Garden Tool Buyer's Resource

Uses:

*Weeding
*Digging
*Planting starter plants
*Transplanting

A good trowel is one of those must have tools in your garden tool collection. You’ll probably get more use out of your trowel than most other tools in your collection. There are a variety of trowels available, including ergonomic trowels that will save your wrist from any pain related to a long day of gardening. Most trowels come with measurements so that you can dig a certain depth for easy planting.

Uses:

• Loosening the soil
• Weeding
• Aerating garden soil

It’s a good idea to invest in both a long handled and short handled cultivator, as they both have their distinct uses. Long handled cultivators give you a little extra leverage when breaking up garden soil and weeding. When you want to work carefully around your plants to weed, etc., you should use a handheld garden cultivator.

Uses:

*Weeding
*Loosening the soil
*Cultivating the soil
*Mixing compost

Garden forks come in handheld and long handled versions. The short handled garden fork allows you to do fine detail work in the garden. The long handled forks are intended more for mixing soil and compost, spreading mulch, and cultivating the soil. Garden forks are usually available in stainless steel and carbon steel.

Uses:

• Pruning
• Taking flower cuttings
• Deadheading
• Long-handled shears for cutting grass and hedges

Garden shears are a good supplement to pruners. They are shaped like scissors and perform many of the same functions. Long-handled shears are good for detail work on your hedges and grass.

Uses:

• Deadheading flowers
• Pruning dead branches
• Pruning back shrubs, perennials, annuals, etc.

Along with a trowel, pruners are one of those indispensable tools for all gardeners. When you go to the garden supply store, you’ll typically see two kinds of pruners: anvil pruners and bypass pruners. Bypass pruners cut like scissors, with two sharp blades that close on the branch or stem.

Anvil pruners press the branch or stem against a flat surface, cutting with a single blade.

A pruner with a ½” diameter will allow you to prune most of your ornamental plants, veggies, vines, roses, etc.

Uses:

• Most basic gardening tasks

To quickly equip yourself for working in the garden, consider a tool set with three or four basic garden hand tools. These garden tool sets typically include a cultivator, a trowel, and a garden fork.

Uses:

• Protecting your hands while gardening

If you garden even just a few hours a week, you’ll want to invest in a pair of gardening gloves. They will help prevent blisters, splinters, chapping, chaffing, etc. If you work with roses, look with gardening gloves with long cuffs that will protect your wrists as well.

This section is a list of garden tools and accessories that will serve for most gardening and yard care tasks.  Depending on the kind of gardening you do, you may want to purchase just a few or all of the garden tools in this list.