Bronze age

 I met some very gentle folk recently. They were softly spoken, kindly and polite and invited me into their lovely house to have a cup of coffee (freshly ground and alluringly aromatic) and a slice or two of apple and cinnamon cake (baked to perfection). She was French, he Welsh, she was a portrait artist, he forged wildly creative gates and staircases from wrought-iron. They were both gardeners and knew a lot about Viktor Schauberger and the effects of the planets on plant growth and the energies inherent in fresh water and …well, a whole lot of esoteric things from the European agricultural tradition. And they had great tools. I noticed them as I was taking off my boots before going inside (for coffee and cake). They were made from bronze, the business ends at least. The handles we all oiled wood, probably ash or oak or some other fine quality hardwood. They didn’t look cheap. The spade, fork, rake and hoes were all works of art in their own right and would have looked beautiful on the wall of an art gallery but here they were, encrusted with dry soil, leaned up at the back door waiting to get back out into the garden for some work. There were small hand tools as well, trowels and small forks. I wanted them for my own.

I asked my new friends why they had such unusual tools and their answer; that iron tools interfere with the natural and delicate electrical fields in the soil, had me both puzzled and perplexed. Do such fields exist? Have I got them in my garden? Did I need to get some bronze garden tools?

I still don’t know. I promised myself I’d do some reading on the subject but haven’t.

My first thoughts were; could I afford to make the change if I discovered it was true, could I even find such tools here in new Zealand (they’d brought their across the world from Germany) and would they last long under my rough gardening style? (they seemed as though they would wear out more quickly that my steel ones).

So that’s where I’m at. If you know anything about non-iron garden tools, I’d like to hear from you. If you’ve got any that you’re not using, give me a call.