Cultivate your garden soil with a broadfork

www.WayCoolTools.com

Digging rocks out of the garden with an unbreakable boradfork

Here in the Blue Ridge Mountains it's not uncommon to find rocks while digging in our heavy clay garden soil. (Did you ever wonder why there are always more rocks in the garden every year?)

We're sure glad to have an unbreakable broadfork.

You can get one too, at www.WayCoolTools.com

Using a broadfork will loosen the soil deeper than a roto-tiller and not leave hard-pan.

At 60" tall this garden digging tool keeps you in an upright position and gives you the leverage for the 10" tines loosen the soil.

There are three sizes to choose from: 5, 6 or 7 tines that will cultivate up to a 30" wide garden bed in one pass.

Buy a broadfork today.

Your back will thank you!

Dig your 2014 garden without a rototiller!

So you've made your best garden plant seed picks and actually placed your order on time this year.
You will need to contact the rental shop to get on their list of rotor-tiller renters and hope that the weather cooperates and that there are no problems with their tillers that will necessitate a repair on your tilling day.

Of all the things you will need to do to get ready for a successful gardening season, preparing the soil for planting is an unavoidable must do task.

If you are like most people, using a rotor-tiller is as pleasurable as hiking on a superhighway.

An alternative to the noise, smell and mechanical stress of rotor-tilling is using a broad fork.
- Otherwise known as a broadfork (written as one word) a U-bar or a grelinette. 
Not all broad forks are created equal and each has their own place in the world of gardening tools.

One broadfork you will want to check out when learning about broad fork gardening is the WayCoolTools broad fork. It is surprisingly light despite being made entirely of tempered aircraft quality alloy steel, yet strong enough to remove large stones and penetrate heavy, compacted soil. It has the added benefit of enabling you to more finely cultivate your garden soil for planting by chopping and tilthing the soil.

To use a broad fork rock the two handles back and forth while applying pressure with one or both feet on the cross bar above the digging blades.
As you penetrate the soil, pull back on the handles to loosen the soil.
If needed you can use the broad fork with an up and down chopping motion to break up larger clods of soil.

The amount of time to produce finished planting beds is around a minute per foot in heavily compacted soil. With that in mind you could dig a 30 foot long planting bed in about a half hour.
If you were to work an hour a day with our 5 tine broad fork, in the course of a work week you will have made ready over 200 square feet of gardening space.

Did you know that you can actually dig deeper than a rototiller with a broadfork without creating the hard pan that rotor-tillers cause?

For more information on these broad forks see www.waycooltools.com

The gift that gardeners want!

There are a lot of gardeners who want, (need may better describe the situation) better garden tools and are not able to part with the cash to procure the necessary implements to bring about a more bountiful harvest with a lot less work than the meager implements they have been using. (Like that digging fork with the bent tine that your cousin has been using for over a decade.)
With the holidays coming up, we are all making our lists and checking them twice.
Who deserves to receive a suitable gift is easy to determine.
What to give, however, may be a conundrum for some.
We'll let you in on a little secret.
Many gardeners we have met this year have divulged that they would like a WayCoolTools Unbreakable Broad fork and are hoping some nice friend or relative will give them one as a holiday present this year.
There! Now the secret is out, and your holiday shopping just got easier.
With online shopping and free shipping, what could be easier?

Intermediate sized un-breakable broad fork

Pictured here is the new 6 tine broad fork.
The 10" heat treated unbreakable tines are spaced 4.5" apart. With the unbreakable aircraft quality tubular steel handles, digging rocks out of your garden becomes a much easier job.

This garden work horse is stronger and more durable than wooden handled broad forks that bend in heavier soils and lighter weight than other all steel broad forks.

Using a broad fork (or U bar digger as some call it) to cultivate the garden, rather than the usual D Handle fork or spade makes spring garden digging stress free and actually enjoyable.

Available at: WayCoolTools.com

Dig smarter, not harder with a lighter unbreakable broadfork!

Broad fork defined – a U shaped garden fork with two tall handles attached to a crossbar from which extends a row of long tines designed to deep cultivate the soil while enabling you to dig faster and more efficiently without back breaking stress and fatigue.

One of the major obstacles to fully enjoying the art and science of gardening is the grueling, exhausting work of digging and preparing the soil properly for your plants. Especially if you happen to live in an area with heavy clay, stones, or roots in the soil, or if you don’t happen to be a very strong and athletic person. 

 

The truth is, it’s probably not you, but your tools that are lacking in ability! 

Digging using a traditional garden spade or fork involves quite a bit of energy and force, mostly coming from the shoulders and back while bending over and lifting and turning the soil. This can get tiring quickly and you will be feeling it the next day! The broadfork allows you to use your body with a rocking motion to push the fork into the ground while standing up straight. Once the tines are in the soil you simply pull back on the handles a little to aerate the soil, or more to lift the soil up, remove stones and till without disturbing soil structure. You have become the human powered engine to this mighty effective garden tiller! All without ear numbing noise, smelly exhaust or expensive fossil fuels.

While using a broad fork in your garden you will discover that the synonym for broad fork might well be "speed fork". Because of its width, you will cover more ground in less time and with less effort with a broad fork than with a conventional garden fork or spade.

Along with the inherent ease of use and speed a broadfork offers is the fact that the structure of your garden soil remains intact as you are not turning the soil like you would with a shovel or mechanical tiller. (happy earthworms and soil microbes!)

How is this broad fork better than other broad forks?

Our broad fork is made in America with all U.S. sourced steel, hand crafted and specially heat treated for added strength and durability. Heat treating provides for a tool that is remarkably strong and lighter weight. The shape and strength of the digging tines enable you to penetrate even heavier clay soils without concern over bending or breaking the tines.

