Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Wrist-neutral hand tools

When it comes to gardening hand tools, I am always on the lookout for something that helps my weak grip and wrist strength. A set I found this weekend in Fredericksburg shows promise.

The tools are by NRG (it stands for natural radius grip and is pronounced energy), and the ergonomic design keeps the wrist in a neutral position to reduce stress and fatigue by providing more strength and power. They are ultra-light and have big, comfy handles. Women with very small hands might find the handles a bit large, though I think they'll be good for me.

I bought the hand trowel (straight blade edges for scraping and scooping and a beveled front edge to cut through compacted soil), cultivator (with three wicked-looking tines), hand transplanter (good for transplanting deeply rooted plants - the extra-long blade had little raised dots to measure bulb hole depths) and the nifty hand weeder (a long, narrow blade to pop out weeds without disturbing plants - plus a seed well).
The pieces were $12.99 each, which I will happily pay for something that works. They come with a lifetime guarantee, too. Note: I like to shop locally. I bought these when I ran across them in Fredericksburg because I hadn't noticed them in Beaumont and wasn't sure I could find them here. When I got home, I did a search of NRG's website and found that Al Cook Nursery out on Hwy 105 sells them.

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