Friday, November 23, 2012

Fiskars shrub rake

Fiskars 'shrub rake'
Gardeners can spend a lifetime acquiring their tools of the trade. Some of the best garden tools I have found have been for sale at local market stalls , old tools re-fashioned or made-over by weather beaten men of European extraction who look as if they have spent a lifetime tilling the soil.Their callused hands caress the wooden handles as part of the sales pitch while I ponder what use I can put to an ancient scythe more at home on the Russian steppes of a previous century. Occasionally I get excited about a new tool and marvel about how well designed it is. This Finnish designed shrub rake is so called because in the northern hemisphere, where lawn does not grow like stink as here, it finds a use for removing leaves which fall over beds of ground cover and for reaching up over hedge plants to remove the spent prunings. To a certain extent these uses make it ideal for any part of the gardening world but in Australia rakes are mostly associated with lawn care and in this use it does not disappoint either. This is the perfect small rake with a 140mm wide head for use in narrow tight garden corners. The handle is lightweight aluminium, strong and long for hard raking over lawn or for reaching up onto the top of shrubs to retrieve pruned branches. Ten out of ten thanks Fiskars.

3 comments:

  1. I had a little chuckle to myself as I read your 'review' of the ABC's G.A. show Ian. Perhaps the show's producers are conspiring to attract a much younger audience with the addition of a certain personality; whom I had the pleasure to photograph recently. I certainly appreciate the opposite view. I found one host last year a bit humdrum and each episode seemed to be over a lot sooner than anticipated. Peter Cundall's exuberant style is a hard act to follow! (I have noticed though, this year's show host's hair volume has reduced a fraction since the beginning of the season - an attempt to tame him a little perhaps).
    I haven't added Rake to my regular viewing as yet...but I have heard a lot of positive feedback from friends.
    And thank you for your excellent review of the Fiskar's rake...I have a lot of their products but not in the gardening category...perhaps this will be my first as I think about tackling the leaf litter building up in our bush garden.

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  2. Wonderful observations Ian. Am finding G.A rather tedious these days; wouldn't mind seeing something ornamental. Shame that the presenter doesn't have hindsight... as he faces the camera on the verge we get to see a overgrown wall of fishbone fern. WTF

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  3. Thanks for your comments. That fishbone fern has been bugging me all year especially when i think of all the man hours i have spent removing the wretched stuff.

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