A Couple of "Winged" Tools I Can't Live Without

Over the last little while, I have been using a couple of new tools in the yard. One little fantastic tool called the Winged Weeder and another called the Wingdigger. I have a lot of the other standard gardening tools, and none have made my life easier than these two purchases.

I stumbled across the Winged Weeder at the Calgary Horticultural Society Garden Show in April. There were a lot of interesting products there, but this one caught my eye. Interestingly, my initial reaction was to just walk right by because the guy working the booth was making it a little too infomercial for my liking. However, I was drawn back to the booth on the way out and decided to pick one up.

As I am doing a little bit of everything including rock garden plants and raised veggie beds with tight spacing, I went for the compact version called the Winged Weeder Junior. Now I can't recall all of the fantastic things that the demo jockey did with this at the show, but I just like it for my everyday puttering and weeding around the yard. You can see all the tricks on the official corporate video from Creative Enterprises.

It has a hardwood (I think ash) handle that is long enough to reach a wide range wihout moving around a lot. Despite that I find the tool to be light in comparison to others in the shed. The blade itself is tempered spring steel so it doesn't need sharpening and withstands quite a beating. I highly recommend picking one up if you have the means.

The other fantastic little tool I picked up was the Wingdigger from the Clean Calgary Association. This handy little tool is dirt cheap and saves much back-breaking effort turning your compost over. The little wings on the side of the steel rod flip in as it is pushed into the compost pile. When you do a 90 degree turn and pull it back out, the wings engage like a fish hook grabbing wads of rotting veggie matter and dragging it to the surface. This is great for aerating your compost and ensuring a good mix of your browns and greens for optimal heat generation. Those little aerobic bacteria will thank you.