A Checklist of Essential Gardening Tools for the Beginner
While experienced gardeners may be able to put garden tools to best use, its essential that beginning gardeners with fewer established gardening skills have the correct tool for every garden task they need to perform.
Heres a list of tools most garden center and nursery experts recommend:
Two shovels: One should be a spade with a pointed tip and the other a flat-headed model. Both should have wooden handles at least four feet long.
Pruning shears: A good pair of sharp shears is a vital member of any gardeners tool collection to keep roses and shrubbery looking nest. Bypass the cheapest and most expensive models in favor of a mid-priced model.
Loppers: A long-handled cutting tool that can cut through heavier rose canes and through tree branches up to about an inch in diameter.
Two Rakes: A wide bamboo rake for light raking that involves collecting relatively lightweight garden debris and a heavier straight metal model for serious soil preparation.
Hedge shears: Long-handled, flat-bladed hedge shears are designed to cut evenly across both horizontal and vertical planes.
Tank sprayer: Because it’s difficult to completely clean tank sprayers, separate sprayers should be purchased for herbicides, fertilizer and insecticides.
Garden hose: Dont buy one thats too long or too short for you to comfortably use; a 200 foot long hose in a 25 foot wide garden makes no sense at all, nor does a 50 foot hose for a half acre lot. More expensive hoses withstand the temperature extremes of summer and winter much better, and spending the extra money for a kink-free hose is well worth the frustration it will save you. Buy a rack or hose reel to keep your hose in shape.
Wheelbarrow or lawn cart: A wheelbarrow is the more versatile choice, usable for moving dirt for a new plant bed to mixing concrete for a patio fix. However, if all you need to do is move leaves, carts are cheaper and are not as heavy.
Spreader: Spreading fertilizer by hand causes some areas to get too much fertilizer while other areas get too little or none at all. Spreaders help all areas get the right amount.
Push broom: For keeping walks, driveways and patios free of lawn clippings or dirt from your gardening adventures.
Other tools: A hand-held hoe, heavy cotton gloves, a string trimmer, pruning saw, mower, hand trowel, big floppy gardening hat and watering can.
Tools are important to a gardener; they allow you to tend to your garden and complete chores with ease. Keep your eye out for end of season sales! This is the best time to purchase excellent quality gardening tools at a great price.
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