LifeWell Technologies Aluminum Garden Trowel

Going back to the garden, I like hand tools best. Not only are they easier for me to use and control but they are a little more intimate than Hubby’s larger, more rugged tools. And when LifeWell Technologies offered me their aluminum Garden Trowel, I was thrilled. I’ve had a few different garden trowels, of various materials and build qualities, and almost all were found to be lacking. They’d bend, break, rust, or just plain fall apart and fail me. Usually mid-job, and nothing will frustrate a gal more. LifeWell Technologies claims this is “The Best Trowel You’ll Ever Buy”. Bold words. Let’s see if they live up to them.

LifeWell Technologies Garden trowel looks to solve all of those previously mentioned issues. Rust? Pffft. It’s made of aircraft grade aluminum, polished to a flawless chrome-like finish. The edge is sharp enough to dig clean through rocky, uneven ground with no issue. Bending? A thing of the past, what with the thick, robust neck and full tang handle. Break? Did I mention that it’s made of aircraft-grade aluminum? This LifeWell Technologies trowel shouldn’t break even under heavy loads and stresses. So now that we’ve established that this trowel is better than all my past trowels, lets get into how it’s been so overbuilt that it became my favorite.

A lot of trowels I’ve owned have been just a straight wooden handle, with little thought given to ergonomics or comfort. This LifeWell Technologies Garden Trowel has a handle clearly made by someone who has used the before and knows exactly when one puts their fingers and thumb. It has a rubberized non-slip coating too, that not only reduces hand strain my being slightly padded, but means your damp or wet hand won’t go sliding down the handle and crash painfully into the spade. It even has a slightly elongated tip if you need to pound the trowel past a tough root or two. It’s even a bright and attractive neon green that means your not going to lose it in the grass or tall shrubs. It’s not so heavy that you get hand fatigue but not so light that you think it’ll break on the first rock it hit. “Built like a brick ‘out’house” Hubby would say, although not so politely. I think I’ve found the garden tool I won’t be sharing with Hubby. This green beauty is all mine. As for LifeWell Technologies boast of this being the best trowel I’ll ever buy, it might well be, as well as the last  trowel I’ll ever need to buy. Well done, LifeWell Technologies.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from LifeWell Technologies.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

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Pine Tree Gloves Bamboo Gardening Gloves

Aside from my latest spurts of artsy-fartsy-ness, I love to garden. I love the outdoors, I love my flowers and my plants. The butterflies, and bumblebees and dragonflies. But what drives me bonkers, though, is completely destroying my manicure digging in the dirt. Hubby always tells me we have gloves, and I’ll occasionally use some nitrile ones, but anyone can tell you those aren’t made for gardening. When Pine Tree Gloves offered me a pair of their bamboo gardening gloves, I was more than eager to try them.

I’ve used “dipped” gloves like this before, and I was (and still am!) a huge fan of them. Ideally, they are lighter and less cumbersome than Hubby’s leather outdoors gloves, offer decent finger and palm protection as well as grip, but fit the hands much better for fine motor control and manipulation. Pine Tree Gloves bamboo gloves seem to tick off all these important metrics. But they fall a little short for me and I’ll explain why this might be my situation and not yours.

See, I don’t mess around gardening. When I’m done I’m usually covered in dirt. Digging up bulbs, planting new shrubs, reclaiming decorative rock…It’s no “Martha Stewart” stuff with me, all dressed to the nines with my hair and makeup did. No, no, no. So I need tools (and let’s face it, gloves are tools)  that can keep up with me. Pine Tree Gloves Bamboo Gardening gloves were saying “No mas” by about hour 4. While the back are a light woven bamboo fabric, it’s not a tight weave and dirt gets in. It collects in the fingers that are not porous and since I have short-ish fingers, there’s some space at the front of the glove for all that dirt. And it grinds into your fingertips something fierce. Then, at the very end, I noticed that the plastic coating they’re dipped in started to break down, kind of crack apart. Little pieces were lost to the dirt and one finger ended up “exposed”. So, after one use, they were pretty much toast. At $8.99, that’s a little steep for a single-use product. Now, granted, I probably used them a lot harder than maybe was intended. Digging out old bulbs in rocky, densely packed soil is not my every day gardening activity, and probably not yours either. But I’ve had some others last at least a few uses before being tossed, so I’m not entirely sold on these for my needs.

In the end, if you do light gardening or just need some gloves on while you use a tool or two, these might just fit the bill. But if you have heavy, hard work that needs doing, you’re probably better off with some split leather and canvas gloves for a couple of bucks a pair.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Pine Tree Gloves.  I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion.  My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.