20 Must-Have Gardening Tools Every Gardener Needs: The Complete list

Whether it’s a community garden or home garden, you cannot get the best harvest without the right equipment. Gardening tools are crucial for performing several jobs in our garden flawlessly, including trimming, planting, digging, and cutting. When it comes to gardening, you do not need to own a huge collection, but having the essential ones could make caring for your outdoor space easier. Here’s a list of the 20 essential gardening tools you can hardly do without.

Gloves

20 Must-Have Gardening Tools Every Gardener Needs: The Complete list

If you’ve ever tried cutting back some thorny shrubs or pulling nettles with your bare hands, you can attest that gloves are a gardening necessity. And while you will not always handle harmful items, even the seemly harmless looking plants could leave your hands irritated and sore if they are unprotected. The prolonged use of hand tools could also damage your bare hands because of the friction and pressure. A pair of sturdy gloves is a gardening necessity since it protects you from the prickliest of brambles. As a result, gardening will be more enjoyable and safe.

Shovel or Spade

A shovel and spade are equally great gardening tools to own. However, if we had the option to choose either, we’d go with the spade. A spade offers nice, straight, and clean edges. It is also an excellent tool for transplanting, planting as well as slicing through tough root systems. Some gardeners, however, prefer using a shovel to scoop soil and dig holes. Whichever option you go with, ensure it has a comfortable and ergonomic design, in addition to a sharp cutting edge and strong handle.

Weeder

Are you looking to deal with the weeds without polluting your garden with harmful chemicals? Then a weeder is the best tool for you. This is a small hand tool with a forked end that is perfect for digging out individual weeds as well as removing them by their roots. When used appropriately, this tool can help you get rid of all offending plants so that they will not be a mess later on.

On the flip side, you should brace yourself for some hard work because removing weeds with this tool is time consuming because you have to take each plant at a time. Luckily, you can enjoy some time on the outdoors while getting rid of the weeds.

Garden Hoe

If you’re moving around soil on your garden, removing unwanted roots, digging trenches or weeding the entire garden, then a garden hoe should be your closest friend. A good hoe will cut through all the tough soil as well as the difficult obstacles with great ease. Whether you are up to some planting, digging, cultivating, weeding, or chopping, a garden hoe is one piece of equipment you don’t want to miss by your side.

Soil Knife

A soil knife is another incredibly versatile tool, though not one that you will find in the average gardener’s shed. This tool is so versatile that it easily performs activities that other garden tools do. You could use it to plant herbs, vegetables, flowers, and bulbs; dig out weeds, divide plants, cut through roots, remove rocks, open bags, cut twine and ties and much more. With a Japanese origin, this tool has a serrated blade that’s sharp on both ends so you should keep it out of the reach of small children.

Pruning Shears

You could call them what you fancy – secateurs, hand pruners, pruning shears – they are a gardening essential if you need to prune roses, vegetables, shrubs, and fruit trees. If you’re looking for something you could use all-round, the bypass pruner is an excellent choice since it is designed to cut live wood and deliver smooth and clean cuts. And as you have probably realized, pruning isn’t a one time job so be sure to choose a pair of shears that’s comfortable on your hands. In addition, be sure to maintain the blades at their sharpest.

You should, however, never force your pruning shears to cut thick plant material because they could easily break or get blunt.

Garden Scissors

Although they are a gardening tools essential, the importance of scissors for any real gardener is easily overlooked. Garden scissors are a versatile piece of accessory that could be used to perform multiple garden chores. You could use your pair for the delicate pruning jobs, opening seed packets, and you could use them for a small dig if there’s nothing else to do the job. This is one piece of equipment that a gardener would improvise to perform multiple gardening tasks.

Watering Hose

Let’s face it; your plants need water. There are an array of options when you need to water your plants but we believe a watering hose is what you need the most. You cannot always rely on rainfall, and depending on the number of plants on your garden or the size of your farm, a watering can is just impractical. Go for a hose length that would easily get to all corners of your garden, including the vegetable gardens and flower beds.

