Inside: Essential Tools Gardening For Beginners. Collaborative post.
To start a garden, you will need the right tools to ensure your new plants are properly looked after. Here is a quick guide to the most essential tools every beginner gardener should have.
https://unsplash.com/photos/black-pruning-shears-beside-green-gloves-TsOeGUwWzWo
Shears
The first thing you need is a pair of shears. It would be best if you had them for almost any task in the garden, from trimming your plants to shaping bushes and trees. While outdoor power equipment is essential for more extensive gardens, a pair of shears is fine for smaller gardens, veggie patches, and herb gardens.
Ensure they remain sharp as you can quickly blunt them, but they are perfect for everything from grass to thin branches.
Gardening Shovel
Considering you won’t want to dig every hole with your hands, you will need a garden shovel. These range from small ones ideal for herbs, plants, and flowers to much bigger ones required for trees.
Once again, a small shovel can do most jobs, but if you have a larger garden or a big project in mind, a big shovel and a smaller one are the best options.
Gloves
Gardening is not necessarily dangerous work, but you can easily break nails, scrape or cut yourself, or catch your skin on a rose thorn or two. A simple pair of gardening gloves can go a long way in protecting the delicate skin on your hands.
Find a pair that is thick but not too bulky, as well as a pair that is made from a durable material. You also want to ensure that the fit is perfect, as you can easily get blisters when wearing them for multiple hours.
https://unsplash.com/photos/person-wearing-brown-gauntlet-7xcJsTrkvRc
Hori-Hori
A hori-hori is one of the most versatile gardening tools you can get. The straight blade has notches and a serrated edge, which allows you to do everything from cutting twine to trimming grass and opening compost bags.
It is one of those tools that embodies “you get what you pay for,” and investing in a well-crafted, high-quality hori-hori will ensure you have a tool that serves you well for a lifetime.
Hand Rake
A hand rake is the ideal tool for your garden beds, especially around small or delicate plants. Regular garden rakes can easily dig too deep and potentially pull up any plants, or at the very least can damage roots.
While a hand rake isn’t the best for much larger garden beds or pieces of land, for smaller sections and moderate amounts of work, it will do the job just fine.
Wagon/Cart
Depending on the size of your garden, having to make multiple trips to get plants, your tools, compost, etc, can get tiring and annoying. Instead, invest in a small cart or wagon that you can fill with everything you need for a day of gardening.
They can be fairly inexpensive, and they are particularly useful when it comes to eliminating all the back-breaking work associated with carrying compost bags or heavy pots and plants.
Kneeler
Don’t underestimate how tiring and painful a day on your hands and knees or kneeling can be; this is particularly true if you suffer from joint pain in your legs and back. Because of this, it is worthwhile buying a kneeler.
Designed to help you comfortably kneel and get back up again, a kneeler can also be flipped over and used as a cushioned seat. Look for one with substantial padding, as well as one that is made from rust-proof materials.
Hose/Watering Can
A hose or a watering can is another must for any gardener. While a watering can is great for much smaller gardens and flower pots, a hose and its many attachments are the best for larger spaces.
For larger gardens, it can be very useful to invest in a sprinkler attachment, as they can often have a mist setting, giving your plants a natural amount of water, and you don’t risk flooding them.
https://unsplash.com/photos/water-pouring-on-gray-steel-watering-can-P7saq8j11pM
Hoe
Hoes are one of the best tools for preparing flower beds and getting rid of weeds. The type of garden you have will determine the type of hoe you need, but an easy rule of thumb is that a wider hoe is much better for veggie gardens, while a thinner one is better for perennial gardens,
Folding Saw
A small, handheld folding saw is often more than sufficient for any wood trimming you need to do. Whether it be pruning a true or a bush, a folding saw is far more efficient than pruners at cutting off large branches and stems.
Plant Food
Depending on the type of soil you have and the plants you are wanting to grow, there is a chance some may need a bit more help than others to grow big and strong. This is where plant food enters the picture.
While it is important to research the type of food you need, always have a small store of it available is ideal for giving your plants a boost after the Winter or if they have been damaged or diseased.
Accessories
Finally, there are a couple of accessories you should have. Dowel rods of varying sizes are the best for keeping stems and plants upright while they are growing, and plant clips or zip ties can secure the stems to the dowels.