Multi Tool Digs Dirt

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Multi Tool Digs Dirt
When is a gardening trowel more than just a trowel? Add a few features and it's called a Seven in One Planter's Buddy™ from True Temper. I picked one up near the garden center check out counter at a Lowe's Home Improvement store for $12.98. I never seem to have enough trowels in the garden shed when I need one for potting bedding plants or transplanting herbs in the vegetable garden. And owning a garden tool that can do more than just dig seemed like a good idea.

The Planter's Buddy™ has a serrated edge that's supposed to make it easier to open bags of potting soil, manure, peat moss or any other plastic bag. I usually use brute strength, knife, or pruning shears to open the bags I use. A notch in the side of the digging instrument acts as a cutter for twine or other string you might be using while gardening. I found I had to use quite a bit of brute strength to cut the twine I tried to cut. I could probably sharpen the blade with a file to make it cut a little easier.

The tool's 12-inch length acts as a measuring device if you need one to help evenly space your transplants or maybe measure a 12-inch length of twine. The digging blade has one inch markings if you were trying to figure the planting depth of certain bulb and the handle continues the one inch markings till you reach the tool's full one foot length. I must admit, when I plant bulbs, or transplants, I'm not all that precise and I've never really noticed the difference and inch or two makes.

True Temper's Planter's Buddy™.
Little notch in the side of the digging blade is there to make it easy to cut a piece of twine or string while working in the garden.

The grooved tip of the digging blade acts as a weeder and the blade edge opposite the serrated side is somewhat like a large dull knife for cutting sod. The last tool is the flat end of the plastic handle which can be used as a tamper of sorts if you're pounding a plant food spike into the soil.

Most of the seven in one so called tools may never get used by gardeners that purchase the modified trowel. Sure, the Planter's Buddy™ is on the gimmicky side of marketing trying to distinguish itself from the other garden trowels on the store shelf. But as I used the tool I found the stainless steel tapered blade nice for digging and the serrated edge good for cutting roots and loosening the soil in large containers.

I found the tamper a bit awkward to hold and would rather swing a hammer if I'm going to tap something into the ground whether a fertilizer spike of plant support. I also found the flat end of the handle painful to the palm of my hand one morning as I pushed it into damp soil when I planted two flats of sweet alyssum. Of all the Buddy tools that flat end of the trowel became my least favorite.

And how often do you need a precise 12 inches for measuring when you're digging or planting in the garden? Not too often, if ever. Give me a nice little tape measure. And when I need to tackle misplaced plants (weeds) in my garden I usually have to go after them with a vengeance and would be more likely to want to do it standing using an oscillating stirrup hoe rather than leaning over or kneeling in the garden. (Think Hula Hoe.)

Planter's Buddy™ is well made and the plastic handle will probably hold up better than the wooden handles on most of my garden trowels. Only time will tell. For the time being the Planter's Buddy is the go to garden trowel. (2010)

(Editor's Note: All products featured on the pages of The Tucson Gardener are paid for by The Tucson Gardener. It's a buy'em and try'em with no compensation of any kind from manufacturers.)

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