Gardening is mostly done at ground level, and the ground is a long way down. You crouch to thin the seedlings, kneel to weed the border, squat to repot, and every ten minutes you push yourself back up off one knee. By the end of a Saturday it is your knees and your lower back that stop you, not the daylight. A folding stool solves that, except most of them are the size of the job they are meant to make easier — a frame and a canvas seat that lives in the shed because carrying it out is its own chore. This one collapses to 6.4 cm, about the depth of a thick book, and pulls up to a full 45 cm seat in one movement.

Why It Stands Out

• It flattens to 6.4 cm — the whole stool concertinas down into a disc you can hold in one hand, which is what makes this collapsible stool actually come out to the garden instead of staying in the shed.
• One kilogram — light enough to carry out with a trowel in the other hand, and light enough that it goes in the car without a decision.
• Rated to 200 kg — the PP structure takes a real adult in work boots, not a careful perch.
• Set it to the height you need — up to 45 cm for a proper seat at the potting bench, or part-way up when you want to be low over a garden bed.
• Reinforced locks on every ring — the segments latch as they extend, so it holds the height you set it to rather than creeping down while you work.
• Anti-slip base — the pads on the bottom grip paving and decking instead of skating out from under you on a smooth surface.
• A strap for each way you carry it — a short hand strap on the seat and a 56 cm shoulder strap, so it slings over your shoulder for the walk down the back or hangs off a wrist.

Where to Use It

• At the edge of a garden bed — the job it earns its keep on. Sitting at bed height for weeding and thinning means you work for an hour instead of fifteen minutes.
• At the potting bench or the bench in the shed — pulled to full height it is a proper working seat, so repotting and seed trays stop being a standing job.
• In the veggie patch — move it down the row as you pick, and because it weighs a kilogram you actually move it rather than stooping to reach.
• Out on the lawn or the patio — the extra seat that appears when more people turn up than you have chairs for, then disappears into a cupboard afterwards.
• In the boot for camping — as a collapsible camping stool it takes the space a folded towel would, which matters when the boot is already full.
• On the bank or the jetty — a fishing stool you can carry in with the rods, and set low or high depending on the drop to the water.
• In the caravan or the back of the ute — a caravan stool that stores flat under a seat and comes out at the campsite, the markets or the sideline.

How It Works

1. The body is a stack of nesting rings — each one sits inside the next, which is how a 45 cm stool packs down to the depth of its own seat.
2. Pulling the seat up extends the stack — the rings draw out one after another and the locks engage as each reaches its limit.
3. Your weight loads the rings against each other — sitting down pushes the stack together rather than apart, and that is what gives a telescopic stool its 200 kg rating.
4. Pressing straight down collapses it — release the lock and the rings nest back into the base in one push.

How to Set It Up

1.Stand it on the ground, base down — the end with the anti-slip pads goes to the ground, the strap stays uppermost.
2. Hold the base and pull the seat straight up — one steady movement, not a jerk. You will feel each ring lock as it reaches full travel.
3. Stop at the height you want — all the way for a full seat, part-way for low work over a bed.
4. Press down on the seat before you sit — a firm push with your hand seats the locks and tells you it is holding. Do this every time.
5. To pack it away, push straight down through the centre — hands flat on the seat, weight over the middle, and it drops back into a disc.
Tip: on lawn, give it a push down before you sit so the base beds into the grass rather than balancing on the tips. Half a second of pressure is the difference between a stool that sits solid for an hour and one that rocks every time you lean over.

Care and Maintenance

• Rinse the grit out before it collapses. Soil and sand between the rings is what makes a telescopic stool stiff. A hose through the body clears it in seconds.
• Let it dry open before packing it down. Collapsed wet, the water sits between the rings; left standing extended for an hour, it dries out completely.
• Collapse it by hand, not by sitting on it. Press down through the seat with your palms rather than dropping your weight onto it.
• Check the locks each season. Run it up and down a few times at the start of the gardening year and you will feel immediately if a ring is catching.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Collapsible folding stool with hand strap and adjustable shoulder strap