The fast pace of modern existence and endless to-do lists weigh down many people who feel trapped in concrete cityscapes or congested suburban neighborhoods. We are so fixated on everyday tasks that we brush aside anything and everything around us, failing to remember that we should slow down and value life.
But over and above, since January 2020, the pandemic has been wreaking havoc all over the globe, and life on lockdown has been tough for many of us. With our outdoor time restricted to grocery shopping and quick walks around the area, we crave bonding with nature more than ever.
Studies show that people with a stronger connection to nature are more likely to stay calm and choose a positive mental approach. Moreover, growing evidence indicates there is a certain correlation between a person’s relationship with nature and their general wellbeing.
Gardening might be an exhilarating journey with many beneficial effects on your physical health, but its therapeutic impact extends further than that. When people invest time in a garden, their stress level decreases, and they feel less depressed.
Besides, an astounding variety of plants brightens up your space and adds a burst of color to your home. Whether you consider gardening to be an adult pastime or a cost-effective way to obtain nutritious food, one thing is certain: it is safe, practical, healthy, and a lot of fun.
How to Start a Garden?
Where should I begin? How on earth am I going to plant anything here? Would it be worth to invest in horticulture? Permaculture? If you’ve asked yourself any of these questions, then this is the right place for you. With the proper tools and training, you can smoothly learn gardening’s secrets and turn your backyard into a booming paradise.
People are drawn to gardening for a myriad of reasons. Some fancy flowers. Others aspire to grow their own food. The primary rule of thumb is to decide what you crave to do. Before you put up your gloves, determine which plants you prefer, but bear in mind to check your climate zone constraints as well.
Apart from a proper climate, in order to thrive, a plant needs a certain amount of sunlight and moisture. The best way to ensure your crops get the right share of vitamin D and water is to group them. Likewise, having knowledge of your soil’s features and pH will help you determine whether it is appropriate for your plants or not.
For many gardeners, the scent of newly turned ground, the strength of a rugged shovel, and the sight of blooming plants are delights.
But, nothing is more frustrating than wanting to plant and discovering you lack a shovel or trowel with which to dig the soil. Although your tool criteria may vary, based on the type of gardening you do, you would like to have a few essentials on hand.
Purchasing the highest-quality tools might be overwhelming. For the purpose of enlightening our readers (and ourselves), we did some research and gathered together the best gardening tools to help you grow happy and splendid plants. Roll up your sleeves and start digging. We’ve got your back.
Here are 20 gardening tools that you really need.
20. Organic Workshop Apron
Every avid gardener spending hours in its corner of heaven requires an apron. Guaranteed to make you feel creative, crafted from organic cotton, is the flawless garment you need, where you can carry your phone, gloves, a pair of clippers, pruners, or any other object you might need.
19. Garden Hod
Inspired by traditional clammers’ baskets, the garden hod is a versatile harvesting bowl. It enables you to collect and rinse your fruits and veggies all in one container. It is made of durable wood and industrial-strength wire mesh and has a great design as well as a beautiful appearance.
18. Nupla Round point shovel
Whether or not you are a gardener, you must understand the value of a good shovel. Picking the right one, of good enough quality, can make a huge difference between a productive day or ineffective despair. Consider the shovel’s overall performance and stability before making a final decision. You should also pay attention to all the other details, including construction, material, weight, length, and grip.
his Nupla round-point shovel is extremely lightweight and as easy as pie to handle, due to its open-back design. Additionally, it boasts a classic lift, which makes it more convenient to rest against. Because of the alloy steel body, the grip is powerful, maintaining a better performance for a longer period. It is ideal to dig both hard and soft soil.
17. Ars Needle Nose Pruner
Since pruners are one of the most-used gardening tools, it’s of great consequence to find one that works well enough for you. As a rule, bypass, anvil, and ratchet are the three most common types of hand pruners. At first glance, the differences between these tools may not be obvious, but they are significant even so.
Much like a knife, an anvil pruner has only one cutting blade, crushing the branch between its sides rather than smoothly cutting it. The long needle nose end of this pruner enables access to your plants, while the reinforced, sharp carbon steel blades guarantee a precise trim. It’s incredibly light and has impressive cutting force, along with an ergonomic grip.
16. Hoe / Cultivator Combo
The hoe/cultivator is ideal for nurturing soil and planting seeds, perennials, and bulbs. The tool’s hoe’s final part is excellent for digging narrow holes for sowing. Use this combination tool to pull weeds, heap soil all around the base of plants, and mix soil with fertilizers and animal waste, instead of forcing your plants to compete for water, vitamins, and natural light with weeds.
Keep in mind it is necessary to use the cultivator side in order to loosen and aerate the ground. This tool is lightweight, well-built, ergonomically designed for ease of use, and less pricey than purchasing two distinct tools. An obvious fix for a challenging job.
15. Watering wand
While watering plants may seem uncomplicated and ordinary, you shouldn’t overlook its significance. Thus, you will need a proper water wand. But what purpose does a water wand serve?
