Monday, January 14, 2013

Scoop It! - A DeWit Garden Tool Review & Giveaway


My friend Shawna Coronado recently had the opportunity to attend Floriade in The Netherlands, where she was a speaker. (I'm jealous, as Floriade is an international floral exposition and only occurs once every ten years.) While she was there, she visited DeWit Garden Tools, where she collaborated with them to create a new garden tool. (Now I'm really jealous! What gardener wouldn't be?)

Photo courtesy of Shawna Coronado


DeWit Garden Tools has been making hand-forged tools since 1898 and if you've ever used one of their tools, you know what fine quality they are. Up until about a month or so ago, I only owned one DeWit tool - the 3-Tine Cultivator with a longer handle.  Cultivators like this are my favorite kind of tool to use to work up the soil during the season, between rows and between plants. I also use this one to harvest onions.

I received one of the new tools that Shawna helped design, affectionately known as "Shawna's Scoop," so that I could test it in my own garden. It came late in the year, after I was all done with most of my gardening, but yesterday we had an unusually warm January day and I put it to the test.


The potting scoop is actually designed with the container gardener in mind.  It has higher sides to help hold more potting soil in the scoop, and it's got a handy little notch on one side for slitting open the plastic bags of potting soil.  Brilliant, eh?

The overall length of the scoop is approximately 14 inches, with the scoop taking up 6 inches. There's a sharpened edge at the bottom of it, so you can slice through root balls if you need to. All this is attached to an ash hardwood handle.


I still needed to get some allium bulbs in the ground, so I decided to use the potting scoop directly in the garden. Normally, I would use a more pointy trowel to dig my holes, but with the sharpened edge on this scoop, it worked just fine, even in my too-much-clay soil. And though I wasn't using potting soil, I had to try out the bag cutter.  Like I said - brilliant.

If you've ever worked with forged tools, you know they're tough. The handles aren't going to bend when you put pressure on them.  I've got other tools that I like, but I prefer tools with wooden handles.  Wood is just so organic, holds up over time, and just plain looks good.

A giveaway!

Would you like to try one too?  DeWit sent two of them to me, so I'm going to give one away to one of my readers.  You can enter by leaving a comment to this blog post, telling me the garden tool you can't live without and why. Be sure to also let me know how I can notify you if you're chosen as the winner. 

The giveaway will end at midnight EST on Friday, January 18, 2013. At that time, I'll use Random.org to randomly choose a winner. The scoop sells for $39.90 and comes with a lifetime guarantee.


I was provided with a DeWit Potting Scoop free of charge for the purposes of testing and reviewing it on this blog. All opinions are my own. DeWit also provided one free Potting Scoop for me to give away.  The tool will be shipped to the winner at my expense.


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CONGRATULATIONS!
to
Seth Baker


The  Random.org generator picked your comment from the 30 entries (Shawna's comment was removed, since she's kind of the star of the show and was the co-inventor of the tool!).  Seth, please contact me at ourlittleacre at gmail dot com!

32 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Now that is a well thought out tool. I would love to have one.

Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden said...

I can't live without a hoe-we have a big garden! As I am loving container gardening more I think this tool would be neat. What a great idea about the bag opener!
vickie
vmorgan456 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Gary K. said...

The one "tool" that always follows me around the yard and garden is that good ole (not so red anymore) radio flyer wagon! It carries whatever hand tools I might be using, a bag or two of compost or mulch and a big glass of ice water. What could be more useful? I would find a lot of great new uses for Shawna's Scoop if I had one, sign me up!

Anonymous said...

Favorite tool is my small shovel because it was my fathers. Due to arthritis I do mostly container gardening now. Thank you for the chance and would love to win this! The bag ripper is genius. Pattiecake1@att.net

Judy F. said...

I guess my current favorite garden tool would have to be a small rabbiting spade from Clarington Forge. But I love trowels; I have an assortment and I'd love to try this new gardening scoop. Sharpened edge with a bag cutter - great ideas.

Shawna Lee Coronado said...

Loving the trowel and so happy it was a great digger for you also - can't wait to see who wins it!!!

Shawna

Unknown said...

I would love to try the tool!! I'm moving to an apt and facing the challenge of moving my garden to containers so I think this would be perfect! I couldn't live without my pruners! I like nice and neat gardens. -Ali (alihawk80@gmail.com)

Anonymous said...

Love your blog! This looks like a great garden tool. I have a lot but not this one.
Happy Gardening!

Debbie
debbie581@cox.net

StarofMoonDancer said...

Agood scoop that is shaped to ease the chore and sharp tools for pruning...A thief stole all mine the other night..Police say they are stealing all they can carry.2nd time....Thanks for the chance...Love the shape of this one

Diane said...

The tool I can't live without? My Cobrahead! I used it to pop dandelions out of the ground back in Chicago, but now that I live in the Land of Rocks, it is the best thing for digging any kind of hole.

Heidi / IN woodland garden said...

What an awesome experience!! I've said for years....if women did the designing, a lot more things would be more handy! The notch is BRILLIANT!

Anne Larson said...

Thanks for the review! I've been keeping my eye on this ever since reading about Shawna's adventure. Slicing clay, yeah, that sounds good! My very favorite hand tool is my Cape Cod style weeder--mine also has a wooden handle and I agree about the organic feel! Thanks for sharing your experience "on the ground" !

Jennah's Garden said...

I love the high sides! Brilliant for potting soil. I think my fave tool now has got to be the hori hori. It really is good for everything!

Anonymous said...

The DeWit garden scoop looks like a great tool because of it's design.I bet you can scoop a lot more dirt at once.I have had problems with such as that.The one garden tool that I can't live without is a Dandelion weeding tool.Dandelions are taking over my yard as we speak.I find myself wishing for a tool that is really strong,that I could hold it and put my foot on it and a knife-like tool to cut deep into the root.Truth is,I've been using the largest kitchen knife to pop up those dandelion weeds!

Jenny said...

How exciting - I really love the notch for opening bags. I always have to go look for something to open bags with.

My favorite tool is my favorite for sentimental reasons as well as how easy it is to use. It's my grandmother's hand trowels. I have two exactly the same. They're one piece of shaped metal so they are very strong. We have lots of rocks here & I've never come close to bending one when hitting a rock. At one time they were painted a pretty spring green but they're very well loved/used & chipped now.

Debbie Rea - The Gardener Wife said...

The tool I can't live without is my army shovel (for digging trenches). I can dig deeper and faster with this sharp-edged and short-handled little shovel than with any other. If I win, please notify me by email at GardenerRea at gmail dot com. Thank you!

lonestarhoneybee said...

A neighbor introduced me to the Japanese crafted hori-hori knife last year & it immediately became my favorite gardening tool. It is useful for so many different tasks. This new shovel tool would be a much needed addition!

missmegacard@gmail.com

Thank you for being generous.

Old Mama said...

I have two favorite tools. One belonged to my Grandma. It is like a long handled Cobrahead, but it has 3 heads on it, one more forward and the other two set farther back. The other one is a gardening stool my Dad made for me out of an old fencing wire spool. I would love to have this new tool. Thanks for the opportunity to participate.

Seth Baker said...

This looks like the perfect scoop. I can't live without my soil knife! I walk around with it whenever I'm outside - It's bright orange handle helps locate it when I'm setting it down. It looks like a mid-evil dagger with an intense serrated edge, and a knife like blade on the other side with a sharp cutting notch. It digs perfect bulb or annual size holes and has depth indicator lines. It easily cuts through roots and areas with gravel, cuts into bags or twine. It is by far the sturdiest tool that I've ever seen! You can find it here: http://www.amleo.com/leonard-soil-knife/p/4752/

Midsouthlady said...

This looks like a great tool. I am working on container gardening this winter. I hope to have greens and vegetables year round by using grow lights in the winter. So it would be more useful than the hand shovel I currently use.

Unknown said...

Recently new reader and loving every minute of it. So many ideas so little garden time! I love my 3 tine cultivator - one of the 1st tools I bought over 23 yrs ago when we bought our house. It's little harder to use with hand issues these days but that lovely Shawna's scoop would make it a delight to add compost bags and mulch to my new crocus bed.

Jen said...

Man, I could really use one of those, I always wind up using a empty pot to scoop my potting soil. The tool I can't live without is my cobrahead weeder, because I have a LOT of weeding to do.

Laura Cottrell said...

I have a trowel that I use for everything. I have had this particular trowel for 30 years and it still works great. Love a good sturdy tool!

Anonymous said...

The potting scoop looks like a fantastic garden tool.

I can't live without my gardening gloves. My favorite Ethels are always with me.

Mary said...

I love good design, and this trowel is well thought-out. Perfect for its application. Like my big Jackson wheelbarrow that I use constantly in the garden.

Lona said...

It looks like a very handy tool Kylee. We are always looking for tool that will make gardening easier.

Kristin Asher said...

I love my drain spade and pruner. Having just moved into a new home I'm noticing that I'll have to do a lot of container plantings this year since there is limited sunlight. Looks like a great handy tool. Thanks for the opportunity!

manda said...

I am new to the gardening world but I like a wagon to move all my things around. Great giveaway!

shankyouverymuch11 (at) yahoo dot com

Unknown said...

My favorite gardening tool would have to be my Felco pruners. There is always something that needs snipping! :)
Thank you for the opportunity to win this tool!

Laura

chumblebts@mchsi.com

SolDucky said...

My gloves. I love to garden but have had issues with how dirt feels on my skin since I was a child. Other than those, I also end up using scissors a lot. Always something to snip or cut out.

Dottie said...

I would love to try Shawna's Scoop! My favorite garden tool is any of the Radius brand tools. I have arthritis and the handles are designed to make gardening a little easier on the hands. I especially can't live without the Weeder.

Ryobi Garden said...
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