Gardening backpack

My property came with lots and lots of trees and is an odd shape on top of that. Thus, my gardens are very broken up and not terribly convenient to the house. No matter what I did, I was constantly loosing tools (only to find them again a year later +/-), getting somewhere and not having a tool I needed, or not having enough hands or suitable pockets to carry them. I am also often wanting to carry extra things to drop off along the path to whichever garden I'm heading for, so I really wanted something more like a backpack than a tool bucket. I've seen fabric covers for buckets for holding tools and things, but generally I've been disappointed - too many flat pockets that don't really hold the things I wanted holding.

Then my son picked up a backpack from the free bin at college. Then he wore out the bottom until its lack of waterproofing became sufficiently annoying that he stopped using it, at which point he was willing to give it to me.

I made the two large cubbies into one, by cutting out parts of the zippers and stitching over the remaining zipper parts to keep them from opening. This now nicely fits an 11" tall square bucket. Square buckets come in different heights, and I specifically chose 11" as I'm fairly short in the body. I also didn't want things falling out if I leaned over to do things on my way to the garden. The other existing cubbies have been great for spare gloves, one for the secateurs and sturdy scissors, and I quickly added a pencil and some recycle card-stock for writing notes down. I made sure the water-bottle is the type where the lid covers where I'll put my mouth so if I'm messing in the compost I don't have to worry about germs. If I can find a light weight tape measure, I'll be tempted to add it for when I'm spacing seeds/transplants. Oh, and it does hold the typical garden things like a trowel and my favorite weeders!

I got one from my employer when I worked at the shipyard, and I have always enjoyed it. When I check for mineralization on my farm I have to carry an assortment of tools to pan streams and chisel out lode rock, and it has worked well. I have got miles and miles on it, and many times carrying a lot of weight as any samples taken must be hiked out, and rock is indeed heavy! I have swore many times humping out a lot of rock that I am going to get a donkey someday and name it "Pick Axe". :-)

I take tons of pictures when I am out and about, but rarely does my trusty backpack get in the photo. In this case it did, and as nasty as this picture is, I did find some minerization here in the gravel at the edge of the stream (a beaver bog). It just goes to show, a person has to bring their tools, and check everything as you just do not know where the ole AU will show up.

Cool work Ms Jay!!  
I carry a flexible sewing tape in my purse as a lightweight tape measure  :)

I need to do something like this.  I don't have any secateurs at the moment because they are out in the forest, somewhere.  I'm so bad at losing handtools it is ridiculous.  I find myself using a pocket knife for jobs I shouldn't but it's my only tool.  Yesterday I was clipping raspberries and almost lost my last set of garden shears.

I may need to tie my tools to my wrist like a mitten.  :-)

@Travis - My problem with using the pack in its original form, was that I'd have sharp tools damaging the fabric or poking into me. The bucket solves those problems and it can be removed to dump the dirt out which it's already collecting from the tools.

@Pearl - Yes, I looked at my sewing tape. It has the advantage that water won't hurt it and it would be easy to wipe, but the disadvantage that mine is only 5 ft long and I'm thinking 10 ft would be more useful.

@Scott - Yes - you really do sound as if you need something like this. If you are a bigger person, you might even find that a largish fanny pack would do the job. You'd look pretty funny with things tied like mittens, but they do make retractable key holders/ID holders! I don't know that they make anything sturdy enough to work with garden tools.  ;-)

I'm inspired as well.  In the process of taming my woods, I often move along with hand clippers (which go in the pocket) and also a bow saw and a long handled limb-lopper.  And sometimes a rake.

Scott: I paint my tools hot pink, so I have more chance of finding them. I have grass that grows at light speed, and it's always deep, pink gives me a chance.

Jay: I don't think I've seen a 10 foot sewing tape. I use mine for all kinds of odd things, measuring lumber, or chunks of rebar. Plus in my world it has the bonus of being able to measure weird shapes too, that matters to me these days.

Pearl: if I could actually find a pair of old fashioned fabric ones, I could just sew two of them together. I'll look for that - thanks for the idea. Yes, they are very good if you want to measure around odd shapes!

Pearl Sutton wrote:Scott: I paint my tools hot pink, so I have more chance of finding them. I have grass that grows at light speed, and it's always deep, pink gives me a chance.

Jay: I don't think I've seen a 10 foot sewing tape. I use mine for all kinds of odd things, measuring lumber, or chunks of rebar. Plus in my world it has the bonus of being able to measure weird shapes too, that matters to me these days.

Good idea Pearl.