What are the best tools for gardening? Well, there is no one size fits all answer here. The best gardening tools for one person may not be the best for another. It will depend upon your location, soil conditions, and outdoor environment.
In today’s post, we’ll take a look at the top ten best gardening tools that will make 2021 a prolific gardening year if you put in the time and effort to learn to use them properly.
Gloves
While gardening can be a wonderful hobby, it can quickly turn into a thorny and splintery hassle without the right pair of gloves.
Gloves should be durable but not too bulky, especially for working with seeds or transplanting seedlings.
Fit is important, as poorly fitting gloves can cause blisters or result in accidents from slipping off.
Fabrics that are water resistant, but also breathable, will help keep hands cool and comfortable.
Longer cuffs protect wrists and forearms from scratches and keep soil from getting in.
Store gloves out of sunlight, away from water and safe from insects.Botanical photographer, Ellen Hoverkamp recommends Foxgloves. They are made of high-tech sport fabric that is water resistant, breathable, and provide a form fit that has been described as a ‘second skin’. Buy Foxgloves on Amazon.
Pruning Shears
Hand pruners, also called secateurs, help reign in plants that are getting out of control and taking over. Anvil-style pruners cut with a sharp blade meeting a flat surface, similar to a knife on a board. Bypass pruners cut with a sharp blade passing by a sharp-edged flat surface, more like scissors.
Anvil pruners are best for dead wood and can cause crush injuries to fresh, green stems and branches.
Bypass pruners are better for live plants and green wood.
Pruners should fit easily in the palm of your hand.
Ratcheting pruners provide increased cutting strength, perfect for anyone with reduced hand strength or arthritis.
For cleaner cuts and less injury to plants, pruners should be sharpened regularly. (See Garden Tool Care & Maintenance for more)For an anvil-style pruning tool, Hovercamp recommends ratcheting pruners. The increased strength from the ratcheting action makes cutting through thicker or harder branches easier. Buy ratcheting anvil pruners on Amazon.
Loppers
Another cutting tool, loppers are basically long-handled pruners used to trim hard to reach areas and cut thicker branches. The long handles provide the leverage it takes to cut through branches up to an inch or more in diameter. There are anvil and bypass types, just like pruners. Handles generally range from 16 to 36 inches.
Bypass loppers are more precise in cut location than anvil style.
Longer handled loppers can be heavy. Know what you’ll be cutting and how far you’ll need to reach and get the appropriate length.
Lightweight aluminum or carbon-composite handles can be lighter.
Like pruners, keep lopper blades in good condition and sharpen regularly.For anvil-style loppers, our editors recommend the Tabor Tools GG12 Anvil Lopper. It can cut branches up to 2 inches in diameter and is perfect for dry or woody growth. The carbon steel blade stays sharp, making cutting easy. Buy the Tabor GG12 Anvil Loppers on Amazon.
Garden Fork
An efficient tool for turning soil, garden forks can dig into dense soil better than a spade.
Forks with a slight curve to the spines are useful for scooping mulch or turning compost piles, much like a pitchfork.
Straight tines are better for digging; great for compacted, rocky, or clay soil.
Square tines are stronger than flat tines which can bend when they hit a rock or root.Landscape designer Genevieve Schmidt recommends the Radius Garden 203 Pro Ergonomic Steel Digging Fork. The stainless steel, square tines resist rusting and the ergonomic handle has a non-slip grip. Buy the Pro Stainless Digging Fork on Amazon.
Hand trowel.5. Hand TrowelThe essential hand tool, trowels are wonderful for transplanting bedding plants and herbs, planting containers, and taking out weeds.
Select a broad blade to move more soil or a long, narrow blade to dig up weeds or for rocky soil.
The handle should fit comfortably in your hand.
Trowels forged from stainless steel, or at least with a stainless steel head, are more durable and will last longer.Schmidt also recommends the Garrett Wade Tulip Trowel. Its sharp blades cut through stubborn roots with ease, making it ideal for planting bulbs or planting around trees. Buy the Tulip Trowel on Amazon.
