For me, vegetable garden tools make the difference between success and failure in the vegetable garden
Maintaining a vegetable garden is not possible without tools. In our vegetable garden we do almost everything by hand, motor-driven tools, that only happens very exceptionally. I remember 4 years ago that Gerard, my neighbor, was tilling my vegetable garden with a mini tractor. My vegetable garden was a piece of 350 m² of neglected land that had been lying wild for 7 years. The previous owner also told me with a smile: "I have sprayed all the weeds again, you will be able to start easily". That was not with an ecological product ... I then asked Gerard in November to loosen the soil so that all the rubbish could wash away from the soil. Here is a video:
https://youtu.be/WlvP2CrTh3s?t=6m26s
As I said, we mainly use mechanical garden tools in the vegetable garden. I would like to explain to you why, as I said before, it makes the difference between success and failure in the vegetable garden for me. An expensive
rake or a cheap one should not make that much difference. Well, for me it does. Since I have good tools that are well balanced, sharp and light, I can work faster. Because I can work faster, I achieve more results in my vegetable garden in 1 day. More results give me satisfaction and because everything goes faster, I come to my vegetable garden more often. Not only to work, but also to enjoy. They often say 'Many hands make light work', well good tools do that too.
I know that my children and my grandchildren will be very happy with what I leave behind for them
Since I started using my weed puller, I no longer spend hours on my knees removing the long roots of dandelions or other deep-rooted weeds. In a first round in my vegetable garden, I insert 5 cm under the plant and wrap the weed puller. In a second pass, I pick up the weeds from the ground. For my vegetable garden tools, I have chosen the Traditional Gamma from Polet. This is hand-forged garden equipment that is truly top quality. My machine-made garden tools that I used to have look like scrap. Cast-offs from others and cheaper tools from the garden centre that are machine-folded and made of inferior quality material. The only tool that was truly quality so far is my Polet
Digging Fork (see video below). For the rest, I have been messing around with that other tool for 5 years now. Re-heading nails because something is loose, a handle that breaks off, putting a lot of force on blunt material ... I've had it.
https://youtu.be/Ou1uESve-yU
I have now bought material that is not cheap, thanks to a deal with Moestuinweetjes and Polet I was also able to get everything I wanted in the house right away. That will not be possible for everyone right away, but taking your tools to a higher level one by one will bring you so much more pleasure and especially comfort in the garden. I am sure that I will continue to practice my hobby for many years and I am sure that my children and who knows my grandchildren will still be very happy with what I leave behind for them. What makes hand-forged garden tools so special, you can read below:
Blacksmithing, the oldest profession in the world
Blacksmithing is one of the oldest professions in the world. It is the first metalworking process that ever existed. Every village had a blacksmith. Perhaps that is why many people in Belgium are called Desmet, in the Netherlands the name is Smit, we will not mention famous singers here. The biggest advantage is that hand-forged iron is stronger than iron that is shaped and sharpened by machines.
Polet took over the Denolf forge
According to old tradition, forging was done with a hammer and anvil. Despite the introduction of water power for iron working in the 12th century, hammer and anvil continued to be used for making tools. It was not until the 19th century that the profession of blacksmith gradually disappeared from every village. The technique was then carried out on a larger scale with the aid of power sources and the local blacksmith could no longer survive. Forging has evolved. The workshops are high-tech, the machines and the raw materials have now been adapted to very high standards.
Why is forged iron actually stronger?
How does the process of forging work? The basic principle is to heat iron and beat it until it forms the right shape. But why not just bend metal? Well, iron consists of iron crystals. When iron is bent or folded, these crystals slide next to each other, creating a fracture, as it were. By repeatedly beating red-hot iron, new crystals are created that form one strong whole. Smaller crystals provide more flexibility and do not have cracks or fissures in the crystals, as is the case with machine-bent tools. Smaller iron crystals can also be made sharper than larger iron crystals.
Polet Traditional hand-forged vegetable garden tools
The Polet Traditional range is hand-forged vegetable garden tools
As I said before, until recently my vegetable garden tools were a disaster. So bad that my father said: "If you still want me to come and earth up your
potatoes next year, you'll have to come up with better equipment in the future". I had some inherited equipment from here and there and I had also bought a spade at the garden centre for 30 euros or something, a blunt, cumbersome thing that you had to jump on to get through anything. In 2018 I really wanted to work on comfortable, durable and strong vegetable garden tools. As a little boy I went to my colleague Peter at Moestuinweetjes to insist on including a range of top tools in the webshop.
After some deliberation and 17 phone calls later, I was able to convince my co-founder at Moestuinweetjes Peter Deferme to expand the vegetable garden tools on www.moestuinweetjes.com with the real stuff. Peter agreed, but not the regular tools that you can also buy in the garden center. He wanted the cream of the crop. Because we work very well with Polet on the best price/quality
pitchfork on the market, we also opted for their Traditional range, top quality and hand-forged. The Polet Traditional range is endless, it consists of hundreds of types of tools. For tree doctors, construction workers, paving and also for the vegetable garden, they have exactly what you need. Polet consultant Peter Dierickx helped us to include the fundamental tools in the webshop that you need in your vegetable garden.
An overview of what is available at Moestuinweetjes:
Large vegetable garden tools vegetable garden tools
Small hand-forged vegetable garden tools or hand tools
Finally
This seems like one big promo message for vegetable garden tools. Well, it is. If it didn't make a difference in the vegetable garden, Moestuinweetjes wouldn't offer it. We don't sell frogs to put by your pond, dog poop bags or Santas on a rope. All the products we promote are things we stand behind.
To make the products a bit more accessible, we want to give a 10% discount on the Polet catalogue price. Hopefully it will enable you to make your vegetable garden life more comfortable and to save your energy to do other things. Who knows, you might be able to use the time that is freed up to grow even more vegetables or to sit in your vegetable garden for a while and look at all the beautiful things you are doing.
Have fun gardening,
Tom
