Garden tools are the first way to engage the monetary aspect of gardening.
One may be tempted to go beyond one’s means and try to purchase all the tools and equipment in the gardening section.
Don’t because as difficult as gardening appears, you only need a set of essential tools to get started.
As long as you start with the essential items, you can buy more if you find your garden needs it later on.
Why Are Garden Tools Essential?
In addition to helping you create vegetable or flower gardens quickly, garden tools save us energy and physical effort associated with gardening.
Garden tools help you prepare the garden soil, plant seeds, and maintain your plants with regular weeding in between, without damaging their root system.
Garden tools reduce the workload, and can help convert your gardening hobby into an opportunity to secure a profit.
What Tools Do I Need To Be A Gardener?
Start with simple everyday hand garden tools that will be easy to use, affordable to purchase, and that you can easily find in every gardening section when you go to your local store.
If you are establishing your first garden, consider the size of your gardening space, the type of soil it is, and what kind of plants you will grow.
If you don’t have garden space, but want to have potted plants growing in your home indoors or around your house, a small hand trowel and a brush are all the tools you’ll need.
The hand trowel will help you shift soil around the potted plants and pot new plants.
The brush will sweep away any dirt that spills over the pots while you are tending to your plants.
You can also grab a jug or bottle from the kitchen to water your house plants.
What to Expect?: To set up and maintain a large garden, a gardener will need a few more vital garden tools. If you have the right equipment, setting up a new garden or adding to your present garden will go quickly and efficiently.
From planting vegetable, trees, or flowers from seed, or even propagating seedlings from either of those, keep reading to learn about the 20 gardening tools every gardener needs.
Important Gardening Tools For The Beginner
1. Gardening Gloves
Gardening gloves are essential for any garden.
Besides keeping our hands and fingernails as clean as they can be when getting our hands dirty, they also help protect our hand from getting scratched by plants and also from cuts caused by using garden hand tools.
If you have a cut or an open wound, gloves will keep dirt and bugs out to help prevent infection and protect your skin from bug bites.
There are also pesticides that contain toxic chemicals that can react with your skin, and some plants carry fungus that can carry human diseases if they touch your skin.
This is why wearing protective clothing will help protect you from direct contact with plants.
There are several types of gloves:
- leather
- rubber-coated
- cloth
- and neoprene gloves
Choose hand gloves that are made from a strong and good quality material that is affordable and provides more than average protection.
2. Gardening Boots
Gardeners often do their gardening while standing.
Getting a comfortable and sturdy pair of gardening boots is essential in order to keep your feet dry and not slip and fall on wet grass and dirt.
In addition, being comfortable while gardening is also important, and you will want to wear a quality pair of well-fitted gardening boots to use every day.
3. Wheelbarrow
In your garden, wheelbarrows are very useful for heavy-lifting jobs.
Whether you are moving soil, heavy plant material, mulch or rocks, large plant materials, or fertilizers around the garden, you will need a wheelbarrow.
A wheelbarrow is available in different designs, sizes, and materials depending on your needs.
Steel wheelbarrows are preferred by most gardeners because they can hold a sizable weight.
Steel, on the downside, is heavy and can rust from moisture.
Plastic wheelbarrows are very light and can be damaged from heat and sunlight, but are perfect for light gardening jobs and mixing wet gardening materials like compost and/or fertilizers.
4. Garden Hose
Hoses are important to make watering your plants easier.
Simply connect it to your outdoor water outlet and water your plants effortlessly.
Get a garden hose made of high-quality material which will serve you for approximately top ten years.
Choose a lightweight medium-sized hose and make sure to buy an attachment sprayer on the end as the powerful water pressure can water your plants too much.
5. Watering Can
Small gardens and backyard plants don’t require much watering.
A watering can is lightweight enough to handle simple garden maintenance.
6. Spade
Spades are perfect for making deep holes in the ground, especially if trenches are needed because they have a long straight and sharp edge.
It is also easy to transplant heavy plants that cannot be used with the hand trowel, since a spade has a long blade.
7. Garden Hoe
Garden hoes are essential tools for planting new seedlings and weeding among crops in the garden.
In addition to clearing a garden for new plants, garden hoes can be used to dig up root crops during harvest time.
They come in different shapes and designs, so it is important to choose one with a strong blade and handle material to ensure durability and strength when using these tools.
The length of the handle should make using it comfortable.
8. Soil pH Meter
Plants need adequate soil acidity and alkalinity in order to grow properly
Soil pH meters measure these levels throughout the garden
This type of device gets placed in the soil, and then the acidity and alkaline levels are shown on the digital screen
Other types of soil pH meters can let you know the moisture and light levels in the soil as well
Depending on your budget and limitations, you should invest in one, so you are getting the most out of your soil!
9. Hand Trowel
A hand trowel is a valuable tool in the garden for both large and small gardens; it has many different uses to help you plant and dig up small vegetables and plants.
Potting house plants are much quicker with a hand trowel; this handy garden tool is a beloved choice for most people for many reasons!
You can dig holes to plant your bulb vegetable and flower in a very short time. A hand trowel is a favorite planter of most gardeners.
Note that heavy-weight trowels are usually made of solid stainless steel and fair better in long-term use.
10. Hand Fork
Hand forks are petite gardening tools for digging through small, rocky garden beds with weeds that generally do not have deep roots.
Because of their small size, they’re an excellent tool for digging in between small rows of plants.
11. Dibber
A dibber is a vital hand tool that makes holes while transplanting young seedlings.
It ideally performs in loose, hearty soil and can be purchased in different thicknesses to match their diameter of your seedlings.
