I searched back a couple of years in the forums to make sure I'm not duplicating something from the past. Forgive me if I am. But as I was wandering through the gardening department at Home Depot (we were there for something for my husband... this time), I got to looking at all the tools. And I wondered, how many of them are actually necessary? I have a very small collection of tools for my garden, all of them purchased from yard sales. They consist of: - Shovel - Hand trowel - Leaf rake - Stirrup hoe (that's what the seller called it) - Little 3-pronged hand rake (I don't know the technical name) - Pruning shears When it comes to the small backyard garden, what would you consider to be the essential gardening tools?
Thirty years of gardening has the toolshed armed with a variety of tools I purchased, was given or inherited. Needless to say I am overstocked. Loppers for cutting larger branches that need pruning. Hand pruners depending what you want to do come in two basic varieties, anvil and bypass, another variation of the bypass is a locking ratchet that affords you a better time cutting tough branches. A standard garden hoe that also serves for mixing cement as well as combine large quantities of potting mixes. A three prong garden cultivator. A long and short handle shovel, the short handle works well in small confining spaces. Smaller versions of the shovel, cultivator and hoe for sitting down close to plants. A bucket for weeds,dirt and whatever. A watering can with sprinkler head. I'm sure I forgot some but I am nowhere near the shed so my mind can not be jogged. Hope this helps, Jerry
My essential gardening tools? A half moon edger, a cultivator, a fan rake, a hard rake, lopers, by pass pruners, a transplant shovel, a trowel, a handheld culitvator and a bucket. A wheelbarrow is also very useful.
Hi Liberty, There are some things that are more necessary than others and some brands are better than others. I have found the most economical of small hand tools seems to be Fiskar brand tools. the stirrup or scuffle hoe I use more than a regular hoe. You will find that both serve different purposes and also overlap in their uses. One for weeding the other for digging a trench or weeding. keep both sharp. String, like masons string. use it to make straight rows on your garden. Your garden doesn't have to be perfect but straight rows help if you are using a rototiller. Pruners if you have much vegetation to cut such as sunflower stalks or tree branches, pumpkins off the vine or cleaning up raspberries. etc. I always use bypass pruners. A shovel, also keep it sharp. don't invest in the ones that have the "ridges" pressed into the blade. they are much harder to dig or cut through the dirt with.(I really dislike mine!) a bucket of some kind. we just use an old 5 gal bucket. we keep several of them around the garden, for rocks or weeding or carrying water if necessary. We bought a garden seeder for putting in rows of seeds. a well worth while investment. about $100.00 but you can get MANY years of use out of it. My FIL has one that is about 30 yrs old and still works fine. Depending on the size of your garden and your strength, a landscape rake levels large patches very well rakes small to med. size stones into a row to be picked up easier. they have a single row of teeth about 30" wide. a leaf rake measuring utensils for fertilizer and or sprays, such as fungicides or insecticides. A permanent marker... to mark anything you would ever put an herbicide into to spray or use. Always keep an herbicide sprayer separate. never mix any other sprays in an herbicide sprayer. You might want to keep two herbicide sprayers also. One for roundup and one for a broadleaf spray. If you ever use both products. (I hope this is not too much information) just a good preventative measure to start with. Gloves for pulling prickly weeds or perhaps poison ivy. scissors/shears, I use shears to give my hanging baskets and trailing plants a trim every now and then. Cutting string or opening packages in the garden a dandelion "fork" for taproot plants. a trowel for planting, I usually use a narrow one. I have one we got at Home Depot for 1.00 (fiskar brand). Row markers, so you can tell where you planted what. A set of window blinds works great for this. Just cut the stings off and cut the blinds into a size suitable for you and mark on them with a pencil. Not a pen, not a permanent marker, both of these will fade in the sunlight and you will not be able to tell what was written on there to begin with. I hope this isn't too much info, nor are my needs going to be your needs. these are just the things I can think of that we use most.
