There are many theories why copper tools like the Vida Hoe are best for your soil and deter slugs and snails – most of which we don’t understand – but we do know of several very influential people, and places that we hugely admire, that always use Copper tools.
People like Charles Dowding, the organic gardener advocating ‘No Dig’, or Waltham Place, a really lovely, natural organic farm and garden well worth a visit. And, of the course, the man we should have listened to so many years ago – Viktor Schauberger.
It was Schauberger’s ‘Golden Plough’ that initiated the science behind copper tools after he saw clear benefits from using a copper plough instead of conventional steel, including increased crop yield and a reduction in pests.
There is, to our minds at least, another good reason for using copper tools. They look and feel so beautiful! Ask Bob Flowerdrew, Mark Diacono of River Cottage (we’re in his book) or Stephanie Donaldson, Gardens Editor of Country Living Magazine what their favourite metal for a trowel is.
This particular copper tool is made with love in Slovenia and is called the Vida Hoe.
It’s a smaller version that your standard hoe, only 40 cm x 6 x 20, but the basic two-head design goes back millennia.
It only weighs 300 grams though so can be very easily used by the smallest of us.