As the name suggests, a water-wand is supposed to connect to the end of a garden hose, with the aim of minimizing water pressure without lowering volume. One advantage of using a water wand is the delicate rain-like spray that doesn’t blow and eviscerate gentle seedlings, soft new growth, or frail little flowers.
The ideal watering wand should be functional, durable, and fitted with a variety of customizable features to make watering easier.
14. Home Garden Small Hand Trowel
One of the most essential tools for gardening is a hand trowel. This tool, usually made of sturdy steel, is designed for planting bulbs, digging small holes, transferring seedlings, and a bunch of other tasks. Because it is extremely helpful for many gardeners, you may often encounter one in gardening shacks.
To ensure further performance, it is of the essence to take proper care of your hand trowel. Never leave it outside once you finish your job, and always store it in a dry place. After each use, properly clean it and remove the dirt. Never leave your tools wet. Make sure they are completely dry, prior to actually storing them to avoid rust and handle corrosion.
13. Terracotta Pots
Have you ever been crippled by an abundance of choices when trying to shop for pots? The most common materials are terracotta and ceramic, and although these two might share many attributes, they also have subtle dissimilarities that contribute to making certain plants more suitable for one or the other.
First and foremost, terracotta containers maintain your plant’s health. Due to the porous nature of clay, water and air pass through the pot’s sides, allowing the soil to breathe, thereby preventing root rot or other side effects that might arise because of the waterlogged soil.
Leaving that aside, many gardeners feel that terracotta pots are the best because they are timeless, reasonably priced, and easily customizable by painting. Yes, those classic clay pots are the piece de resistance for you green children.
12. Magid Glove & Safety Garden Gloves
Each time you venture outside to work in your garden, the very first indispensable tool, that comes to mind, is a pair of gloves. In fact, gardening chores turn out to be much more entertaining when your hands and fingernails are protected from dirt, splinters, cuts, or scrapes.
Magid, founded in 1964 in Chicago, is the leading manufacturer, distributor, importer, and direct supplier of protective gloves, safety gear, and first aid items in North America. Their Bella Comfort Flex garden gloves are an excellent pick for all your gardening requirements.
The breathable, water-resistant nylon keeps hands clean during untidy tasks, providing excellent grip in both wet and dry conditions. Moreover, they are form-fitting in order to enhance dexterity, while the extended wrist retains dirt.
11. Worm bin
Clearly, the ordinary worm receives little respect and is frequently used as an insult. However, as you might have guessed, worms play a key role in every ecosystem. These hordes of tiny diggers live, procreate, and generate worm castings right in your garden.
If you want to make vermiculture even easier, consider setting up a worm bin directly in your garden bed. The entire purpose of this is to relieve you of work. You insert your leftovers into the bin, cover it, and, thanks to those little crawlers, you end up with a better, more fertile sole. As simple as that.
A worm composter is basically a bin with holes, almost always made of plastic, and is elevated above the ground to permit water to drain out the bottom. Nonetheless, if gaining free compost and naturally rotting waste aren’t enough reasons, many people discover that they genuinely like worm composting.
10. Soaker Hoses
Proficient watering is a primary concern for anyone who enjoys gardening. Over the years, horticulturists have realized that a soaker hose provides maximum comfort and coverage. A soaker hose is a porous pipe, roughly comparable to a garden hose, other than it continuously weeps water.
Placed on top of the ground, it provides consistent water to your plants, and the low water pressure leads to an efficient flow from the hose to the roots of the plants. This implies that you are getting extra water to the root system rather than in areas where it will easily evaporate.
9. Ezorkas Grow Light
Plants require light for photosynthesis, you know, the process by which they convert light into food or sugar. On top of that, the type of light influences both the amount and the quality of growth a plant undergoes.
Domestic gardeners, interested in growing plants and vegetables indoors, strive to find the ideal grow lights without having to pay an arm and a leg for the most expensive gadget. It is said that the most efficacious one will contain both red and blue spectra. For these reasons, Ezorkas’s growing light is the right call. In addition, it features a control panel with three timer configurations, nine dimming modes, and three switch formats.
8. Wilcox All-Pro Heavy-Duty Digging Trowel
When a shovel is too cumbersome, a garden trowel comes in handy. It emerges as a multi-purpose lifesaver, capable of digging holes, implanting seeds, rooting out weeds, and leveling newly sown soil. Garden trowels are available in a variety of shapes, making it much easier to discover one able to perform the task at hand.
Wilcox’s All-Pro Heavy-Duty Digging Trowel is a versatile workhorse. Plant, scoop, dig and trim through roots like a phenom with this all-star. By all means, Wilcox didn’t include the term “All-Pro” in the name to brag.
7. Stratus Precision Rain Gauge with Mounting Bracket
Anyone can appreciate this stratus rain gauge, regardless of their level of expertise in weather forecasting. However, if you pretend to have a green thumb, you need one. This hydrometer is a simple and direct instrument that doesn’t require wiring, electrical connections, or even batteries to function.
