We started selling specialist garden tools in 2004 and have greatly enjoyed our role in supplying quality tools to gardeners of all descriptions – from hesitant beginners to experienced market gardeners and everyone in between! In these 17/18 years, we have witnessed an exciting growth in the number of people starting out with small vegetable growing enterprises, and have felt privileged to be able to provide some of the equipment which they need. Blackberry Lane Tools has grown beyond our wildest expectations, and has left us less time to spend on our own small market garden.
Faced with having too much to do and not enough time to do it all, plus the fact that we are both well past 'retirement age' and have many other demands on our time and energies, the logical thing might have been to give up the physical work in the garden and concentrate on the tools. But then we thought about it: "If we need to either give up the tools and work in the market garden, or give up the market garden and work on the tools, which would we be most sorry to give up?" We love both of them, but working on the land is closer to our heart, so it was the tools that needed to go!
So, for the last couple of years, we have
been looking for someone to take on the tools sales business.
It has not been easy to find the right person!
We have now agreed with Dave Maine, of ReAg Tools in Somerset, that he will take on our complete range of tools with immediate effect. Dave is a keen market gardener himself, and already sells a selection of tools via his website at www.reagtools.co.uk . Interestingly, quite a number of these are tools which our customers have asked us about in the past, so it makes a lot of sense to combine the two ranges.
Our Blackberry Lane Tools website will
continue to operate for the time being, but it will re-direct
customers on to Dave's website and he will handle all the tools
sales. He may decide to take on the Blackberry Lane site at a
later stage.
We shall also continue with this blog, but it will concentrate much more on the 'growing' side of things. Somehow, though, I think that some future references to tools are bound to creep in – old habits die hard !
As we 'bow out' of the gardening tools business, we should like to say 'thank you' to all our customers, large and small, recent and long-established. It has been a real pleasure to be part of your gardening and growing life.
With our very best wishes,
Dave & Val Taylor
