Gardening should be a quiet, peaceful activity. The snip of our secateurs, the slicing of a spade through soil, even our own breathing. It's almost noiseless, often accompanied by sounds such as bird song, wind in the leaves or distant voices. It can be an uplifting, refreshing time, away from machines and loud noises, a creative enterprise where our minds are focussed on what we are doing, lost in the moment. If we are lucky, we are feeling a sense of satisfaction about what we can do with our hands, bodies and perhaps a good tool or two.
So it's sad that gardening so often involves loud machines. They destroy the peace of the person making the noise. They also ruin the peace for everyone and every creature around them. Given that gardening is a balance between cultivating our soils and our souls, loud machines are an anachronism.
The loudest noise for the least benefit is the leaf blower. Besides the fact that it's fairly much a useless tool, it emits fumes and noise, doing a less good job than a rake or broom in the process.
Unlike leaf blowers, lawnmowers, chainsaws and hedge trimmers pretty useful, even essential. Fortunately, there are now some exceptional manual or battery powered garden tools that make petrol ones redundant. In fact, most of the alternatives to petrol-fuelled tools win on almost all metrics. A good pruning saw can cost less €50.00, fits in your back pocket, lasts for years and cuts through a tree trunk in the time it takes to get a chainsaw started. A good pair of shears can trim the average garden hedge in minutes. There is little weight, no fuel, no noise, no shoulder fatigue. Just the satisfying snip of blades through leaves. It can be a physical job, but is that not part of the pleasure of gardening?
So, if you are buying a gardening tool, consider of the manual alternative or teh battery powered one: cheaper, easier to store, little to no maintenance, no fuel, smell nor sound. They are satisfying to use and often give a better result. The secret is always to buy the best quality: cheap generally means less good when it comes to tools. You want something strong, light, well designed, functional: which is why we love hand tools and have sought out many of the best ones available.
Visit our shops to see our range of 'quiet' gardening tools from ARS, Berger, deWit, Felco, Niwaki and more.