Great Farming and Gardening Tools for Women

Image Gallery Many of us view farm and garden tools as one-size-fits-all, but you will always get the best results with tools appropriately sized for your height and arm length, among other important factors. Finding tools that are efficient and ergonomic can be a real challenge, especially for women. PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

I met Ann Adams and Liz Brensinger, owners of Green Heron Tools, at the 2010 MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR in Seven Springs, Pa., last September, and I had the opportunity to hear their very interesting presentation on farm and garden tools for women.

Ann and Liz, who both come from public health backgrounds, have been examining the general problem of how to make tools more ergonomic to prevent injuries. But their main focus is on a specific issue: Helping women find farm and garden tools that are better suited to their needs. This means tools that are appropriately sized for a woman’s height and arm length, but also tools found to be more ergonomic and efficient, based on field testing by female farmers and gardeners.

I recently followed up with Ann and Liz to learn more about their business, and their research on women and tools. Here’s what they had to say about why all farmers and gardeners need better tools, and why good farm tools for women are especially hard to find.

How would you describe Green Heron Tools? 

Liz: It’s a small business devoted to providing high-quality agricultural and gardening tools and equipment for women. Basically it grew out of our own experiences as market growers — needing to find tools that were better than the ones we had.

We had worked in public health for many years, so we were very clear about the connection between tools and health and safety. We also knew that a tool works best when it fits the person using it. Quite honestly, we were flabbergasted to discover that virtually all the equipment out there had been designed for men — or for some average user who looked a lot more like a man than a woman. So most tools and equipment don’t fit women very well, or work as well for women as they could and should.

Tell me a little bit about the physiological differences between men and women that really make a difference when using farm and garden tools. 

Liz: Well, probably one of the biggest differences is that women have 40 to 75 percent less upper-body strength then men. We also have 5 to 30 percent less lower-body strength. Obviously the difference is greater with upper body-strength, and if you think about it, a lot of tools are really dependent on using that upper body. So, for example, a man will take a shovel and basically thrust it into the ground using his upper body. Very few women have the ability to do that.

Ann: We rely more on our legs to get that shovel into the ground, because that’s where more of our strength is. That’s one of the things we discovered when doing our evaluations for the new shovel we’ll be coming out with early next year: Women use a shovel differently, to capture their lower-body strength. Historically, no one has really looked at the way women shovel and why that may be different.