It is easy to set up and convenient to use throughout the year. A rain gauge will help you determine whether you are depriving your plants of sufficient water or you are watering them excessively.
6. Vivosun Seedling Heat Mat
A seedling heating mat is a plastic tray that contains embedded heating elements. It is specifically built to gradually raise the spore medium’s temperature, making it a godsend for home gardeners. Placed underneath seed trays, it provides mild warmth, just enough to recreate the heat of outdoor soil, on a sunny spring day, encouraging seeds to germinate.
Vivosun has made a name as a high-quality supplier of heat mats. Their mats are completely waterproof and adaptable, distributing heat evenly throughout the entire surface.
5. Bully Tools 82515 14 Gauge Round Point Shovel
The Bully Tools shovel is designed to cut through tricky soil and small roots, as well as meet all digging and seeding demands.
Made entirely of 14 gauge steel, it features triple-wall fiberglass with a wood-reinforced handle and is just over 59 inches long. The brands’ high-quality products are backed by a lifetime warranty.
4. Razorback Fiberglass Handle Steel Rake
Where would we be if we didn’t have the rake? Leaves and garden wreckage would remain ungathered, the soil would continue to be misshapen and incredibly hard to sow in, making all gardening tasks vastly more challenging.
Unsure how to identify the proper rake? Well, rakes appear to be fairly straightforward, but they are not alike. It’s easy to get bogged down by the variety of rakes available in a hardware store, each of them focused on a particular range of tasks.
If the remarkable performance figures and affordable price aren’t enough to persuade you to purchase the Razorback’s rake, simply read its excellent reviews.
3. Garden Tool Belt
This handcrafted tool belt has turned tables for every gardener, diminishing back-and-forth trips from storage to the garden. Its various-sized pockets keep you efficient, allowing you to carry a variety of tools right on your hip without putting additional strain on your back.
A well-chosen tool belt should feel like an extra hand, and this belt pouch is faultless. Made from premium leather, it has multiple body fasteners holding onto the belt, stopping your tools from dropping.
2. Nisaku Hori-Hori Stainless Steel Tomita Weeding Knife
If you haven’t heard of a Hori Hori before, let me try to illuminate you. Also known as a “soil knife” or “weeding knife”, it is a razor-sharp blade, made of durable steel and used for digging, cutting, and other diverse tasks. In Japanese, the term “hori” means “dig,” thereby “Hori Hori” is an allusion to the sound of digging.
Our top choice hails directly from its homeland: Japan. Nisaku’s Hori Hori has been forged by skilled craftsmen, from premium stainless steel injected with vanadium, and provides a comfortable grip. Overall, even though it can’t completely replace other gardening tools, the Hori Hori is still a useful multi-purpose tool for the garden.
1. Felco 2 One-Hand Pruning Shear
The legendary, award-winning, Swiss-made, red-handled secateur, Felco 2, has been stealing gardeners’ hearts since 1948. And we have to admit, it won our affection as well. Made to last a lifetime, this pruner is built only from the finest materials, such as a forged metal alloy that makes it very strong.
Excellence. Quality. Superiority. The Felco 2 is crafted as if it were a fine Switch watch perfect for pruning trees and other plants. Its superb ergonomic design is combined with comfort attributes and effective safety, ensuring secure, injury-free usage even for prolonged, mundane work.
It is worth marking that there are numerous replicas of the Felco pruner, and while they may seem identical, they differ significantly in terms of quality, used materials, and design features. Choose the original one; don’t settle for cheap imitations.
Final Words
When you’re new to gardening, it’s tricky to know how to begin. Besides, even the most skilled gardeners require the proper tools. Setting that aside for a second, we must conclude that looking after a garden is a serene and humbling experience since nothing can be forced. You must simply wait, and that feels like a statement of faith in the forthcoming times, don’t you think?
Contents
- How to Start a Garden?
- 20. Organic Workshop Apron
- 19. Garden Hod
- 18. Nupla Round point shovel
- 17. Ars Needle Nose Pruner
- 16. Hoe / Cultivator Combo
- 15. Watering wand
- 14. Home Garden Small Hand Trowel
- 13. Terracotta Pots
- 12. Magid Glove & Safety Garden Gloves
- 11. Worm bin
- 10. Soaker Hoses
- 9. Ezorkas Grow Light
- 8. Wilcox All-Pro Heavy-Duty Digging Trowel
- 7. Stratus Precision Rain Gauge with Mounting Bracket
- 6. Vivosun Seedling Heat Mat
- 5. Bully Tools 82515 14 Gauge Round Point Shovel
- 4. Razorback Fiberglass Handle Steel Rake
- 3. Garden Tool Belt
- 2. Nisaku Hori-Hori Stainless Steel Tomita Weeding Knife
- 1. Felco 2 One-Hand Pruning Shear
