What’s the most effective way to use a grelinette? How to use this ecological gardening tool compatible with permaculture. Here’s the right way to use a grelinette and the right gesture to protect the soil and the gardener’s back.
This use of the grelinette helps to loosen soil and release nutrients for plants. For gardeners, effortless beading with this ergonomic garden tool becomes a pleasure. Even clay soils that are difficult to turn over are quickly ready for cultivation. Just make sure you choose a sturdy, forged tool with teeth.
You’ll find more details on our page: why use a grelinette.
[Video] How to use a grelinette in the vegetable garden?
This eco-friendly spading fork is very easy to use. Because it’s symmetrical, it doesn’t strain the back at all. Yet it’s fast, efficient and almost effortless. In the following video tutorial, I’ll show you how to spade with a grelinette. No more shovels or ladles, which are difficult to plough and turn over. Here’s how to use this magical tool to aerate the soil with ease. A genuine hand-operated tiller that replaces the power hoe.
Here’s how to get the most out of your mulch.
- If you put down manure, straw, dead leaves or any other mulch in the autumn, much of this organic matter has already been digested by the soil’s micro-organisms. You can remove the remains with a rake and use them as mulch after tilling the soil. There’s no need to bury it.
- You plant the tines by holding the ash handles with your arms stretched forward. This allows the tines of the grelinette to tilt as far back as possible. Pressing the tool straight down allows you to return to the soil as quickly as possible without having to shake.
- The arms are brought towards the body, as far back as possible, to maximize the angle of rotation for maximum work with minimum effort. This was André Grelin’s major innovation. By allowing the tool to extend beyond the body axis with the handles at the back, soil cultivation is unrivalled in its efficiency. This oscillation of the tool allows the soil to be lifted up and put down again as gently as possible, without turning it over.
- There’s no need to lift the spading fork to move backwards. Simply drag the tool backwards by 10 to 20 centimetres, depending on the work required.
- Then repeat the movement with your arms stretched forward. No more backache when preparing and loosening the soil.
- A simple pass with a hook, claw or rake will allow you to finish crumbling the soil surface before planting or sowing. To simplify this task, you can also make a perpendicular pass with your grelinette.
But do you know when to use your grelinette?
Beware of bad habits with this grelinette
In many videos, I see users lifting the grelinette to plant it, when it’s so simple to place the feet on the horizontal frame to help the tines penetrate the soil. If one foot isn’t enough because the soil is heavy, you can use all your weight and both feet. If need be, small oscillating movements from right to left will allow the tines to penetrate to the desired depth.
Another stubborn habit, and in my opinion counter-productive, is to shake your sleeves to crumble and break up clods of soil. The risk of this habit is to upset the different layers of soil in the same way as digging. It’s the same fault as ploughing. The effect on your plot will be immediate: weed seeds will rise to the light! A wonderful false seedbed that needs to be weeded. There’s also the risk of exposing earthworms to the light.
To loosen clay soils, you need a quality grelinette.
If you don’t already own a grelinette. I would strongly advise you to invest in a quality hardened steel tool to prepare your garden soil. In fact, with clay soil, there’s a great risk of quickly bending one of your tool’s teeth. Heavy soils are compact and exert an incredible force of resistance to effort. The forks of your grelinette must be forged to prepare the ground properly before sowing a lawn or cultivating your vegetable garden.
My advice for a good grelinette
- Curved tines for leverage and shock absorption when working with stones. The number of tines depends on your strength and your soil.
- Good fork diameter (14mm) to prevent twisting.
- A blacksmith-refined tip for easy entry into heavy soil.
- An ash wood handle, as this is the most resistant if properly fitted in the direction of the wood grain in the socket. Maintain with linseed oil for longer life.