Good gardening tools are the first step on the road to success. Without them, you’ll be like the carpenter without a hammer.
Although the first step in creating a new garden is tilling the soil, you needn’t invest in a roto-tiller to start your first garden. If you’ve never used a tiller, you may want to consider hiring a handyman to till your soil.
If you’d rather make your beginning garden a do-it-yourself project from start to finish, you can usually find roto-tillers for rent at most rental shops and many garden supply stores. However, you will need to assemble some good gardening hand tools.
These tools of the trade are best bought together and of good quality:
- Gardening gloves. The first hand tool you’ll need is something to protect your hands. Fingers that are unused to gardening can quickly develop blisters. In addition, gardening gloves will protect your hands from sharp sticks and stones in your first garden as well as prickly leaves and stems.
- Garden kneelers. When beginning gardening, don’t overlook the stress that digging, weeding, and even harvesting can place on your knees. Garden kneelers can be as simple as a piece of Styrofoam. Kneeling mats are also sold especially for gardening or you may choose to invest in kneeling apparel that you won’t need to carry from place to place in your garden.
- Long-handled shovel and/or garden spade. Shovels are great tools for digging the new ground and distributing compost on old ground. They’re also great for shoveling piles of garden debris into your wheelbarrow. Garden spades are excellent tools for planting and for getting to the bottom of a problem weed. Although you won’t use shovels or spades every day, once you have them you’ll find they are indispensable. If you don’t have them, you’ll find that at some point you’ll wish you did!
- Garden Rake. Unlike your leaf rake, the garden rake is a sturdy rake, usually with short, strong steel teeth. You’ll first use your garden rake to smooth and level your newly tilled garden. Throughout the growing season, a garden rake is a handy implement for keeping soil between rows loose and weed-free.
- Garden Cart. Garden carts haul refuse away from and haul compost to your garden space. Garden carts come in many styles from four-wheeled models that have shelves or attachments for holding small hand tools to the traditional three-wheeled wheelbarrow. A garden cart for your beginning garden may be as simple as your child’s coaster wagon.
- Garden Hoe. You’ll need to keep soil loose and weeds away from your plants. It’s much easier to hoe a row in your garden while standing than going from plant to plant on your knees. In addition, a garden hoe can be used to outline rows for transplants and make rows for seeding your beginner garden.
- Hand Trowel. A hand trowel can take the shape of a short handled garden hoe or a garden cultivator with several long prongs. Hand trowels are especially useful for getting in close to weed and aerate delicate cultivars without damaging the plants.
- Gardening shears. As well as trimming plants to keep them looking good, gardening shears are handy for removing damaged areas of plants to keep them healthy. Flower gardeners will certainly want to keep a pair of gardening shears nearby for cutting fresh bouquets to bring indoors. You’ll also use your garden shears to cut back your hardy perennials at the end of the growing season.
- Garden Hose. The essential possession for beginner gardening, you’ll use your garden hose to water individual plants after planting and wash loose soil from sidewalks, driveways, and paved garden paths. In addition, you’ll use it to hose off other garden tools, including your most important garden tools, your hands. In the summer, you may want to attach a sprinkler to your garden hose to irrigate your garden or to provide an afternoon’s entertainment for your children under the hot summer sun.
A good garden plan combined with an assortment of basic garden tools takes the work out of gardening and makes it into an enjoyable and satisfying pastime. Working with the elements, plotting a garden with a good plan, and acquiring a few basic gardening tools solves the mystery of gardening and puts you on the trail to a successful beginner garden.