A complete guide of gardening tools with links
Gardening tool plays a very important role in creating a beautiful garden. Garden tools have evolved significantly over time, from antiquity’s digging sticks to today’s highly specialized tools. Every season brings new garden gadgets, and having the basic tool groups will assist you in maintaining your garden year after year.
SELECTING GARDEN TOOLS
Using the appropriate tool for each garden task makes your job easier and more efficient. This could imply that there are numerous tools of various designs and sizes. With our garden tools list, you can learn about the essential tools you’ll need and simplify your shopping experience.
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When choosing garden tools, don’t just make sure you get the right tool for the job; consider how it will feel after a few hours of use. Remember that as the tool’s size grows, so does its weight. Larger tools can be more efficient, but choose one that will not tire you out too quickly. To make the job more comfortable, look for tools with cushioned grips.
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SHOVELS, SPADES AND OTHER DIGGING TOOLS
The shovel is the workhorse of the garden shed and one of the most common landscaping tools. Spades are essentially a smaller shovel with a flatter blade. Other tools allow you to dig holes for posts, plant bulbs and small plants, and transplant them.
Round Point Shovel: This is an excellent digging, lifting, and throwing tool. The round point of the shovel blade cuts into the soil, while the rim on the top of the shovel blade allows for more foot pressure when digging holes.
Square Point Shovel: This is fantastic for moving materials. The larger size is referred to as a scoop.
Garden Spade: This tool is similar to a square point shovel and is excellent for digging, cutting, edging, and lifting sod.
Drain Spade: For working in tight quarters, this has a narrow, rounded head and a straighter handle. It’s useful for digging trenches as well as transplanting.
Trenching Spade: This has a narrow head, similar to a drain spade, but it is pointed and set at a greater angle for greater leverage. It is useful for digging and clearing trenches, as well as planting trees and shrubs.
Post Hole Digger: Here’s a tool that may appear to be a luxury item until you need it. Post hole diggers allow you to dig holes deeper and more precisely than a shovel.
Digging/Tamping Bar: This is a serious digging tool. It’s about 5 feet long and made of solid metal, with a blade that digs and cuts roots well. The flat end functions as a tamper.
Bulb Planter: Planters for bulbs dig precise holes. For precise hole depth, some are marked in inch gradients. The digging tube grabs and removes soil, making it possible to plant the bulb. A long-handled version allows you to apply more pressure with your foot.
Garden Trowel: This is for precise digging in tight quarters. Its narrow, slightly scooped blade is ideal for installing bedding plants and moving soil. The transplanter’s blade is even narrower.
Transplanter: This, like the garden trowel, allows you to dig precise planting holes. The blade is longer and narrower than a trowel, making it ideal for digging deep beneath plant roots when transplanting.
RAKES AND PITCHFORKS
Rakes take the concept of the human hand and finger dexterity to a bigger scale. They come in all sizes and styles. Likely to have originated from a forked tree branch, what we often call the pitchfork has its roots in agriculture. Forks are designed in different styles and with different numbers and sizes of tines, depending on the material to be moved.
Leaf Rake: This is for moving leaves, grass clippings and other material. The flexible steel or poly tines do a good job of cleaning yard debris from grass. Leaf rakes come in a wide range of sizes.
Garden Rake: This rake has short, rigid steel tines that allow you to break and scratch into hard ground. It’s also useful for moving mulch and compost. The flat bar lets you smooth loose material, like mulch and gravel.
Thatch Rake: This tool is designed specifically to scratch into turf and remove thatch.
Bedding Fork: This tool has curved, round tines and is useful for moving large amounts of loose material, such as mulch, straw and hay.
Manure Fork: This fork has a design similar to that of the bedding fork, but the tines can handle heavier material.
Spading Fork: This tool has flat tines for turning soil, lifting plants and bulbs, and separating perennials. A spading fork is less jarring to the user than a shovel when digging in rocky soil. It’s also useful for aerating and relieving soil compaction.
GARDEN HOES
Another simple and ancient tool, the hoe is designed for weeding and light groundbreaking. There are several different head sizes and shapes.
Standard Garden Hoe: This tool has a squared blade set at a right angle to the handle for chopping.
Warren Hoe: This tool is made more for planting than weeding. The V-shaped blade has a dual purpose. The pointed end digs furrows, while the open top can close the furrows.
Weeding/Two-Prong Hoe: This tool has a flat blade on one end for chopping and pointed tips on the other for pulling weeds up by the roots.
Action Hoe: The head of the action hoe pivots back and forth under the soil for weed-cutting action. The blade cuts on the push or pull stroke.
