No matter if you decided to start your garden due to health benefits, or you wish to take up a new hobby, you need to be fully aware of how to get started. The most important thing for any gardener is to have the right tools to get the job done well. Not only do experienced gardeners have a wide selection of useful tools, but they are informed enough that you cannot use one tool for multiple purposes. When it comes to looking after Mother Nature and growing your own healthy produce, you need to be careful about which tools, equipment, and products to use to nurture and take care of your plants.
The selection of gardening tools, though, is so vast. From finding the right purpose to choosing the adequate size, there are so many gardening tools that make it hard to do the right selection. Little do people know, a true gardener requires merely 10 garden tools to get the job done. Therefore, here is a list of the most essential ones that every gardener should have.
- Rake
A rake is probably one of the most useful gardening tools out of them all. A gardener rakes up leaves and other debris, smooths the soil, and even helps with mulching the lawn. With the rake, you can easily whisk leaves and other things away with ease, and not worry about having an odd-looking garden. Rakes come in different sizes, materials, and styles, but the most efficient ones are steel or aluminum ones.
- Garden (hand) trowel
Small and lightweight, this amazing and handy tool is one of the most practical gardening tools every gardener needs to have. A hand trowel is suitable for potting, transplanting herbs and plants in planting beds and containers, loosening up the soil around the base of plants, and even digging up weeds or rocky soil. Out of the many quality garden tools on the market, a trowel is surely the most used. Choose a stainless steel hand trowel as they are more durable, and sturdy, and that won’t bend under pressure because you would be using it a lot.
- Secateurs
Most gardeners also call them pruners, clippers, or pruning shears, but gardener secateurs are surely in the top 10. Secateurs are one of those gardening tools that help you in numerous tasks. They are used for trimming, shaping plants and shrubs, chopping through thin woody stems, removing dead growth, cutting dead or thicker branches, etc. As this is a tool that you would be using most of your time in the garden, don’t hesitate to invest in a quality one. The key is to buy durable, high-quality, heavy-duty, and sharp pairs of secateurs.
- Shovel
Most jobs around the garden depend on the quality of the soil, and if you need to do some tedious digging, you need the help of a shovel instead of a hand trowel. A shovel is a paramount garden tool for most jobs. It mainly assists when doing serious digging and removing or adding various gardening materials such as mulch or compost. No matter if you need to scoop away weeds, dig a hole, fertilize, or fill a bed with compost, you need a sturdy and tough shovel that will ease up the work. The handle is the magic wand as it holds most things under pressure and makes your job go smoother and faster.
- Gardening gloves
Every gardener has certainly had a few splinters and they know how annoying and tiresome it can be to wreak havoc on your hand. In order not to have sore and irritated hands when pulling up nettles or cutting back thorny shrubs, you need to have a pair of good gardening gloves. Many harmless-looking plants can sting you in the end and damage your bare hands significantly, hence being unprotected can be a nasty endeavor. Invest in a pair of gloves and not worry about handling those nasty plants anymore. What’s more, with a pair of quality gardening gloves you will make gardening a more pleasurable experience.
- Spade
Useful just as a hand trowel, but maybe more sprucing for gardeners who need to do some heavy-duty work. Spades are used mainly for digging tasks, but you can do loads of other stuff with them such as edging beds and lawns, transplanting, trenching, lifting sod, moving mounds, dividing shrubs, and many more. By using spades you won’t need to bend or squat, and you will enjoy gardening more.
- Weeder
This nifty little tool does magic in your garden. Weeds are a true menace, and instead of pulling them by hand or treating them with hazardous pesticides, you can get a hand weeder and remove any unwanted weeds and grasses from your garden bed or in-between pavers. Easy to handle, a weeder can brilliantly slice through roots and aerate the soil without putting pressure on your wrist. The stainless steel blade lasts long, so it will help you keep your garden clean for years.
- Fork
A tool that you would be also using most of the time is a fork. Ideal for aerating lawns, creating holes for seeds, removing weeds and small pebbles, mixing in soil treatment, and softening tough ground. The fork is perfect for penetrating hard soils such as clay or rocky soil and makes you work faster. This gardening tool comes in various sizes, but only make sure that the handle suits you.
- Wheelbarrow
Wheelbarrows are necessary for moving and transporting soil, plants, debris, tools, and any other heavy objects around the garden. Don’t waste your time having to do everything on your own, and get a wheelbarrow to help you move things around as you work. This is not suitable only for large gardens, but for every garden.
- Watering can
In the end, the most needed gardening tool is a watering can. The hose is also practical, but watering can help you water your plants with ease. Perfect for smaller pots and planters that need a specific amount of water, but also suitable when planting new annuals and seedlings.
There you have it – a list of the 10 most used garden tools every keen gardener should have. Of course, there are many other items that could be placed on the list, but with these essential ones, you would get most of the business done with ease.
