim incase something hit my leg, but they could not complain about me taking my grass cuttings and picking up my sisters grass cuttings and taking them down to the allotment to feed my Daleks today. 

These two Daleks were filled to the brim time and time again last year and today they have been filled with alternative layers of grass, shredded paper, dried coffee grounds and each layer has been watered in. The  final layer was a food bucket of cardboard from Christmas that has been cut into strips and then into squares. 

The potatoes in buckets are showing and will need topping up next weekend. The tulips have dried up and most of the flowers have gone but they were beautiful whilst they lasted and I may ultimately transplant them around the edge of the plot in a margin. 

The two Raspberries that I bought a few weeks ago before I had my injury to the leg were soaked in water and planted in buckets, they have two chances they will grow or they will die if they aren't already dead, but the roots looked good and I gave them half normal compost and half of the acidic apple compost that I have been making for the last couple of years. 

A dash around the paths with some weed killer as I don't have the time to deal with the weeds at the moment by just digging them out and that was it for todays visit which lasted a couple of hours in the midday sun which quite frankly was long enough on my feet after yesterday and our walk in Bedding park after a great Sunday Easter roast dinner.

   



That Fin loves his Grandad but he has a soft spot for his Nan-nan who now has an awsome mobility scooter and gives rides to little lads.

He also found out that the scooter has a red horn button and knows what to press to make it work! 

Popped into Lidl for the cordless soldering iron but they didn't have any, but I did pick up a florabest folding tree saw £4.99 and a florabest Ratchet Secateurs £3.99 that according to the blurb are Power-enhancing 4-stage ratchet system for cutting green wood up to 20mm dia. so ideal for the apple tree and for the rest or the Hawthone on the allotment.   

I'm a little sick of using the cheap supermarket secateurs that the nut gradually unscrews as you use them or the locking mechanism screw unscrews and becomes loose as you use them, they are cheap but they are nasty and don't really last or stay sharp very long, their only saving grace is that I usually buy them when discounted at the end of season sale.