HOMEMADE DIY DIBBER AND A SURPRISE

What is this?

Some might call it a "necessity is the mother of invention" moment.

I might be more inclined to call it an "oh crap, I can't find what I need" moment.

Homemade dibber type garden tool

I used to have one of those tools for the raised beds that are called "dibbers", which is basically a pointed stick that you use for making holes in soil to plant bulbs, seeds, seedlings, etc.

When I was getting ready to put my garlic and shallots in late last year, I couldn't find my dibber.  Curses!  I think it got thrown away accidentally when I was clueing out some boxes in town.  I dug around in a kitchen drawer and found a rubber wine bottle cork we had saved for some odd reason, and a long wooden skewer from a package of skewers.  I figured they might do the job.

I pushed the skewer into the cork and it was done.  At first, I was going to use it like this by just using the skewer to push the cork down into the soil, thereby making a large hole...

...but I actually ended up using it like this.  I used the cork as a sort of handle, and stuck the skewer into the dirt.  Then I just wiggled it around and around in a widening circular motion until it created an inverted, cone shaped hole to plant in.  Sometimes, you just have to do what works, ha.

English made Dibber

So flash forward to Valentine's Day.  2nd Man surprised me with this.  It's a large dibber, handmade in England.  It's pretty neat, has a brass tip, and metal depth rings along the length.  Even a handy little leather strap to hang it with.  It's almost too pretty to use.  But I guess it's better than my homemade version, though I might keep that around just in case.