What's the oldest garden tool you use?

I'm pretty rusty and feel like I'm more than 100 years old. Maybe I should post this on the antiques and collectibles forum :-)

Grampapa...what an appropriate vote considering your user ID! So cute!

We are youngin's in a new house so I was going to vote all tools newer than 5 years but by gosh I am the best tool there is when it comes to pulling out weeds so that makes ME the oldest tool around here...and since I'm a tad older than my spouse I'm STILL the oldest tool. =)

LOL gramps ;o))
My oldest is a pruning saw inherited from a gardening crazy aunt. It still works beautifully and I think of her as I'm trimming away. I put it at 50-100.....

I am still using an old wheel hoe from 1900.

My tools always break so it seems I get replacements each year. My DH had broken at least 2 edgers per year, I break a couple of my hand spades each year (one already this year) and I've been through 8 pairs of gloves (lucky i get them at Christmas!!!). With all the rocks around here, tools ttend to take a beating and then with all the rain, my gloves look like they are 100 years old from digging in the mud and rocks. I was grossed out putting them on this morning and the dirt was going up into my nails. Ick.

My Dh is 79 ( almost 80), and I am 73. I can't think of any garden tools that we have that are older than we are.
( But then, my mind is no longer very sharp, just like most of my tools!) lol

Oakie doakie, now that my memory has been jogged, we do have tools older than ourselves. DH has a grubbing hoe, and we have some old push hoes, but they are missing handles and some blades.

This message was edited Jun 12, 2006 12:03 PM

I too have an old wheel hoe from waay back. I also have a Ro Hoe Gardener with scuttle blade on one side and turned over it has cultivators shovels. I use it a little......it is calorie using!.... Also I have a cultipacker. Also I have two old tile scoops that are very usual in keeping good drainage channels around the garden and elsewhere....drainage....number one issue in oftentimes rainy Indiana....."It Don't Rain In Indiananapolis In The Summertime" kids the oldie song..... LOL

I voted for myself. I go along with the thought that I work better than most tools.
I do have a 50+ years old tractor & another that is pushing 50. My Troy Built tiller is over 20 & still going strong. Even our riding mower is over 10 years old. Gee, I better run out & get some new stuff! LOL!
Bernie

Yeah, Bernie. I got a three point hitch '49 Fergueson with a 2 -12 mounted plow....finally had to replace the front tires...tubes were good but casings rotted and pinched the tubes.

I like this poll. I had to vote 5-25 yrs. I wish I had something older with more history & sentimental value...something of my grandparents, but I don't. Maybe I'll have to go looking for something of theirs.

I do have a small rake that my DMIL left when she moved to the west coast. The gardens here were hers before they were mine and she set me up very well, including tools. I love my little rake and think of her using it w/ love everytime I use it. I still remember her telling me when and why to use it...to get in close and loosen the soil around plants after a hard rain, etc.

I won't let dh touch it, it has a wooden handle and he breaks all wooden handles he touches. He has his own set of tools, all with fiberglass handles, and he's actually managed to break some of those too! LOL

I'm definitely the oldest tool I use. I can still somewhat keep tract of myself, but all the other tools seem to end up missing after a few years.

Hey
For sure I must be the oldest starter in gardening!
I’m 67, a retired Anesthetist. My tools are 3 days old. I have worked with potted plants for many years but never found it necessary to use anything else then my hands, a pair of scissors and a water jug.
By the way I’m from Switzerland and love America!

A big ol 'hearty' welcome to DG, to ya .. oasisrm!!

- Magpye

Most of my gardening implements (spades, trowels, rakes, husband, gloves...) are relatively new. All definitely fall within 5 years! New husband a year and a half ago, new house 14 months ago and my first garden all of my own. My mom is the only other avid gardener in my family, so alas, there have been no wonderful hand-me-down tools since she is alive and well and spends more time in her garden than I do in mine. But I'm hoping that some of the neat things that I use may be passed on to our future children... (The cats simply don't count, though my folks are both very thrilled to have Grandkittens for lack of anything else!)

Well Let me see. I have an old tater hoe and a wheel hoe. So Corky uses old stuff too. Only 63 here going on 2. Ha Ha. hagd all, Corky

I have a hay pitch fork that is very old, ??? And I will be 60 this year, so maybe I'm competeing with the pitch fork. I also have a Gardena hoe I bought new that has seen steady work for at least 30 years and is still great.

I inherited a lot of my tools and don't know whose they were - as my grandfather quit gardening when he moved to florida in 1980 - and the tools were just around my mothers house when she died but I don't think they were his.....too new. Beats me!

lol! After I clicked berween 5-25 yrs., I thought that I could use my DH (he'll be 54 on 6/27 - I'm 50 and a 1/2) to answer! I think it's a funny choice! lol!

I have a green handled weeder that I got in the 80's (around 20 yrs old) that I really like. It's a Burpee that is about an inch wide with a pointed end.

This message was edited Jun 12, 2006 6:41 PM

Welcome oasisrm! Watch out - digging in the dirt is addictive!
Debra

I must have something over 5 years old, but I buy decent tools and work them to their death pretty fast.

I have an ancient weed digger that is slightly curved , and the handle has kind of a ball on the end. I picked it up at an estate sale,and have no idea how old it is, but I've never seen one like it. We are pretty hard on our other stuff and have a collection of handles from spades, hoes and rakes that come in handy for propping up tomatos and such. Most of the other surviving tools have been acquired since the early 80s but DH and I are the oldest tools by far....I'm 71, and I'm not telling you his age but he won't be 71 for a long while.

I have a rake that belonged to my father's great uncle. The man would 127 years old today. He gave me that rake one day while he was cleaning his garage. I still use it. It could use a coat of paint and it's rusty but it does the job. I've stepped on it once or twice and had it smack my face in the beginning. Now, I always make sure the teeth are pointing down now.

