Last year at the National Hardware Show we ran across the ergonomic Radius garden tools. These are the first tools we found that claim to reduce wrist fatigue that really work! I had tried some other hand tools that claimed to be easier on the wrist and arm muscles, but either they were too cumbersome or they just didn’t work like they claimed.

The first Radius tool I tried was the ergonomic radius weeder. First of all, I don’t have any weeder that is designed this way. You just slide the weeder into the dirt behind the weed and pop it out. It makes getting out those long tap roots super easy. So the tool itself is very effective and as a bonus, the handle design makes it seem effortless. This is now my favorite tool. I use it 75 percent of the time because it works for most of my gardening tasks.

I also have the radius cultivator. I compared this tool side by side with another ‘hand rake’ that I had. My old cultivator with a straight handle was harder to manage and control when reaching under my bushes to rake out debris. Because you grip the radius garden cultivator differently, it made the work easy. I could really feel the difference in the amount of wrist fatigue between the two tools. The radius cultivator was the clear winner and I got rid of my old tool - I see no reason why I would ever use it again.

As you might imagine, the radius trowel and the radius bulb trowel work equally as well. I found it a little weird to get use to the change in hand grip after years of gripping from the top and twisting my wrist to dig into the dirt. But once I forced myself to hold the radius trowels the correct way, the muscles in my arm were much more relaxed and there was no strain on my wrist.

All in all, I just can’t say enough good things about the radius tools. If you try one, you will see for yourself what a difference they make and soon you will be replacing all your tools with Radius tools. I heard they are going to be adding long handled tools to their ergonomic tool line. I can’t wait to see what the shovel feels like!