I have always been into gardening from an early age. I would help my mum and dad with all manner of gardening tasks from beating down nettles to picking stones off a newly sown lawn and to the more rewarding jobs of planting flowers & bulbs. Of course in my younger days there was no such thing as gardening tools for kids so I had to do with a garden trowel for most work. The trusty (and rusty) garden trowel went everywhere I went until now where its sentimental value is worth more than its practical value and so the trowel has been retired to its rightful resting place above my garden shed doorway.
For children these days the range of kids garden tools is really great with every conceivable gardening tool being resized to fit children of all ages. There are however far too many poor quality kids gardening tools out there that really would not stand the test of time. Poor quality, plastic gardening tools are just not fit for use for young kids and will no doubt break under any sign of proper gardening
All my gardening years bring back happy thoughts of making something or tidying up somewhere and there was a real sense of reward and achievement with gardening. But I can imagine that this would undoubtedly have been lost if I had used those poor quality kids gardening tools and they had broken easily on me
Really we should ensure to use only metal tools for kids just as we would use ourselves. Even if kids gardening tools are consider toys they still should be used as we use adult tools and a kids garden shovel or spade should be able to dig soil without snapping in half and a kids rake should be able to gather leaves or collect weeds without the handle snapping off
Good quality garden tools are something that we need to search out as if you buy right you should only have to buy once. Always choose a hand tool or long handled gardening tool that has been made from carbon steel and tools that have been forged from a single piece of steel. The handle should be made from a hard wearing and treated ash handle. Ensure the head & handle are well secured together with a strong rivet
This will mean that your tools and even your kids gardening tools will be stronger than you and that you will have a tool for many years until you choose to retired it and give it its own rightful resting place where ever that may be