I have hand trowels, large kneeling pads, Mechanix gloves, a digging fork with tines made from forged steel because I have concrete solid black clay to dig into and I use old coal scuttles found at thrift stores for hold weeds and I really don't have 'pruners' I have some really sharp cutters I got on sale at Harbor Freight and a pair of loppers for tree limbs that the cutters can't handle. And with those I have turned 90% of our backyard into a garden and am almost 75 % of the front yard. There is nothing to rake in my yard. And if it has been more than three days since the last rain, cultivators, hoes and shovels will not break the surface of our soil. That's when the digging fork is used.
Jerry, Carolyn and Toni gave a wonderful list of tools. I'd like to add just these few... A comfy chair, a fan and an umbrella. After using all the tools mentioned, you will need to take a well deserved break. :-D
Here's mine. A good pair of gardening gloves, A sturdy spade and fork, Loppers and secateurs of the highest quality, Gardening scissors. Lastly and most importantly - some good weather to garden in.
I can see that it's going to take some time to collect the tools that I need. Eileen, where can I order the good weather? I'm not sure I can find it locally.
I keep a lot of 5 gallon buckets around. They come in handy for all kinds things from toting, to cleaning up after pets, to soaking trees or bushes needing replanted... Spare tools are handy to have in case one breaks, or the kids/grands want to help out in the garden too. Hey, if there is a big job to do, you may want to put family members to work also. String of most any kind is handy. You can use it to tie up unruly plants. You can also use other things for this job: nylon hosiery, shoe strings, hair ribbons, tie belts from sweat pants [those annoying rope things to hold them up]; odds and ends of wire comes in handy for many odd jobs too. All kinds of items can be recycled or repurposed around the garden. Leaky buckets are great planters ! They have built in drainage and are free. Washing machine tubs also make great planters, some may wish to paint them in pretty colors. A good saw is handy for trimming dead or injured or just in the way limbs. A good book on pruning how-to's. I consult mine a lot. Gardening books are nice for reading in bad weather... If you have a lawn, you will want some kind of mowing tool/s... It depends on the size of your yard and your budget what you might want. I have a leaf rake and a rock rake for various chores. Tools are fun, no one can have just one. A compost bin is a handy tool, it helps to make free soil for your garden to keep it rich and healthy. A lot of articles about composting claim you need X% of green stuff, and X% of brown stuff, but I never or rarely have both green stuff and brown stuff for it at the same time. So I add what I want in there when I have it. It all ends up in the compost eventually. If you can afford it, a chipper shredder is a great tool to make mulch with. That is very high on my wish list for tools.
It looks like you've got your priorities right for a small backyard garden. Maybe a carry trough would be handy too. As for me, my list is longer: In addition to secateurs, garden fork, dandelion iron (to kill slugs with mainly), branch kutter, shovel, hand trowel, buckets, wheel barrow, hand saw, rake, mower, twine and a pair of sturdy scissors I also frequently need a proper chain saw (Alligator), crow bar, newspapers, tub, empty dirt bags or bark chip bags, dirt, bark chips, compost bins, horse dung, bamboo poles, ground cover cloth, hedge cutter, edge cutter, plastic bags, plant markers, loading straps, hand pulley, jack, sand, gravel and a supply of different sized stone. I know my list looks a bit weird, but I use all of the above several times during the season. Our garden is still under construction you see.
Droopy, a fast way to kill slugs is to pour salt on them. It doesnt have to be much, just a little sprinkle and they are history. Another friend says she uses wood ashes to kill them, and protect her hostas. I will try that one too.
Hey, Liberty, We also use a tape measure for spacing the plants when we are putting them out, the other option to that is to mark the handle of your hoe, in 12" increments.
Miss Liberty, I just thought of another handy dandy tool to use. An ice tea spoon is perfect for lifting seedlings out of those little starter trays. They are kind of hard to find, if you dont have any, try thrift shops and such.