Spade
These short-handled square shovels are garden workhorses. They make easy work of digging holes for plants, edging, lifting sod, and moving small mounds of dirt from one area to another. This tool can be more on the pricey side, but a good spade will last you the rest of your gardening life.
Treads on top of the blade give a sturdier and more comfortable foot surface when needing an extra push.
Ash hardwood handles are durable and absorb shock and vibration.
Generally available with long or short handles. Longer handles provide more leverage, but are heavier.
Stainless steel heads are strong and won’t rust.Executive director of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens William Cullina recommends the King of Spades Model 38 Balling Spade. It has a virtually unbreakable handle made from alloy tubing and a heat-treated blade with a sharp edge. Buy the King of Spades balling spade on Amazon.
Hand trowel
Whatever else you decide to keep in your garden tool shed, a hand trowel is one option you won’t want to be without. This is an absolute essential, particularly if you are fairly new to gardening, you have a small garden, or you are gardening in containers. A garden trowel will come into its own if you are planting bulbs or perennials, or digging up small weeds.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
A shovel
While a trowel is useful, you definitely won’t want to attempt bigger digging jobs with one. That’s why you may also wish to think about a shovel, which you can use for larger gardening tasks such as moving soil into your wheelbarrow, planting trees, or turning over the earth in a vegetable patch to get ready for planting. A shovel differs from the next gardening tool on our list as it often has a pointed, or rounded tip, making it more useful for earth moving.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
A spade
Closely related to the shovel, but not quite the same tool, every gardening shed must surely have a spade in it. If you have a lot of digging to do, you will definitely need a spade. A spade has a flatter edge, which makes it particularly good for breaking up soil and getting straight edges on your flower or vegetable beds. While you can manage with either a spade or a shovel, having both will be more efficient.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
A rake
Similar to a broom, but much more robust, a rake is one of the most versatile tools you can choose for your garden. You can use a rake for turning over and breaking up your soil to make sure it doesn’t clump together, making it impossible for your seedlings and plants to break the surface. You can also level out your soil, remove weeds and gather up your garden debris before transferring to a wheelbarrow.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
Leaf rake
Similar to a garden rake, but with a specific function, a leak rake has longer prongs and is used for raking up lightweight debris from your garden, such as leaves. It is particularly helpful if you want to rake up leaves without damaging the lawn underneath. If you live in an area with lots of trees, you’ll find this tool really comes into its own during autumn when the trees are shedding their leaves.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
Garden hoe
You can use your gardening trowel for weeding, but to save you from having to do too much bending, you may wish to invest in a garden hoe. You can use the flat end of your hoe for shaping trenches to put your plants into as well as for weeding. Once you have your seeds in the right place, your hoe will also come in useful as you can simply push the soil back over them.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
Loppers
Even if you already have a pair of pruning shears, you are likely to find that they aren’t heavy-duty enough for some gardening tasks. A pair of loppers will have longer handles to give you more leverage, allowing you to cut thicker branches and to keep your hedges under control if you prefer to cut them manually or you don’t have access to an electric supply at your garden plot. When choosing a pair of loppers, the information with them should say what the maximum diameter is that they can cut through.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
Pruning saw
If you have a set of pruning shears and a lopper in your toolbox, you may still find you need another type of tool for bigger jobs. A pruning saw can be helpful if you need to cut through larger branches, but you don’t quite need something as heavy-duty as a chainsaw. Pruning saws can be a particularly good choice if you are working to prune trees and shrubs which are in tight spaces and where you wouldn’t want to be using electric tools.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
An edger
Have you ever visited a friend or neighbor and admired how neat their lawn is? Well, chances are they probably have an edger in their tool shed. This tool can create clean, sharp lines between lawn and flowerbeds. Edgers usually have a semi-circle shape to make it easier for them to penetrate the soil. You simply place the edger where you want to create your sharp edge, step down onto it, and then move along in a line (or a circle) depending on the shape you want to make.CHECK PRICE ON AMAZON
Conclusion
We all love to garden and most of us want to improve the appearance of our gardens. But it can be tough to figure out what gardening tools you actually need. There are so many different combos and options for each type of tool. Even when you think you’ve got your list figured out, it can be confusing figuring out what’s the best quality tool for your money. We all have our budget concerns.