Focus on the Dagger Trowel

We made our first Dagger Trowel after reading about them in Eliot Coleman's book The New Organic Grower.  At that time, we were just experimenting with our first Soil Blocker (a Mini 4), and this little tool looked like a good idea.

It was!  Not only for moving and planting out soil blocks, as Eliot had designed, but also for all sorts of other garden jobs, like planting potatoes, onion sets, shallots, garlic and all sort of bulbs.  As my Dagger Trowel gradually started to take up residence in the back pocket of my jeans, it was used for planting out, mixing potting soil, even as an emergency screwdriver!

An especially useful function is to clean sticky mud off other tools – spade, fork, rotavator, wheelhoe attachments, oscillating hoe, even boots – our Devon clay loam can sometimes stick like glue!

We started making Dagger Trowels for sale in late 2005 and they have proved quietly popular.  Since then we have been able to find lower-cost suppliers and they are currently our cheapest hand tool at £5.40 including UK postage.  The quality is still good, with wooden handles and carbon steel blades.

Even better, we now have two sizes, so you can easily move and plant out both 50 mm soil blocks (made with the Mini 4 or Multi 12 Soil Blockers) and 38 mm soil blocks (made with the Mini 5 or Multi 20 Soil Blockers).