Spending your free time gardening is one of the most relaxing and productive activities at the same time. All those hours spent outside in a green and beautiful garden will definitely boost your energy for all the work that is to come during the week. Even though gardening is a peaceful activity, it also requires some knowledge and tools as well! Finding proper equipment shouldn’t be that hard, but you must always know your garden and what it needs! There are a lot of gardening stores you can cruise to find appropriate gardening tools, or you can order them online!
To help you decide what’s best for your backyard garden, here are gardening tools everyone must have:
Trowel
A trowel is a versatile gardening implement. It’s a little shovel with a sharp point that’s used for small-scale gardening. There are a number of widths, lengths, and forms available, as well as comfort grips.
A trowel can be used for a lot of things, such as:
- Planting bulbs
- Excavating rocks
- Creating holes for planting
- Especially for container gardening, scooping soil and additives
- Digging on a small scale
- Transplanting
- Weeding
Tools having a full tang are less prone to bending and breaking. When it comes to planting seeds and bulbs, those with measurement indications are ideal. You don’t want to be caught without a sharp trowel.
Shovel
A shovel is made up of two parts: a blade and a handle. It might be a full-length handle with a T- or D-grip or a short handle with a T- or D-grip. The lengths and sizes of the heads vary greatly.
A shovel’s head might be concave and triangular, or it can be flat and rectangular.
Two sharp edges meet at a place on the triangular shape.
The rectangular one is known as a spade because it has one sharp front edge.
Both versions may feature a ledge on top of the head for resting your foot while driving it into the ground to obtain leverage and exert force.
Triangular blade shovels can be used for a variety of tasks, including:
- Large holes are dug for fresh perennials and bushes
- preparing new beds by digging and rotating the soil
- Soil or soil amendments scooped
- Root severance
- Rocks are being discovered
Straight slices are made with flat-head shovels or spades. They’re excellent for:
- Removing sod
- Garden bed edging
- Compost, mulch, and dirt are scooped
- Either – or both – types of shovels may be suitable for your purposes
Because triangular digging shovels are heavier than rectangular spades, they may be avoided if weight is an issue.
The next item, however, may be of interest because it is a small-scale digger designed expressly for use in flower beds.
Moisture Indicator
While it may sometimes appear as a luxury, a soil moisture meter, also known as a hygrometer, may help you avoid guessing when it’s time to water.
Plant deterioration is exacerbated by water stress. Oversaturation of plant tissue and roots can occur if there is too much.
Desiccation, or drying out, can occur if there is insufficient moisture. Plants are subject to pests, disease, and mortality as a result of both situations.
A probe is linked to a digital or needle readout screen on a soil moisture meter. The average moisture content is measured when the probe is gently put into garden soil or container potting mix.
Knife Hori Hori
A well-kept Japanese gardening knife, known as a Hori Hori, is an invaluable backyard tool. It’s long, slender, and razor-sharp.
It’s made up of a single blade with serrated edges on one side and smooth edges on the other, and it comes to a point at the end. Typically, the blade is seven to eight inches long and slightly concave.
The Hori Hori can be used in a variety of ways, including:
- Sowing of bulbs
- removing sod from the lawn
- Perennials are divided by digging
- Edging on a small scale Pruning
- Transplanting
- Weeding
Look for a complete tang, which means the blade goes the entire length of the handle. The most resistant to breaking is this design.
Measurement marks, as well as accessories like holsters and sharpeners, are available on some models.
Gloves
Garden gloves used to seem like a luxury to me until I had skin rashes and blisters, which made me understand how crucial hand protection is.
While you might be tempted to use an old pair of winter gloves or kitchen rubber gloves, I strongly advise against it since they will not grip, breathe, wash, or last as long as a nice pair of garden gloves.
Hand protection that doesn’t obstruct your ability to be exact in your motions is essential for delicate operations like planting seeds and trimming seedlings.
The inclusion of a rubberized covering will also help you maintain a firm hold on hand tools.
Footwear
As someone who has wrecked more than one pair of shoes in the yard, I strongly suggest investing in a pair that is not just dedicated to the work but also specifically designed for it.
Footwear designed for gardening has the following advantages:
- During extended gardening activities, comfort is essential
- Clean-up is simple
- Pathogens in and on shoes are less likely to harm plants
Pathogens from the garden can be tracked by street shoes made of non-washable materials. Furthermore, grass, dirt, and pollen stains can rapidly destroy them.
Footwear used just in the yard and cleaned after each gardening session, as directed by the manufacturer, is less likely to carry illness.
Cultivator
Three to five prongs, or tines, on a hand-held cultivator are twisted like claws.
Typical farmer responsibilities include:
- Breaking up the dirt
- Getting rocks out of the way
- Harvesting veggies by loosening them
- Incorporating soil amendments
- Weed removal
Aluminum, carbon steel, fiberglass, plastic, stainless steel, and wood are all possible materials for a hand cultivator.
In addition to hand-held cultivators, dual tools with a cultivator on one side and a hoe blade on the other are available.
For individuals who prefer not to bend, long-handled variants are available. For added comfort, some handle “telescope” or extend.
Tarp
A tarp, while not explicitly designed for garden usage, is incredibly handy and aids in maintaining order while a project is in progress.
The following are some examples of how a tarp might be helpful:
- To prevent rain from washing away a mound of dirt or other material
- Moving a balled shrub or perennial transplant from the car to its new home
- dragging leaves swept to a specific location
- dragging mulch, compost, or dirt to the desired location
- Keeping soil that has been dug up for planting or transplanting in place
- Organizing the trunk of the car to transport plants and supplies back to the house
- During the first winter, wrapping around a new shrub
Pruners
Another essential tool is a decent set of pruners, sometimes known as shears or secateurs.
If you wander around your lawn with your shears in hand, you’ll nearly always find something to snip, whether it stems for a bouquet or pruning your forsythia after it flowers.
For all-purpose cutting, bypass pruners are a common alternative. They have crisscrossing blades that cut cleanly and smoothly, promoting the healing of the “wound” and thereby the plant’s health.
This sort of equipment may be a fantastic alternative for you if you have perennials to deadhead and rose plants that need to be pruned on a regular basis.
Hose
Even if you have a water-holding trub trug, you’ll need a multi-setting nozzle and a garden hose.
Choosing a length that will allow you to reach the furthest reaches of your land or use multiple sizes if necessary will help.
Fabric, plastic, and rubber are some of the materials used in hoses. Those with three to four-ply thicknesses and brass fittings are considered to be of the highest quality.
Consider the weight of the item you’re considering buying, as well as how you’ll keep it in the off-season and through the entire growing season.
Consider some of the most recent lightweight, flexible hoses that deflate when not in use for convenient travel and storage.
If you can’t water your plants by yourself or you don’t have time, you might want to consider an alternative solution. Consider using some drip irrigation for that purpose or even a soaker hose.
Hoe
A classic type hoe features a flat blade with a sharp downward-pointing bottom edge. The user bends forwards slightly, stretches the hoe, and lowers it to bite into the earth before dragging it towards them.
A hoe can be used for a variety of tasks, including:
- Furrows that have been sown are being covered
- removing sod
- Creating sowing furrows
- Getting rid of rocks
- Roots and weeds are severed and unearthed
- Tilling or breaking up the soil in preparation for planting
This is one of the oldest tools in the garden. There are hand-held and long-handled variants, as well as the previously described hoe/cultivar combinations.
Unique blade types include the flat collinear, which does not need bending, the triangular Warren, and the hollow stirrup. Straight or curved, broad or thin, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes.