While this year's weather has proved disastrous for many garden products, new figures show that the rain and snow have also benefited sales within certain garden categories.
GfK research into the garden hand tools market reveals an overall drop of 14% in volume in the first half of 2012 when compared with 2011.

Overall value sales were down less, at 8%, although some sectors, such as digging, were particularly hard hit - forks, spades and trowels all declined by around 20% in value.

Other sectors, though, have performed well in value terms, one being
hoes and weeders. Innovation here led to a 15% increase in the average price of this sector, leading to value growth.

The cutting sectors have also bucked the trend. Some, such as hedge shears and axes, have grown in absolute terms, while others, such as grass shears, have gained share in the market with sales broadly stable year on year.

This would suggest, says GfK, that, while the weather has impacted some activity within the garden, consumers have taken to the stores to buy the cutting tools needed to maintain the appearance of their gardens and combat the rampant growth induced by the weather conditions.

Although it seems a distant memory now, the significant sales of snow tools earlier in the year have also provided a sector of growth within the total garden hand tools market.