Get a HANDLE on It

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Tools to help you reach beyond your grasp

by Brook Elliott - Illustrations by Will Shelton

A tool is a device that extends the human body and multiplies any force exerted. Archimedes' lever was an extension of his arm that increased the lifting force applied to one end. The same is true for garden tools.

Whatever their shape or purpose, garden tools extend some part of your body and multiply the strength applied. For instance, if you squeeze your fingers together and cup your hand slightly, you have formed a spade to dig and scrape. Forge that spade from stone or metal and you can move much more dirt with the same effort. Put a handle on it, and you leverage that effort several fold. By this point, you have a trowel.

Unfortunately, the handles on most trowels, and on most gardening tools intended for one-handed use, are woefully short. You wind up doing the work instead of the tool doing it for you. I recently witnessed this inefficiency in person, watching a neighbor plant a bed of flower bulbs. For each bulb, he had to forcefully stab the trowel blade into the earth, then twist it several times to create a hole for the bulb. The poor guy was breaking a sweat planting flowers! A longer handle would have made the job a snap.

One-handed gardening tools (as opposed to those, like a shovel, that require two hands to operate) fall into five categories: digging blades (trowels); cutting and scraping blades (hoes and weeders); forks and cultivators; rakes; and multipurpose tools that combine two or more functions. Sometimes the standard six- or seven-inch handle is sufficient for the job at hand, but a longer handle is often preferable. Long-handled tools range in length from about ten to 24 inches; anything more than 32 inches long is difficult to use with one hand. Among the many advantages to long-handled tools:

Power transference A long handle acts as a lever, transferring your energy to the tool and multiplying the effect so you can do more work with less effort. This is not a new idea - the Native-American digging stick is an application of this principle.

Balance A longer handle counterbalances the weight of the tool head, making it less fatiguing to use, especially over long periods.

Reach Long-handled tools extend the length of your reach, which has many advantages. Obviously, you can reach further without moving. But the longer reach also lets you forage around in areas that might be otherwise difficult to manage. For instance, with the two-foot wire rake from Garden Tools of Maine, you can easily reach deep into a perennial bed to clean out debris, which is nearly impossible to do with a full-length rake. This application is especially practical when cleaning out beds of thorny plants, such as roses and berries.