If you’re just beginning your gardening adventures, you’ll probably be wondering exactly what tools you need to make a start. The vast array of all things outdoorsy can either be quite daunting, or a temptation to hugely overspend and often both, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Choosing just a few good tools will help you to make a great start without breaking the bank. Given that with care, these could last you many years and possibly even become family treasures loaded with happy memories (I’m still using a set my grandfather gave me 30 years ago), having some help to make the right selection is always useful.
Just remember that you’ve not got to buy every gadget out there, try a couple of my recommended gardening tools for beginners and see how you get on, you can then add to your collection over time.
The Golden Rules For Choosing Garden Tools
Comfort
The most important thing is to buy what feels comfortable and manageable for you. If you find a tool difficult to hold or use then you won’t enjoy your gardening experience and the tool will probably end up unloved in a corner somewhere. Even if you plan to purchase online try to make a trip to a well-stocked garden centre or DIY store to try out a few first.
Practicality
Think about the tasks you'll use it for most often. The saying, ‘the right tool for the job’ has stood the test of time for a reason. A tool should help make the task easier, quicker and safer, this in turn will allow you to achieve great results and to do a bit more in your space each time, or better still just sit and enjoy it.
Safety
Using the right tool, in the right way, will help you to avoid accidents, injuries and incidents. Also, while wearing protective equipment such as gloves and sturdy boots may sound like overkill, as I’ve learnt from experience, it can help avoid all sorts of things from cuts, blisters and splinters to sprains or strains. Do check that your tetanus vaccination is up to date too – just in case.
Hand Trowel
This is the first tool that I started to use at the beginning of my gardening adventure. Unless perhaps you’re very lucky and have just moved into a home with a hidden wilderness to tame, a trowel will get you through most initial gardening tasks without the need for any more immediate expenditure. Pots, planters, window boxes and small borders will probably be your first projects as these are quick, easy and can make an instant and positive impact in your outside space.
Used for planting, sowing seeds, prising out weed roots, small areas of digging and moving compost around, a good quality trowel will serve you well and you can choose a long or short handled one, depending on your space and reach. I’m a bit old school and prefer a wooden handle (FSC certified if possible) and a rust-resistant, stainless steel head, which will last for ages, but there are many good ones with soft rubber handles that offer a more ergonomic grip, if that feels better for you. These are also less likely to split and a little easier to keep clean. Try to avoid plastic if you can, not just for environmental reasons but because they tend to break easily when used for anything other than the lightest of tasks.
Think of the trowel as your first investment in your garden and spend as much as you feel able to afford. Trust me, one day way in the future you’ll look at it and all the memories of starting out will come flooding back.
Hand Fork
Most of the principles above apply to the hand fork. A good quality one to use alongside your trowel will expand your options and it’ll help you to break up compacted ground and cope more easily with heavy or clay based soils. The gaps between the tines mean that it’s especially effective on areas that have more stones in the soil.
Spade
If you have a larger outdoor space, with lots of ground to work on, you may choose to invest in a full sized spade. These make digging deeper holes, perhaps for shrubs or fruit trees, much easier as they are larger, wider and sometimes even have a tread across the top. A spade is definitely something you need to try before you buy to make sure that its height, weight and design suits you.
Again, a sturdy spade with a one piece, stainless steel blade, preferably that can be sharpened, and robust and comfortable handle, will make light work of heavier soil while remaining sharp and being easy to clean. A spade will also be handy for moving large amounts of material such as soil, compost or gravel and for cleanly and easily lifting and separating plants. Once you have one, you can read some tips here on how to use with your favourite plants to get lots more for free Divide and Multiply
Fork
Again the same principles apply to a full sized garden fork. A good quality one to use alternately with your spade will be just the thing to work larger planting areas. A fork will generally be a little lighter than a spade and will help to break up compacted ground and cope much more easily with heavy, clay or stony soils. You can also use a fork to add organic material into an area, spread mulches (you can learn more here Marvellous Mulching), aerate your lawn and when flipped over, the back is great for breaking up large lumps of soil when you need a finer surface to plant or sow in.
Hoe
The advice ‘hoe before you see the weeds’ is some of the best I’ve had. Although you can remove weeds perfectly well by hand, it usually involves either bending over or kneeling down. A hoe not only makes the job much quicker and easier but it also allows you to stop the weeds in their tracks before you can even spot them. There is a bit of a technique to it but it won’t take long to get the hang of it. Start at the furthest point away from you and work towards you with a gentle backwards and forwards motion, just under the surface of the soil. This allows you to lift and chop through the weeds without compacting the soil or risking treading the weeds back into the ground where they might take root again.
All the same principles apply as with the other tools but you have a choice of either a draw or chop hoe (flat head) or a Dutch hoe (Y shaped). I prefer using a Dutch hoe, especially in dryer weather when I can chop through visible weeds and those under the surface that are about to emerge. This stops photosynthesis and water take up and unless you have a really weedy patch you don’t even have to collect them and can instead just let the sun dry them to a crisp.
If you’d like to know more about how to help prevent weeds in the first place, the information here, will help Prevention Is Better Than Cure
Soil Rake
I rarely use a rake unless I’m preparing an area for sowing seeds so it’s not exactly essential but if you’re hoping to grow veggies or lay a new lawn then you’ll find one handy to break the soil down very finely.
You can move it back and forth across the soil to create a fine even layer and even turn it on edge to make little trenches, called drills, for your seeds.
Do remember to store a rake safely. To avoid any comedy moments and potential injuries, don’t lay, or place it, in any position where you could tread on the head and so force the handle to shoot up and meet your face.
Gloves
Gloves are definitely part of my essential gardening kit. They protect your hands from prickles, splinters, stings and contaminants in the soils and can help prevent blisters when you use any tools for a long period of time. Some good all-purpose gloves that you can wash and are thick enough to offer protection but thin enough to allow you to feel what you’re doing would be my suggestion for most tasks. That said, I’ve also used re-purposed washing up gloves for weeding so the choice is yours.
Watering Can
If you’re growing from seeds or have fragile young plants, a watering can with a fine rose (the mini-sprinkler type head) is perfect for ensuring that you don’t wash them away. When watering other larger or established plants, a great tip is to water tactically and only at the base of plants. This not only helps to conserve water but also helps to deter slugs by reducing moisture on the leaves of the plants and prevent weeds thriving by depriving them of water.
Secateurs
If you do have that rambling wilderness that I mentioned earlier, you may want to prune and tidy larger plants, shrubs and possibly even trees. Although you can snip off the odd dead head with a pair of kitchen scissors (yes, I’ve done this too), a pair of secateurs will help speed up the job and give your plants the sharpest haircut. They’re also really useful for taking plant cuttings. Secateurs are a very personal thing and I would advise against buying any that you haven’t held yourself as their fit and weight must feel right for your hand.
There are two types of secateurs, bypass and anvil. I choose to use bypass secateurs, these have two blades that are spring loaded and one crosses or bypasses the other to give a sharp, clean cut which is perfect for both healthy plants and medium duty dead wood.
Anvil secateurs have a single blade that closes onto a plate and although great for heavy duty deadwood, risks crushing and splitting other plant material. These have a very specific role and for me, and probably most gardeners, would be used very infrequently so are unlikely to be worth the investment as a first tool.
Now that you know a bit more about the tools that might work best for you, have fun choosing and using them. Just remember that taking a few minutes at the end of your gardening project to brush off the dirt and allow them to dry before putting them away will help ensure they last for many years. I’ll do some work on a care guide for tools later in the year but meanwhile happy gardening and please do share your first gardening experiences and just ask if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to help.
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