10 Must have garden tools
Garden Tools / Landscaping hand tools are essential for performing several jobs in the garden like trimming, planting, transplanting, digging, and cutting. You don’t need to have a huge collection of garden tools that are available in the market.
You can choose the ones that are essential for you depending on the size of your garden and requirements. We will list out gardening tools list with pictures and their uses.
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Garden hand trowel
A Garden trowel is a small handle tool used for digging small holes to plant seeds, bulbs, and plants. It can be also used for removing weeds, loosening the soil, transplanting, and composting.
It is a small handheld shovel or spade used for smaller digging tasks and moving a small amount of soil. You might be aware that spade has a flat blade mainly used for cutting and scraping whereas the shovel is big longer with a pointer tip is used for scooping and lifting
Garden trowel comes in many shapes, sizes and is made from a range of different materials. They usually have wooden, plastic, or rubber-coated metal handles.
The garden trowel blade can be made from Carbon steel, Stainless steel, Aluminum, plastic, and some are even made from Bronze which is very expensive.
The blades that are made of strong stainless steel are bend-proof and are the most durable.
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Garden Gloves
Some gardeners do not like to wear gardening gloves because they want to feel the soil. For some, the gloves are cumbersome and uncomfortable.
Soil contains both good and bad bacteria. Some microorganisms in soil can cause serious damage when they enter the body. Some people have sensitive skin who gets rashes or allergic reactions when they come in contact with plants, fertilizers or chemical. Plants, animal manure, and compost are also sources of bacteria and fungi that can cause infections.
Gardeners wear gloves for many different reasons, such as
- Protect hands from getting dirty
- Keep hands and fingernails clean and dry
- Protect against insect bites
- Avoid blisters and calluses
- Protect from thorny branches or prickly plants
- Protection from fungal infection
- Prevent cuts and scrapes
- Protect existing cuts from infection
Along with choosing the gloves that fit you correctly, which is quite important, you should also choose the type of gloves based on the task you will be performing.
Like Cotton gloves for light gardening tasks such as mowing the lawn, Leather gloves for protection against thorns, branches, and other sharp plant parts you’ll encounter when pruning or trimming bushes, Rubber gloves for wet gardening tasks.
For regular smaller tasks such as weeding and planting, you can choose traditional multipurpose gardening gloves.
Pruning Shears/Hand pruners/Secateurs
Hand pruners, also called clippers, pruning shears, or secateurs are some of the most-used gardening tools that act like scissors for plants.
Using hand pruners, you can trim and shape plants, deadhead blooming plants, prune out dead or damaged foliage and stems, or cut long wayward branches out of shrubs encouraging overall plant health and growth.
There are two basic types of pruners depending on the types of blades.
Bypass pruners – These are most popular and mainly used to get clean cuts that are best of live plant material. These pruners have curved blades that move past each other like pair of scissors. You can cut live stems and branches up to ½ inch in diameter without damaging or crushing the plant.
Anvil pruners – These are normally slightly bulkier and mainly used on dead wood. These pruners have one straight and single sharp blade that presses into a stationary base or flat edge. These are the best for pruning dead branches as they pinch and snap the wood instead of making a clean cut.
If you are cutting thicker branches that are more than ½ inch (or ¾ inch), you better consider loppers. Loppers are a larger, two-handed, long-handled version of pruners.
Garden Hoe
A garden hoe is one of the oldest agricultural tools mainly used to remove weeds, for shaping and loosening the soil, and to add soil around the base of the plants. A garden hoe helps the gardener to do his job without the physical strain of bending down.
There are many types of hoes with different shapes and designs used for different purposes. Some hoes even have interchangeable blades and handle.
Let’s look into some common types of gardening hoes and uses.
Dutch hoe: Dutch hoe or warren hoe, which is commonly called push hoe has sharp blades on every side to cut both forward and backward. You just use a push-pull movement instead of a chopping movement. It is mainly used to cut weed roots.
Draw hoe: Draw hoe, as the name suggests, this tool is used to draw or pull the blades towards you by chopping the ground. Using draw hoe, you can scrape on the soil surface to slice the weed stems or scrape below the soil surface to uproot the weeds.
Stirrup hoe: Stirrup hoe, also called hula hoe or oscillating hoe, is a root-slicing tool. This is mainly designed to cut on both forward and reverse wiggling action. You can cover a lot of ground faster using this tool as it cuts down the roots both on push and pulls strokes. It works well when the soil is dry.
Heart-shaped hoe: The flat blade with a pointed edge of heart-shaped hoe allows weeding in confined spaces. The design of this hoe allows moving easily under mulch or soil to cut weeds off cleanly without damaging surrounding plants. This is also helpful for aerating, breaking up hard or compacted soil.
Onion hoe: Onion hoe also called a collinear hoe, has a long narrow blade that is sharpened on both the bottom and sides. This tool is meant for cutting weeds under a row of plants. The design of the onion hoe allows it to slide easily under foliage but can be problematic if the plants are crowded.
While choosing a perfect Hoe for your garden, you should also consider your height, handle length, overall length, handle material, and blade material.
While choosing a perfect Hoe for your garden, you should also consider your height, handle length, overall length, handle material, and blade material.
