Spoons and forks and knives, oh my! Garden tools from your kitchen...

My garden tool bucket is full of hand tools of all sorts. None are more useful, or cost less, than the stainless tableware I recycled from the kitchen.

Everyone has leftover bits and pieces of place-settings from old sets of tableware cluttering up their drawers. One spoon, a couple of forks, the odd knife... Don't just toss them. They make great garden tools.

Spoons, forks and knives are at their garden best for detail work: interior potted plants, troughs and containers, and rock gardens. Small plants and small settings call for smaller tools than you'd use in your border. Tableware is perfect for digging, scraping and cutting. The stronger and sturdier the better, but when you consider they don't cost a thing...they can be used and abused. Amazingly they will last just as long as your larger tools--sometimes longer.

They're also flexible. I've bent some of each. An angled fork becomes a nice little rake/hoe. A spoon contorted into an L-shape makes a fine scoop. Altered knives function well as scrapers and scuffle hoes.

I'm not suggesting that you grab grandma's antique silver for such brutish pursuits as gardening, but if you've always wanted to replace your stainless, you've got a second life for the old set.

In a pinch (and with a little washing up) you can remind them of their former glory by spearing a tomato in the garden and mixing yourself a little 'lunch in the field'.

Bon appetit! AND good gardening.

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