4. My Sneeboer Garden Spade & Fork
4. My Sneeboer Garden Spade & Fork (Image 4 of 6)
Matthew says: 'My Sneeboer garden spade and fork don’t look particularly special in any way, although they are hand made in Holland, but they suit me really well. I'm tall and the tools have really long handles, so when I'm digging I don't get a bad back. It's strange that British gardening tools are generally so short. Someone told me that the tools we use in the garden all derive from miners' tools - and they were designed to be used by men steeped over or on their knees. These men used to take their mining tools home with them to garden with - cottage gardening was all about putting food on the table. But the result is that we've ended up with really short tools. If you go to the Far Eastern paddy fields, they have huge tools there, so they don't have to bend while they work. I bought a spade the same as mine for a colleague who is 5ft 2in - and she loves it. So they're not just for tall people, either.'
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