If you are thinking of starting gardening as a beginner or want to give your garden a fresh look this spring season then you need essential tools for gardening to take care of your plants, flowers and garden.

Today in this article we have discussed 17 most essential tools for gardening which you must have for different types of gardening work like planting, digging, harvesting, watering and maintaining your garden clean and so on.

17 Essential Tools For Gardening which you need to Nurture your Garden

1. Hand Cultivator: A hand cultivator is the most essential tools for gardening. It is a great tool for turning, weddings, loosening or raking your soil and preparing for planting. 

A hand cultivator is made up of three or five-prong stainless-steel heads which are lightweight and rust-resistant and a wooden handle for comfortable grip and durability. It is also flexible and sturdy to dig and scratch in the soil.

2. Hand Tiller: If your garden has turned hard either because it has not been tilled for a long time, or the ground has become compact after winter or you have raised beds, then hand tiller is the best gardening tools for you.

This essential tools for gardening loosens, turns, tills and aerates soil for easy flow of water, air and fertiliser to make your garden healthier or looks beautiful. 

Tiller is made up of a solid steel shaft and unbreakable tines. It has a t-shape handle for twisting without much effort and easily rotates through compact soil.

3. Hand Trowel: A hand Trowel is the most essential tools for gardening. It is widely used for digging, scraping, lifting soil or plants.

A hand shovel consists of a broad blade made of either stainless steel or aluminium attached to a handle.

Different shovel blade design allows for light to heavy duty work depending upon the material of the blade. 

The handles are generally Ergonomic designed for comfortable use and better leverage.

4. Hoe: Garden Hoe is yet another essential tools for gardening which allows to shape soil, remove weeds and prepare for

gardens and flower beds. 

The hoe head is made of strong steel for long-lasting quality and and a long wooden ash handle designed with perfect grip for easier work. 

The type of tools used for gardening depends on your gardening work. If you are working on a larger area or vegetable garden then a wide hoe would be your choice and if you are working on a flower bed then a delicate hoe would work better.

5. Pruning Shear: Pruning shears also known as hand pruners or secateurs is another essential tools for gardening. It is essential tools for gardening work like pruning stems,deadheading, roses,plants,vegetables,trimming small branches, etc. 

The blades are usually made of either stainless steel or carbon steel. The handles are short, non-slippery and designed for comfortable grip, and can be used with one hand only. 

The by-pass pruner has straight or curved cutting blades which “bypass” each other just like a scissor to make the cut. It is suitable for cutting live plants as it gives a clean cut without crushing. 

The Anvil-pruners have a straight sharp cutting blade, closed onto a flat surface. It is best suited for dead or dried stems as it crushes the stem, it is cutting.

6. Lopper: A Lopper is another types of garden tools used for cutting thick branches especially in hard to reach areas. 

It consists of a long handle usually ranging from 12 inches to 36 inches. It provides comfort grip and good leverage to reach high branches or deep in a shrub with very little effort. 

The loppers are designed to give tree branches a fast and clean cut up to diameter less than 2 inches. Some advanced loppers have a compound lever system to increase the force applied to the blade.

The blades are made up of hard carbon steel to make the cutting easy for even heavy work.

The Bypass lopper is good for live plants to give a clean cut whereas the anvil type is good for dead plants as it crushes soft plants instead of cut.

As loppers cut thick woods, the blade becomes dull. Keep the blade sharp for good working conditions.

7. Rake: A rake is another essential tools for gardening which you must have to rake up clippings, leaves and garden debris.There are basically two types of most widely used rake.

A leaf rake or lawn rake which we generally need to rake up leaves. It has a long handle with an expandable tine head for tight or small areas to rake a large bump of leaves.

A garden or bow rake with its short metal tines are more suitable for loosening or breaking up soil, levelling mulch or dirt. It can also be used to collect leaves, grass clips or other debris.

 

8. Hand Gloves: When you are taking gardening much more than a hobby then it is equally important to make it safer and easier with the right pair of gloves. 

A glove is the most essential tools for gardening as it not only protects your hand from dirt but it also keeps your hand safe from pricks and thorn .

You can enjoy plenty of gardening work with a good pair of gloves like weeding, planting, digging, picking up thorny flowers and fruits. It even gives you the ease of comfortable working with other gardening tools to keep yourself safe.

The fabric should be breathable to keep your hand cool, grip should be proper to prevent blisters and avoid slippage and must be flexible and comfortable to move your hand easily.

9. Watering Can:Watering Can is one of the most essential tools for gardening you need to keep your plant fresh and

happy by watering them.

A small watering cans allows you to water your indoor plants without straining yourself and water spillage on the floor. 

