The ergonomic Y-Grip garden trowel was invented in Comox, BC, Canada by Paul Carr aka, “MacGyver”. Paul is always adapting bikes, meals, garden implements and just about everything to make them work better.
Necessity is the true mother of invention and after removing a sidewalk from the front of our home and replacing it with a garden bed we were left with an unruly chunk of soil to renovate.
When Paul tried to plant some new plants he found that a regular garden trowel was uncomfortable to use and was inefficient at digging. In typical Paul fashion he dug through his little shop of horrors and found an old mountain bike bar-end (long since out of fashion with the hip mountain bike crowd) and attached it to the handle of the trowel, forming a crude “Y” shape.
When I arrived home he showed this clever invention to me with great enthusiasm. “It works so well. You can use one hand or both without straining your wrist!”
As Registered Massage Therapists we are always thinking about how to use the body more efficiently and ergonomically and he felt that this twist on the traditional trowel gave it a great biomechanical advantage.
Like most wives of "inventor" husbands, I needed convincing. Paul’s opportunity came after I had injured my wrist and wasn’t feeling confident about gardening. Paul was anxious to get some help with the weeding so he insisted that I take the Y-Grip for a spin.
I found that I could dig comfortably for many hours with no wrist strain. I loved its versatility: I could dig, weed transplant and cultivate with only one tool. I was completely sold.
After ten years of research and development the Y-Grip garden trowel is finally here and we hope you will find it as efficient, functional, comfortable and fun to use as we do.
Happy Gardening,
Paul and Bonnie