Plant Garden Home

It’s important that beginning gardeners with less established gardening skills have the gardening tools for the multitude of gardening tasks they need to perform.

Here’s a list of gardening tools most garden centers and nursery experts recommend when you are starting to garden:

1. Two shovels:  One should have a pointed tip and the other a flat-headed model. Both should have wooden handles at least four feet long.

 

2. Pruning shears or secateurs: A good pair of sharp shears or secateurs is a vital part of any gardener’s tool collection to keep roses and shrubs looking nice.

3. Loppers: A long-handled cutting tool that can cut through heavier rose canes and through tree branches up to about an inch in diameter.

4. Two Rakes: A wide bamboo or plastic rake for light raking that involves collecting relatively lightweight garden debris and a heavier straight metal model for serious soil leveling and preparation.

5. Hedge shears: Long-handled, flat-bladed hedge shears are designed to cut evenly across both horizontal and vertical planes.

6. Tank sprayers: Because it’s difficult to completely clean tank sprayers, separate sprayers should be purchased for herbicides, fertilizer and insecticides.

7. Garden hose: Don’t buy one that’s too long or too short for you to comfortably use; a 200 foot long hose in a 25 foot wide garden makes no sense at all, nor does a 50 foot hose for a half acre lot.  More expensive hoses withstand the temperature extremes of summer and winter much better, and spending the extra money for a kink-free hose is well worth the frustration it will save you. Don’t forget to buy a rack or hose reel to keep your hose in out of the way when not in use.

8. Wheelbarrow or lawn cart: A wheelbarrow is the more versatile choice, heavy duty, usable for moving dirt for a new plant bed to mixing concrete for a patio fix. If all you need to do is move leaves, carts are cheaper and are lighter.

9. Spreader: Spreading fertilizer by hand causes some areas to get too much fertilizer while other areas get too little or none at all. Spreaders help spread the fertilizer evenly.

10. Broom: For keeping walks, driveways and patios free of lawn clippings or dirt from your gardening adventures.

Other tools that you may wish to consider owning to make gardening easier and more fun: A hand-held hoe, heavy cotton gloves, whipper snipper or line trimmer, pruning saw, mower, hand trowel, big floppy gardening hat, watering can and sunscreen.

Every Gardener needs gardening tools; they allow you to potter round in your garden and complete chores with ease. Keep your eye out for sales! This is the best time to purchase excellent quality gardening tools at a great price.