 The wedge shape tines coupled with the light weight design (significantly lighter than comparable broadforks) enable you to use this broad fork to chop up large clods of clay more easily and quickly than other broadforks, or even a shovel.

The light weight aircraft quality tubular steel handles will not crack or break and there is no chance of getting a splinter. These strong unbreakable handles aid in the ability to dig up even large stones out of the soil with out the worry over bending or breaking your broad fork.

A broad fork is a very useful tool for lawn aeration and loosening the soil around fruit trees and ornamental trees and shrubs. 

(Now you can free-cycle those spiky shoes.)

They are also great for starting new garden beds, working in soil amendments and freshening up beds in between crops. 

The original 7 tine 27” wide unbreakable broad fork weighing 16.5 lbs. featuring 10” long tines with 4.5” tine spacing and 24" spacing between the handles was introduced in 2012. It is capable of preparing a 30” wide garden bed in one pass. 30” wide vegetable beds have become the standard in many organic gardens and small local produce farms thanks to popular authors like John Jeavons (How to Grow More Vegetables) and Eliot Coleman (Four Season Harvest); both are gardening and farming innovators and are advocates of the use of a broad fork.

Our original large broad fork design was intended for small market farmers and large scale gardeners to use instead of a traditional garden fork, shovel or roto-tiller to prepare their garden soil. We were hearing from some who had broken other broadforks and needed a much sturdier tool that will stand up to hard service in heavy clay soil.

As we talked with more home gardeners we heard requests for smaller sized forks with the same strength and capabilities as the original design while being a little lighter and easier to maneuver.

In response, for spring 2013 we are introducing two new broad fork sizes.

Now available are a 6 tine 22.5” wide broad fork weighing 14.5 lbs. capable of producing 26” wide planting bed and a 5 tine 18” broad fork weighing 14 lbs. capable of producing a 22” wide planting bed.

Both of the smaller broad forks feature a 23” cross bar with 19.5” spacing between the handles. Like the larger original sized broad fork the strong 10” steel tines are spaced 4.5” apart and do a beautiful job of loosening the soil and breaking up larger clumps of soil into smaller easier to work with particles.

Each of the three broad forks is 60” tall.

These new smaller broad forks appeal to gardeners who prefer a smaller sized, lighter weight broad fork for more mobility and ease of use with the same strength and durability of our original unbreakable broad fork.

Available exclusively at www.WayCoolTools.com

Strapped garden forks delayed...

And...we're back! It was fun to get 15+ inches of snow in March, and glad to say it's mostly gone now.

In other news, the Clarington Forge Strapped Garden Fork is again out of stock. These are hand crafted in England so the demand sometimes outpaces production. Made famous by a brief article in the Wall Street Journal last spring, it continues to be a very popular item. We apologize if you are waiting to receive yours, it will be worth the wait and we hope you get it before spring progresses too much!

If you do not want to wait, some alternatives to the strapped garden fork are the standard digging fork, or the longer handled digging fork, or really any fork from Clarington; the WW Mfg US made heavy duty yet lightweight garden fork, and of course our Unbreakable Broad Fork now available in 3 sizes.

When digging garden beds - Get the right tool for the job.... Use a broadfork!

 I answered a call this morning from a local gardener who just had to get a broad fork today;.. as in Right Now!
After a long ordeal with her BCS tiler that only scratched the surface of her central Virginia clay soil garden plots. The sweet potato slips waiting it out in a glass jar,.. just itching to grow...



The call came in around 10:45 on Saturday morning.
By noon she was using her new broadfork. - faster and easier than her smaller wooden handled fork.
With all the planting that needed to get done in her garden she said the Bulldog (Clarington Forge) fork she had would have taken forever. 
Based on my experience with our broadfork, what would have taken two or three days of digging will now be able to be done in a day or two.
Our gardening neighbor said it was great to have a tool that was quieter than a tiller so she could start gardening earlier and not bother the neighbors.
Before I left she reminded me of what Mr. Natural always said...

...and so she did!

You can buy your broad fork here at WayCoolTools.com

Save your back and garden easier!

Here in the mountains of central Virginia we have some of the heaviest clay soil this side of the Rockies.
Oh and yeah, the rocks... there is another challenge to producing marketable crops on a small scale.
We have gotten many requests for a broad fork that will stand up to the kind of soil conditions we have around here. A permaculture instructor we met told us that the round tine broad fork she was using snapped a tine in the soil she was working over in Nelson County, VA. What is a gardener to do!
Well, as you may have read in a prior blog post of ours we set out to meet that challenge head on and come up with a better broadfork. The end result is the Ultimate Broadfork - available at our online store: www.waycooltools.com listed under digging tools.

The secret to the success of this amazing garden tool in heavy soil is the wedge shaped tapered tines.
They are heat treated for strength and flexibility. They will flex but they will not bend or break.
The wedge shaped tines slice into the soil and break it apart as you pull back on the two heat treated tubular steel handles. The broad fork is light enough to chop the soil clods up by dropping the fork onto the clods or just using an up and down chopping motion that you would naturally use with your "D" handled fork.
Now instead of taking the better part of a day working the soil in your vegetable beds with your "D" handled fork, you can do the same job in a few hours using the Ultimate Broadfork.
For really heavy soil like ours, I still use the "D" handled fork from Clarington Forge to fine tilth and shape the beds for seed planting.
Now a word about heat treated steel tools.
Heat treating is a special process that allows for a lighter weight, stronger tool. Less metal, less weight and more strength.
The handles are stronger than wood and won't break or splinter.
One of the nicest things about using a broad fork, besides the fact that you can get more done in less time is that it's easier on your back. You can break up even the heaviest clay soil without stooping.
After all these years of bending over to prepare garden beds, it sure is a relief to have the Ultimate Broadfork.