Back saving equipment

[HeyWayne]

As I've previously mentioned I've suffered from back problems in the past. Every time I mention (quite excitedly) that I have a plot, people say "ooh, mind your back!".

Anyway, I found this website that produce "back-saving" equipment, and to be honest, they look quite good. Anyone ever used them?

http://www.get-digging.co.uk/

I'm not one for gimmicks, but I am 6ft 7 so a "long-handled" shovel, rake etc, is actually "properly-sized" for me.

[smallblueplanet]

Ah the azada - yep the OH swears by it! Try searching for it on the board, I'm sure there were some threads about them last year.

[HeyWayne]

And there was me thinking I'd been all pioneering an all!

Seems like it may be a wise investment for lanky ole me. Thanks.

[JennieAtkinson]

There was quite a bit of discussion back in Autumn about backs and azadas and mattocks! and other links too. But thats a good link Heywayne, thanks for sharing it.

[supersprout]

Ooh thank you HeyWayne! I've been looking for a link to one of those. I'm very interested in how people adapt cultivation methods to their level of physical fitness. A tad short on strength, bendiness and stamina at the moment, I find these a great help:

Broadfork for aerating heavy soil
Small, portable plant trainers that fit on a windowsill, so I can sow at home
Long handled dibber - makes holes for plant plugs to slot into (I use a bulb planter for 3-inch pots)
Hot box/raised bed made of straw bales
Seed tapes prepared at home, then quickly sown in drills out on the plot
Rocking stool for working at low level

Mulching with straw has been the biggest breakthrough: no digging and very little weeding

Anyone else got nifty adaptations, tips or 'little helpers' which help make work on the plot more comfortable?

[roitelet]

Hi Supersprout,

Can you explain how you prepare the seed tapes please, they sound very interesting.

[Snadger]

I am in the process of 'breaking in' a new allotment. It has every pernicious weed you could think of, in every spadeful of soil!
I have found the easiest way to save my back is use a sharp spade, cut each section with a cut to the right and a back cut,lever sod , flick it forward,wack it with the back of the spade to loosen soil and pick each sod up and smack it against the spade handle which is stood upright in the newly dug soil. You should dislodge the soil and be left with the thistle/nettle roots in hand to be thrown behind you! Slow work but the only bending is to pick up the sod each time! Spade handle gets a bit mucky but what the heck!

If you try and disentangle the weed roots on the ground you are bending uneccessarily and putting strain on your back and knees!

[supersprout]

Home made seed tape

Hi Supersprout,
Can you explain how you prepare the seed tapes please, they sound very interesting.

Homemade Seed Tape

1. Cut newspaper strips about 1” wide. (If you cut strips off the edge of a newspaper page, you can make sure the strips are straight.)
2. Mix a sticky paste of flour and water - the consistency of thick gravy or soft pudding seems to work well.
3. Using a Q-tip or small artist’s paintbrush as an applicator, dab paste on the newspaper strip, spacing the dabs the right distance apart for the type of seed you’re planting.
4. Place a seed on each dab and set the strip aside to dry. Both large and small seeds lend themselves to this method, but you may find that tweezers are helpful in handling smaller seeds.
5. Preferably on a wet day, plant the seed tapes in a furrow, seed side up, and cover as you normally would.
6. Keep seeds and seedlings well watered.

From “Easy Things to Make … To Make Things Easy” by Doreen Greenstein, published by Brookline Books, P.O. Box 1047, Cambridge, MA 02238, 1-800-666-BOOK

[nick the grief]

Best backsaving tip I could ever give ......

GET ANOTHER MUG TO DIG !!

[Helenclare]

I bought my azada from the get digging company last year and its the best £23 I have ever spent on gardening tools, i went back and bought the matching canterbury hoe type tool and have dug over 60% of my allotment using just those two tools. Absolutley brilliant and a very nice company to deal with too.
Helen

[Mrs Dobby]

You use a mug to dig with Nick? Surely that involves even more bending and must take an absolute age! I'm sure you'd be better off with a decent fork or spade to dig with my friend!

[JennieAtkinson]

Its not the digging I find too bad, its the fact that I put far too much in the wheelbarrow and then can't wheel it to the tipping area in my field! Its uphill!

I never learn and never seem to stop myself before I have piled the wheelbarrow high!

[Sue]

Supersprout
Where do you get the rocking stool from?
best wishes
Sue

[supersprout]

Supersprout
Where do you get the rocking stool from?
best wishes
Sue

It's on special offer from Queenswood (scroll about half way down the page to find it) - worth surfing around to see if you can find it even cheaper elsewhere? It seems like a lot to shell out for an ugly bit of plastic, but I wouldn't be without it now!

[madderbat]

Where do you get the rocking stool from?

Is it a tractor seat? might have to get Bubblewrap one of those. We are looking for a 'put-put' for him after we saw so many in Crete. Three wheeled 2-stroke engine jobs that carry everything in a trailer on the back...