Gardening: Tool Box: Lightweight Bulldog with a powerful bite

WE ARE preparing for an invasion at the end of next month. About 150 guests are due to celebrate our daughter's wedding. Making the garden look as good as possible is almost as important as ordering enough grog from Tanners of Shrewsbury, wine merchants to the nobility and gentry.

Lawns are focal points for these festivities - unless it rains, perish the thought - but mowing is only one part of the

battle. Neatly manicured borders are important, which is why I have been testing a Bulldog Evergreen edging knife. The term is misleading, if you are not a greensward guru, because it has a long shaft and looks more like a hoe.

The shaft is plastic, not wood, because the Evergreens are lightweight tools. The edger costs pounds 15.51 and weighs about 40 per cent less than its pounds 18.93 equivalent in the Bulldog Premier range. They have the same semicircular blade of high-quality steel, which is made in the company's own forge.

We tend to relate strength to weight, despite evidence provided by all manner of ultra- light modern materials; but there is nothing flimsy about this efficient implement. My only criticism concerns the handle, which should be about two inches wider.

Bulldog Tools Ltd, Clarington Forge, Darlington Street East, Wigan, Lancashire WN1 3DD (0942 44281).