Sylvain.

50 to 100. I have my Mom's hoe, and my Dad's hoe. Mom's is very small and thin. It was cut down long ago, so one side is longer than the other. Dad's is a traditional rounded off one. Also very thin. They slice thru the dirt with no effort. I don't understand why they sell thick clunky hoes these days. You do all the work with them. My old hoes do all the work. I wouldn't trade or sell them for anything. They're priceless!

My oldest garden tool is probably my lawnmower -- a 20 year old Toro that works like a charm and has had one toon up its entire history. I have lots of tools that are old, but they aren't garden tools. So my oldest tool is me, age 61.

Betty

Crud, I hate it when I lose a post...OK, here goes again...

Since my first hubby kept the tools I inherited from my dad out of spite (the man wouldn't know a phillips head screw driver from a mitre saw if it bit him on the gluteus maximus) I've had to replace very tool I used to have since we now have land. We quickly learned that Kmart tools are for people who garden in pots and potting soil...not people who have to dig into clay as hard as bricks. I've had to repalce every single Kmart tool my hubby bought me in April with tools I bought from Ace Hardware.

That said, there are parts of me that are older than other parts. Most of me is 46. My left hip is 16, my left shoulder is 15, my right hip is 8. The next appendage to be replaced will be my right shoulder...at which point I will hopefully have gardneing tools older than at least one appendage. I wake up in the morning and take inventory by singing a song I learned in first grade, "Head shoudlers knees and toes, knees and toes..."

I had a landscaper working on my property for 9 months off and on (mainly off) and eventually all of our garden implements (including hoes, shovels, rakes, hoses, a pick ax, garden hose nozzels, etc.) found their way into his subcontractors' trucks. Let's hope they "thought" they were theirs ....but sometimes I wonder. DH and I went to HD about 2 months ago and bought all new garden stuff and I borrowed a friend's engraver and "tatooed" all the metal stuff and wrote in a permanent marker on others. I hate to do that, but....so that's why ours are all under 2 months old. (One shovel was hidden in the corner of the storage and I guess no one saw it, and we discovered it when doing spring cleaning...so now we have 2 shovels...one for each of us...as if DH would ever fight me for a shovel! haha)

I said me (which is true), but I do have a hand trowel that is right at 5 years. The best dollar bargain I ever got at Wally world, and have yet to find another like it. It did have to be the last one on the shelf! :-/

voted new because well............ I finally have the space, no pets, and a little time to garden, hence----- time to purchase tools supllies and plants. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

I'm with lafko from Mass.: the rocks here in the mountains wreak havoc with your tools. The tines on the forks are far from symmetrical... And since I don't have family hand-downs, I am definitely the oldest tool in the garage!

I'm definitely the oldest tool in my garden and my hands protest regularly. I have found that Big Lots is a great place for getting decent tools at a decent price.....and since I use them up or "misplace" them reguklarly, I love to go there. However, my Cape Cod Weeder isn't available at Big Lots and I have several because I can never find one when I want it...Need to paint the handles bright orange... http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Link-Product?sku=33-971&SC=XNET8019

What is a Cape Cod Weeder...is it something we gardeners here in Texas should know about? We have lots of weeds too...:)

I have a tool that my Father made about 50 years ago. It was designed from an ole farm cultivater tong. I call it a polluk and it cuts through dirt and roots like butter. I use this all the time for making plant holes.

I have a garden cart that my brother and his wife gave one of my parents for Father's or Mother's Day back in the late 70s. The bottom is rusting out, and I've seen others that I like, but I just love using it.

Kristi

I voted for myself as the oldest tool (I'm 61). I'm in pretty good shape, though, so don't really think of myself as "an old tool!" (I may not really be in particularly good shape, but I choose to think so - then I don't get worn out!)

I do have several old garden carts, but I don't know their age and only use them as containers for plants now due to their totally rusted out condition.

Carole

At 75 I'm definitely the oldest tool out there every day. I have a few items 10-15 years old, but most are newer designs geared toward helping arthritic wrists and knees to function better. I have to keep going...at 98 my grandmother was growing the most beautiful flowers in her neighborhood.

I guess the oldest tool I have, if it counts as a tool, is a little watering can that I found in the trash back when I lived in an apartment. It would be in the 12 to 15 year range. It holds a quart at most. It's good for watering things in the house. I had some tiny tools for working with houseplants that I got when I was a teenager. If I still have them, they are most likely 25+ years old.

I am hard on tools. I leave them laying about where I last used them. They rust and rot and rot and break. I have a new tool that is my favorite. It's from FoxFire Nursery. It's called the No Mercy weeding tool. It truly looks medeival. You could keep this thing under the bed and no one would mess with you. I leave it laying in the garden all the time and it doesn't rust...yet. I think it might be stainless steel. Works great for weeding in and around plants. No connection to them, just think highly of the tool and the nursery.

jb

I have a combination tool called a "Trake" that is at least 12 years old. My mother gave it to me after I whined over hers, which my SIL had given her. I wouldn't garden without it. It has a trowel on one end and a 'rake' (which is really a 3-pronged claw) on the other. Perfect for planting smaller things and weeding. It still looks as good as it did when new. I also have pruners, loppers, and a pruning saw that are 8 years old. Wouldn't work without those either.

My husband has a corn planter that is over 50 years old minimum. DH insisted I try it one year. I did and promptly pinched the heck out of a finger and haven't used it since. Good concept, just not the safest tool to use, IMO.

We have a "Subsoiler" from the late 40's. Weighs 150 lbs and we drag it behind the tractor to create long beds.

Dea