Watering cans are made of either plastic or galvanized steel. A plastic water can be lighter but not so strong and can be good for indoor plants. 

A metal cans can store more water and are made of durable stainless steel. It is copper painted to make it weather resistant. It has a comfortable hold design and removable spray sprout.

10. Garden Hose Nozzle: Watering a large lawn sometimes could be a great chore using the conventional method. A garden hose nozzle is the essential tools for gardening great for watering your garden, grass or rose bed. 

It is a multi-functional tool with adjustable watering patterns for different needs. It allows you to switch between different water pressures for watering your garden,washing your car or shower your pets. 

The hose nozzle is made from metal zinc alloy which is sturdy and durable. This heavy duty design can bear high pressure and great for any type of work.

11. Gardening Apron: A perfect gardening apron not only keeps your clothes dirt free but also great for storing essential tools for gardening and fruits or vegetables you are harvesting.

Choosing a gardening apron, look for high quality cloth, breathable and durable. It should be comfortable to give you a good fit with an adjustable shoulder and waist strap. 

The deep waxed canvas double stitched pocket allows you to accommodate tools without any abrasion and scratches to enjoy your work. 

12. Wheel Barrow: As a gardener you will find wheelbarrows as another most essential tools for gardening. A wheelbarrow allows you to haul several pounds of weight to move from one place to another.You can use it for moving rocks, mulch, compost, garden debris or tree shrubs and fertilizer concrete. 

You can choose the wheel barrow depending upon the type of material of the bucket (Steel  or plastic), number of wheels, single handle or double handle as per your requirement.

Steel wheelbarrows can bear more weight than plastic bucket type and are preferred for heavy load work like moving rocks, bricks or tree shrubs. A plastic bucket type is good for small work like moving fertilizer, small plants or yard waste. It is lightweight and cheaper as compared to steel type.

The air-filled two wheel single handled wheelbarrow features give more maneuverability, balancing and easy dumping than a single wheel. It also gives good leverage and allows effortless push, pull or dump.

13. Compost Bin: Being a Garden lover you would always prefer to turn your compost into nutrient-rich soil enhancing material. The best part is that making compost is good for the environment, easy to make and doesn’t cost you anything. It is far better for the health of your lawn then chemical fertilizer.

You can convert your various household and yard waste and store it into the compost bin to turn it into humus rich nutrients for your healthier flower and veggies garden.

Tumbling compost bins are good as they offer spinning or tumbling options for compost exposure to air for good aeration. A galvanized steel compost is more durable and lasts longer than plastic one.

14. Leaf Blower: A leaf blower is an essential tools for gardening work like cleaning fallen leaves, grass cuttings or other debris. Although a rake can do this work but it is time consuming, especially when you have to blow a large yard. A leaf blower would be very easy and convenient and time saving to clean the yard.  

Leaf blowers are either electric powered or gas powered. The electric corded leaf blower delivers power like a jet engine with extreme bowing force and varying speed as per the requirement. The gas powered leaf blower eliminates the need for a cord and the motor offers powerful blowing output.

15. Manual Weeder: Wedding may be the most difficult and challenging work that every gardener hates to do but the truth is we can’t get over it. Wedding seems like never ending hard work. 

The only relief you can get with this work is the selection of right tools for the type of wedding work. There are two types of weeding tools used for gardening, short handled and long handled.

The short handled types of garden tools has a metal base that acts as fulcrum to give leverage in pulling out deep rooted weeds. The two pointed fork tips at the end of the tools dig around the roots to pull and remove the weeds.

A long handled weeder tool makes your weeding easy to remove the dandelions,invasive plants and give freedom from backache as you don’t have to bend down.

 16. Lawn Edger: It doesn’t matter how beautiful the lawn you have, if the edge or border are not properly maintained then it will not give a neat and perfect look. 

With the help of a lawn edger you can easily maintain the edges around your garden bed to give a beautiful look. 

The moon shaped or spade shaped lawn edger has a foot plate to be pushed into the grass to give the cut between the garden and the driveway.

The rotary blade lawn edger has rotary blades which cut grass when you push forward or backward. 

17. Lawn Mower: It is difficult to clean your lawn when you have thick grasses or bushes grown over winter or it has not been  not been worked for a long time. In this condition, you will find lawn mower as the most essential tools for gardening work to clean or mow your garden.

The type of lawn mower tools used for gardening depends on the area of work. For a smaller area a non-powered push mower works best. 

An electric power or gas powered self propelled lawn mower is suitable for a large lawn area. An electric lawn mower can start easily, producing less noise and vibration than a gas powered mower. 

The self propelled features allow easy maneuverability with less or no manual pressure to mow under any mowing condition.

[Also check: Best Electric start self propelled Lawn Mower]