SAWS AND OTHER PRUNING TOOLS
Depending on your landscape plantings, you may find a need for all of these diverse cutting tools.
Pruning Saw: This tool works best in a restricted work area. The saw cuts on the pull stroke for less awkward work, especially from a ladder. The more teeth a saw has, the more precise the cut. Use large-toothed saws for bigger limbs.
Bow Pruning Saw: This is used for quick cuts on large limbs when the cut is obstructed.
Pole Pruner: This pruner is great for overhead cuts when loppers won’t reach. Pole pruners allow upper-tier pruning by means of a cutter or a saw without climbing or the need for a ladder. A rope and pulley operates the cutter from ground level. Telescoping poles add to the cutting range.
Hand Pruner: Bypass pruners provide scissors-like cutting for tender stems. They cut cleaner and closer without crushing plant tissue as anvil pruners can but are harder to sharpen. Anvil pruners cut against a flat anvil — best for dead wood and woody stems.
Lopper: This is essentially a bypass or anvil pruner with long handles for extra leverage. The biggest loppers can cut material up to about 2 inches in diameter. Some have ratchet-assisted cutting action for additional torque.
Grass Shears: These are useful for trimming around trees or shrubs when a string trimmer could cause damage.
Hedge Shears: These are used for shaping and trimming shrubs and hedges.
Garden Scissors/Snips: These are the garden version of the sewing basket tool, made for cutting flower stems and string.
OTHER LANDSCAPE TOOLS
In addition to the more familiar implements, there are other garden hand tools that can make working in a garden easier.
Mattock: This tool is available with different types of blades for heavy work in the ground. You can find mattocks with different combinations of flat blades or picks that break up the soil, cutting blades for chopping through roots and tilling blades that help turn the soil, breaking up ground.
Cultivator: Cultivators are designed to scratch the soil either prior to planting or around the plants while growing. They’re available with either long handles or as hand tools. There are also gas and electric models for larger jobs.
Weeder/Grass Blade: Also known as a slingblade, this precursor to the string trimmer has a blade that’s sharp on both sides for cutting grass and weeds as it swings back and forth.
Bush Axe/Briar Axe/Ditch Blade: Known by many names, it’s a formidable tool made for serious brush removal. It looks a little like a battle axe and should be used with caution.
Edger: Edgers are made in various styles and shapes, including rectangular and half-moon. They’re designed to cut a clean line where a lawn transition occurs, such as a sidewalk or planting bed. You can also find gas-powered and electric edgers.
Handheld Weeder: Commonly known as a dandelion digger, it has a notched blade made to penetrate the soil and remove weed roots from deep in the ground. You can also find long-handled versions of this tool.
WHEELBARROWS AND YARD CARTS
While not tools in the traditional sense, wheelbarrows and yard carts take a lot of the effort out of gardening and landscape work. Whether you’re carrying a load of mulch, a bag of garden soil or even your hand tools, a wheelbarrow or yard cart makes hauling easier.
Wheelbarrow: These are available in one- or two-wheeled models. They tip up for easy unloading, and shoveling material in and out is simple. The single-wheel variety requires greater strength and balance. Trays are metal or plastic.
Yard Cart: These have two or four wheels, offering good stability. Two-wheeled carts allow you to tip material out, while four-wheeled carts may have a dump feature or drop-down sides. Some carts have tool storage or seating.
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TOOL HANDLES AND HEADS
Some tools are available with more than one handle style. Make your choice based on your personal preference and the level of use:
Long handles offer longer reach and more leverage but require more arm strength.
Short handles are best for restricted work areas, but they require more leg strength. Depending on your height, you may be doing a lot of bending. Short handles are often thicker and may have a grip on the handle, making them heavier than a longer tool. D-handles or D-grips are available on short-handle shovels, spades and forks for good grip and control.
Handles are made of one of several materials:
Wooden handles (usually ash) offer flexibility and last a long time with proper care.
Fiberglass handles are stronger, weather-resistant (good for commercial use) and usually more expensive than wood.
Steel handles are longer lasting but may vibrate or transfer cold to the user.
Cushioned or padded handles are available on some tools, making the work a little easier on the hands.
Handles are attached to the head by:
Socket: A metal sleeve that extends from the head and wraps around the handle. This type of connection is usually found on less expensive tools.
Sockets With a Rivet: A metal sleeve is wrapped around the handle and reinforced with a rivet or screw for additional strength.
Tang and Ferrule: A metal shaft (tang) extends from the tool head and is inserted into a metal sleeve (ferrule) on the handle.
