Basic Tools Needed for Gardening

An avid gardener finds nothing more relaxing and exhilarating than nurturing his plants and watching them grow, but working in the garden remains pleasant and productive only when one has the right tools needed for gardening. Gardening not only serves as a mentally relaxing hobby, but is also a good physical exercise.

A good collection of the basic gardening tools is essential for every gardener, or else simple gardening tasks like scooping mud or removing leaves can become an ordeal. Here is a list of the 7 must-have tools needed for gardening, irrespective of whether the garden is big or small.

Gardening Gloves

Two sets of gloves are necessary – one pair of leather gloves for all the tough jobs and one pair of all purpose plastic coated gardening gloves. While plastic gloves are mostly meant to protect your hands from getting dirty and from picking up infections when working with manure and soil, leather gloves come in handy for handling thorny plants and rough work which can cause injuries, blisters and callus formation. Leather gloves are also great for gardening during the cold winter season.

Garden Soil Tools

A major part of gardening involves working with the soil, so garden soil tools are a must have in every gardeners tool collection.

• Shovel and spade are the most important tools for digging and scooping soil. But their use is not just limited to these basic functions, as both these tools come in handy for a number of gardening tasks.
• Hoe is another piece of soil tool, which comes in handy for moving soil, making trenches and even removing weeds. If the garden soil is hard, a warren hoe will make for a better choice than a regular hoe.
• A lawn rake is very helpful in removing dead leaves or twigs from the lawn and for keeping the flowerbeds clean. For a small garden in the backyard even a sturdy plastic rake will do, but for bigger gardens metal rakes are the best.

Mini Gardening Tool Set

Whether the garden is small or a big one, a mini gardening tool set is also a must-have. Such mini tool sets have small spades, spading fork, drain spade, square spade, edging knife, mini trowel, weeder and cultivator. It is not always convenient and possible to work with the regular tools, especially when working on smaller flowerbeds, planters or flowerpots. For handling smaller tasks and delicate plants a mini gardening tool set offers a lot of convenience.

Garden Watering Products

Watering the plants and the lawn grass regularly is important to build a flowering a flourishing garden. Without the aid of proper garden watering products like watering cans and hoses, watering the plants can become tough. When buying watering cans and hoses, one must look for products which have adjustable nozzles – so that the pressure can be adjusted while sprinkling water. Also, it’s important to pick up watering products which are made of aluminum or plastic or are coated with brass, since iron products get clogged as rust builds up.

Pruning Tools

And last but definitely not the least, every garden tool collection must have some pruning tools to keep the plants in good shape. Pruning scissors are also called Secateurs and are available with three different types of beaks – Anvil, Bypass and Parrot. Anvil pruning scissor which has only one sharp blade is used for cutting thick branches. Bypass scissors have one blade curved blade and one straight blade and the Parrot beak pruning scissors have both blades curved.