Although hand trowels are a method of planting seedlings, using dibber is a more efficient method to plant because you do not need to dig a large hole.
12. Shovel
Shovels break and move loose soil, making them suitable for digging around a pre-tilled garden.
The lightweight, durable material makes them ideal for regular gardening; And at a price point, they’re really hard to beat.
13. Garden Digging Fork
Garden digging forks are very useful for digging through large areas of hard rocky soils and compact soils like clay.
It helps to turn over new garden soil, as well as shovel large root plants from one area to another.
If you want to turn some compost or mulch around your plants, a digging fork is also the best tool to use.
14. Rake
Rakes are robust, metal gardening tools that are used for moving, spreading, and leveling soil in the yard or garden.
In addition, they can remove dry leaves and plants from the garden without disturbing any soil or grass underneath.
15. Weed Puller
Unlike most other common weeding tools, weed pullers do not simply cut the tops off the weed; they remove the weed entirely from the dirt.
Weed pullers work best in soil that is loose and moist.
Weed pullers have long handles and work through a push, twist, and pull method, so they are effective in tight spaces.
16. Hand Pruning Shears
Often referred to as gardening shears, this tool is used to snip, prune and trim plants and flowers.
Gardeners prefer the bypass-style hand pruners since the blades provide a clean and close cut.
This tool functions like a regular pair of scissors and is easier to handle.
When you purchase a pair, make sure you pick a well-fitted pair to your hand that is comfortable to use, will serve your needs, and is an affordable garden shears.
17. Long Handle Pruners
Often called loppers, long-handled pruners are used to trim tall trees and plants.
The blades look like those of shears, but the handles are longer.
You can easily cut and prune garden plants while standing; you don’t have to bend over.
18. Gardening Knife
These garden tools, which are also called Hori Hori knives, come from Japan, and have multiple gardening uses.
These small garden tools can plant, trim, and weeding. Both new and experienced gardeners like horis because they are durable and everywhere useful.
19. Garden Sheers
Garden shears, also called hedge shears, have long blades for easy cutting through plants.
They mainly trim and shape flower bushes or hedges around homes and gardens.
The long blades allow you to reach high places around the house and garden to create an even trim.
20. Lawnmower
A thick, green, luxurious lawn is the highest achievement to most gardeners.
Maintaining a large}{thick, green lawn requires a lawnmower to cut the grass quickly and conveniently.
Lawnmowers cut the grass to an even length and …when purchasing a lawnmower, the gardener’s lawn dimensions and budget should be considered.
What Are The Best Garden Power Tools?
Electricity, gasoline, or compressed air is needed to operate garden power tools.
Aside from a lawnmower, the best garden power tools a gardener can purchase are:
Tiller
Heavy-duty tillers are the norm for larger-sized gardens or gardens larger than 4000 square feet.
You may want to consider having a tiller if you have numerous projects involving larger tracts of land.
The benefit is that it is portable and powerful enough to easily till hard soil.
String Trimmer
String trimmers are powered weeders that you hold in your hands, and trimmers work almost anywhere a mower can’t.
A small tilt will allow string trimmers to weed plants in the garden.
Discover which one suits your garden size, power source, and price.
New models may be expensive, but they are simple to use for all gardening experience levels.
Cultivator
Cultivators are great for keeping an already established garden.
They’re most effective on loose soil, trenching for replanting, weeding a garden, and mixing in compost and fertilizer by loosening the soil.
Leaf Blower
Leaf blowers can take the place of garden rakes as they are quicker to remove dead leaves and even plant debris within minutes.
In fact, gardeners appreciate leaf blowers since they suck and collect the leftover dead leaves around their gardens at a single “swoosh”, compared to using rakes, where gardeners will have to pick up the litter by hand afterwards.
Frequently Asked Questions About Gardening Tools
What are the differences between a tiller and a cultivator?
While cultivators are smaller and best for small jobs, tillers can tackle larger jobs.
Tillers are advantageous for starting a garden as they will dig through the hard soil while cultivators will only lift the dirt in established gardens.
Tillers can remove a large area of plants, while cultivators can only cut out a few weeds.
What garden tools are needed to cultivate?
To aerate soil, lift, and move the topsoil around to help remove weeds, gardeners will use cultivating tools.
The standard gardening tools that are primarily used for cultivating are hoe, hand fork, hand trowel, and garden fork.
What garden tools are the best for weeding?
It’s important to weed your garden because unwanted plants will steal all the nutrients from the soil that you need for your plants to be healthy.
The top tools for weeding are the gardening knife, dutch hoe, cultivator, and fork, and they range in size depending on the size of your garden.
What brands of garden tools do professional gardeners use?
Professional gardeners rely heavily on gardening tools to simplify their work lives.
Investing in high-quality versatile and durable tools will pay off. It will relieve and lighten your workload while you earn your livelihood.
Most professional gardeners will buy a brand that has served them well over a period of time and/or one that fellow gardeners would recommend highly.
Expert gardeners know to look for sturdy materials, such as stainless steel and metal, that indicate quality professional gardening tools.
Brand name preferences should go along with brands that are known for their longevity and quality of workmanship.
Quality brand names provide warranties against unexpected structural breakdown.
Bottom Line
In order for a gardener to be successful, basic tools of the trade is a big part of investing into the garden planning process.
Using garden tools is a way to keep your garden beautiful and growing.
Some essential gardening tools to have as a beginner, would be a rake, hand trowel, hose or watering can, shears, and a shovel.
If you are just getting started with gardening these will put you to work while you plan for adding a higher ticket gardening tool.