A watering wand or hose nozzle would also come in handy if you need to customize the water spray pattern in addition to providing the extra reach. A watering can is an excellent choice if you just have a small area to water. But, if you want a low-maintenance solution, a drip irrigation system would work perfectly.

Spading Fork

A spading fork, also known as a gardening fork is a great gardening tool when you need to aerate the soil or transplant your seedlings. You could also use it to split perennials and ornamental grasses. If fact, it is quite impossible for you to divide and dig out perennials without the right spading fork. A spading fork could also come in handy when you want to mix up manure or sort hay in the barn.

Rake

Rakes are popular for their main use: cleaning up trimmings, grass clippings, and fallen leaves. However, the truth is that these pieces of gardening equipment come in different types and serve various purposes. A rake could be used to break up soil and level out seedling beds. A shrub rake easily gets into the tight spaces where larger rakes might not fit. A landscape or garden rake is designed with metal tines which are perfect for leveling mulch or soil. From leaf rakes to straight-headed rakes, there are several options to choose from depending on your needs.

Hedge and Lawn Shears

Hedge shears and trimmers are great for maintaining that picture-perfect landscape. You can easily trim and shape your bushes, hedges, and shrubs in order to achieve a beautiful outlook as well as keep plants healthy. You could also use lawn shears to clean up your lawn’s edges and reach the difficult-to-access sections of your landscape.

Pruning Saw

A pruning saw is the best tool to tackle the stubborn branches as well as those that are too big for loppers or pruning shears. Whether you’re removing roots or cutting branches, this tool will be up for the challenge. Besides being a gardening tool, this accessory could be a good companion for your next hiking or camping trip. And depending on your needs, you could consider having a long-reach saw since it helps you to safely reach the higher branches even when there’s no ladder to climb.

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Wheelbarrow

When you’re taking care of a weed infestation or digging out new areas of your garden, you will definitely have a lot of waste to deal with. All that waste must go somewhere and even if you want it in your compost heap, you still have to get it there. In such an instance, a wheelbarrow would come in handy and would help reduce the number of trips to and from the compost heap. A good quality wheelbarrow could help you save a lot of time off your gardening schedule.

Garden Glide

A garden glide could help you complete a lot of gardening work with few trips. To begin with, you could use it to easily drag items that are too heavy across your yard. From seedlings, mulch, soil, compost, to garden waste, there’s a lot you can move around the garden with great ease. This is particularly the case if you don’t want to constantly lift things up. A garden glide is made with a low design so that you can easily roll objects on for transport while the raised back will prevent your items from falling off.

Hand Fork

The hand fork is a small but essential garden tool that lets you break up the hard, lumpy garden soil into crumbly compost in order to achieve a texture in which young plants can grow their roots in without being impeded.

Lawn Mower

While it might seem pretty much obvious, the truth is that your garden won’t look good without a properly trimmed lawn. It is for this reason that every gardener should have a lawn mower in their tools shed. From manual lawn mowers to electric lawn mowers to gas mowers, you can choose what you prefer. All in all, your choice doesn’t matter because a mower is an important tool to have.

Check out our article on how to choose the best lawn mower.

Hand Trowel

When you need to plant seedlings, a hand trowel is obviously indispensable. You could use it to dig out small chunks of soil to plant seedlings or dig up tough weeds. And just like other gardening tools, be sure to keep it clean to ensure it lasts long.

Edger

Just as the name suggests, this tool helps create edges in your garden. You could use it to cut a line between the garden and sidewalk. To use this equipment, just place its blade where you’d like to create your edge then press down to cut into the soil.

Watering Can

If your watering jobs are not too intensive, then a watering can easily come in handy. This is particularly the case if you want to water a flower bed or seedling nursery where high-pressure water (here is the list of pressure washer) isn’t required.

Leaf Blower

While there are several ways to get rid of leaves on your garden, a leaf blower presents a quicker option if you do not want to spend hours on the same task.

There you have it. These are our pics for the 20 essential gardening tools gardeners must have in their shed.

Updated on 2024-12-03 - Images from Amazon API. Logos are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. 1001Gardens is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

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