Rake
A rake can be used for gathering dead leaves, scarifying lawns, turning, light weeding, leveling, or spreading soil. There are many varieties of rakes with different purposes.
We will list out different rakes and their uses so that you can choose the best that serves your needs.
Leaf rake: Leaf rake has a long fan-shaped set of plastic tines. The tines spread out in a fan or triangle shape and are bent slightly at the end so that they can hold on to the fallen leaves that are being raked. These rakes are designed for raking up fallen leaves. A leaf rake is a must-have garden tool if you have trees around your yard that drop their leaves in fall.
Lawn rake: Lawn rake has a long and straight handle with heads with long, thin metal tines spread out in a fan shape. This is one of the most popular rakes that most gardeners use for their backyard.
Many gardeners mistake them for leaf rakes as this is similar in appearance and can also be used to gather leaves. Apart from gathering leaves, it can be used to break up the soil. It can be also used for raking up garden debris out from beneath shrubs and large plants.
If you just want to rake up the garden leaves then go for leaf rakes.
Thatch rake: Thatch is a layer of organic material between the lawn and the soil surface. A thatch rake is used for removing thatch. Unlike most other rake types, a thatch rake features sharp blades on both sides of its head. One side of the rake has a straight blade used for removing the dead grass and the other side with little curvature is used for removing the top layer of thatch.
Shrub rake: Shrub rakes are very similar in appearance to leaf rakes. It has a smaller fan of tines which allows you to access ground beneath shrubbery and for getting into tight spaces in your garden. You can choose a shrub rake instead of a leaf rake for accessing shrubbery, fencing, or other small spaces.
Handle rake: Handle rake has a short handle that allows gardeners to reach tight spaces around plants. It is similar to a shrub rake but has a shorter handle. They are perfect for raking around small plants covering smaller areas of ground.
Shovels and Spades
A shovel is a tool used for digging and lifting loose soil or other garden debris. Now, you might be wondering, what is a spade as even spade is used for digging. Some key features set the two apart like shape, length, blade, and handle.
What is the difference between shovel and spade?
A shovel is longer, angled and its blade is curved into more of a scoop, whereas a spade is shorter (even longer lengths are available) and has a flat blade with a square-shaped end.
A spade is best for cutting and digging heavy soil, digging straight-sided flat bottomed trenches, or removing a layer of sod, whereas a shovel is best for digging, lifting, and moving material.
With a shovel, you push slightly forward into the ground at an angle for digging, and with a spade, you push vertically into the ground for digging.
Shovels and spades come in a variety of shapes and forms, each designed for a specific purpose like edging, creating trenches, scooping and transfer materials, digging, to dig a narrow hole.
You should also consider the tool characteristics like weight, length, type of handle, blade size and shape, and angle before choosing the tool.
Loppers
Loppers are a larger, two-handed, long-handled version of pruners. It is a type of scissors used for pruning twigs and small branches. They are designed to cut to a 2-inch diameter.
There are two types of loppers:
Bypass lopper: This type of lopper is best suited for live plant material. These pruners have curved blades that move past each other like pair of scissors.
Anvil lopper –These loppers have one straight and single sharp blade that presses into a stationary base or flat edge. These are the best for pruning dead branches as they pinch and snap the wood instead of making a clean cut.
What is Compound action lopper?
Compound action lopper is a type of Bypass lopper that has a special lever and pivot-point action which allows you to apply more force to cut a branch.
Hori Hori
Hori Hori is a Japanese garden knife that is also referred to as a soil knife or weeding knife. You can use it for weeding, digging, cutting roots, and measuring depth.
The blade of the Hori Hori knife has two different edges. One side has a smooth razor-sharp knife-edge and on another side, it has a razor-sharp serrated edge (like a saw blade).
The blade has a concave shape which allows digging or scooping much easier. The end of the blade has a sharp point that allows piercing through hard soil sod easily. You can use it as a small handle ax. On the inside of the blade, there is a measurement marking that is helpful to know how deep to dig while planting or transplanting.
You can call it a multipurpose tool or an all-in-one tool.
Gardening Boots
Gardening boots keep your feet dry, dirt-free, saves you from falling in the garden. You may choose boots with heavy soles to help you press spade or shove better while digging the soil.
Watering Hose and Watering can
Depending on the number of plants in your garden or the size of your garden you may choose a watering hose or watering can. Watering cans are good when you have fewer pots or when you want to sprinkle gently on newly planted seeds.
A garden hose with a good adjustable nozzle provides an easy way to water many different types of plantings like containers, raised beds, shrubs, and even small lawns. You can also control spray radius and water pressure with a garden hose. It is always advisable to buy a longer hose so that you can reach other ends of your garden.
Other Gardening tools names
Some of the below garden tools may essential for few gardeners, but not for every gardener.
- Pruning Saw
- Fork
- Soil Moisture Meter
- Soil scoop
- Sledgehammer
- Post Hole Pincer
- Leaf blower
- Spreader
- Bulb planter
- Hand seeder
- Cultivator
- Pole pruner
- Tree pruner
- Backpack sprayer
- Garden cart
- Wheelbarrow
- Lawnmower
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Ladder
