Weeding is not hard work. What makes it hard is the position. Twenty minutes down on a paver or a gravel path and your knees are done, so you get up, move the kneeler, get back down, and by the third bed you have decided the rest can wait until next weekend. A kneeling mat only helps where you put it. These strap on and come with you, so you stop thinking about your knees and get the row finished.

Why They Stand Out

• They move with you — that is the whole difference from a garden kneeler. Shuffle a metre down the row and the padding is still under you, instead of behind you where you left it.
• Thick foam knee pads, not a thin liner — a proper knee cushion between your kneecap and whatever you kneel on. Pavers, gravel, a concrete path, the edge of a raised bed.
• Two straps, not one — above and below the knee, so the pad holds its place on your leg as you stand and move down the row. One-strap pads tend to wander.
• A cut-out at the back of the knee — the pad flexes with you instead of bunching up behind the joint when you crouch right down.
• Breathable stretch fabric — these are worn against a hot leg in an Australian summer, and a sealed rubber pad is unbearable after ten minutes.
• Light enough to forget — soft pads, not hard shells. You can leave them on while you walk back to the shed.

Where to Use Them

• Weeding along a row — the job they do best, and the one where a fixed mat is most useless.
• Planting out seedlings — down, in, up, move, down again, thirty times.
• Edging and hand-trimming — kneeling on the path while you work the lawn edge.
• The veggie patch and strawberry beds — everything at ankle height.
• Paving, mulching and laying pavers — the jobs that hurt on bare knees, where work knee pads earn their keep.
• Cleaning and household jobs — scrubbing a floor, painting a skirting board, reaching under the sink.
• As a gift for a gardener — one of the few gardening accessories that solves a problem they complain about every spring.

How They Work

1. The pad sits over the kneecap — 23 cm tall and 17 cm across the front, so it covers the part that takes the weight.
2. Two hook-and-loop straps wrap the leg — one above the joint, one below, on a 46 cm adjustable circumference.
3. The foam spreads the load instead of putting it all through one point of your kneecap.
4. The opening behind the knee lets the joint bend without the pad rolling or pinching.

How to Wear Them

1. Put them on standing up, leg straight — a pad fitted while crouching will be loose the moment you stand.
2. Centre the pad on the kneecap before you tighten anything.
3. Snug, not tight — firm enough not to slide, loose enough that you are not cutting circulation on a hot afternoon.
4. Wear them over trousers — over bare skin the strap edges rub within the hour.
5. Re-snug the top strap after ten minutes, once the foam has settled.
Tip: fit the lower strap first and the upper strap second. Done the other way round the pad creeps down the shin as you kneel, which is the complaint people have about every soft knee pad ever made.

Care and Maintenance

• Rinse the mud off and dry them in shade — put away wet, they go mouldy in a week.
• Pick the hook-and-loop clean — grass seed and dirt in the strap is what stops them holding.
• Do not put them in a hot dryer — heat is what kills EVA foam.
• Store them flat rather than folded hard, so the foam keeps its shape.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 pair × Garden knee pads in green