Basic tools you need to get started and where to get them.
Okay, you have your site established and your plants picked out. Next step? Let’s go shopping!
You betcha, but not for plants, at least not quite yet.
For one thing, it’s pretty early. Unless you’re in the South, the first week of April is too soon. I visited the folks at my garden center back on a warm day in March, and they didn’t expect to have perennials ready for sale until the first week of May.
That might seem like forever, but fear not! We still need some tools, and there are a few things you really should have before you start planting. If this is your first time gardening, we’ll go down a list of what you need at the very least to get going in your garden, then I’ll throw in a few more things that are nice to have but not absolutely necessary when you’re just starting out.
Still have some of that last stimulus check burning a hole in your pocket? Then let’s go stimulate the economy.
The must-have gardening tool: the trowel
If there is one gardening tool you must have, it is a trowel. This little shovel is, in my opinion, the single essential tool for gardening. You will use it for everything, from digging the holes for your your plants to rooting out unwanted bushes to opening reluctant paint cans. They come in all shapes and sizes, colors and materials, and they cost less than $10. They are the cheapest and best tool you’ll own.
At this time of year, you should be able to find them at every garden center, big-box department or home improvement store, hardware store, online, everywhere.
I would recommend going to a physical store and handling them. You’ll run across expensive ones, but don’t assume that just because it costs more it’s better. The important things you’re looking for are fit and weight. You want one that feels good in your hand and feels solid, even a little heavy, but not too heavy. It should also have good balance between the weight of the handle and the weight of the business end, the blade. You’ll be using it hard and everyone has different size hands and different wrist and arm strength, so if you get one that’s too heavy on one end or the other, too heavy overall or too lightweight, you’ll have poor leverage when you dig, and that can wear your arm out too fast. But don’t fret! If you find you’ve gotten the wrong one, just return it if you can and try another one. That’s the beauty of these basic tools: they shouldn’t cost a lot.
Protecting your most important tools, your hands: gloves
Gloves are a must, in my opinion. They aren’t just to keep your hands from getting dirty. They protect you when you accidentally grab a bunch of stinging nettles, they give you a better grip on that trowel handle or a tenacious weed that’s resisting removal. They prevent scrapes and scratches and broken nails, and face it, digging in the dirt dries your skin out.
Here again is something that you could spend a lot on but don’t have to. I’ve found that $5 gloves from the local home improvement store work just as well if not better than $50 gloves from some fancy place online. If you’re just starting out and want to get just one pair, try getting some that have leather or suede on the palm side of the gloves but fabric on the back. This will protect you from most stinging, stabbing kinds of thorns and whatnot and give you a good grip but won’t be too heavy to let you do finer work.
If you’re okay with getting two pairs, then get a heavier workglove type, just make sure the suede or leather isn’t so heavy that you can’t bend your fingers comfortably. Then the second pair can be the lighter-weight stretchy fabric kind, preferably with those little grippy dots to help you pull out little weeds or get a good grip on trowel handles.
The utility player: the bucket
The other must-have tool is a bucket, and this is something you don’t even have to pay for. If you or your family are big ice cream eaters, you probably have some buckets sitting around. As far as I’m concerned, the humble ice cream bucket is the single most valuable tool in any household, especially for gardening. You can use it to carry homeplants your friend shared with you, move dirt from one spot to another, water your new plants with it, fill it full of weeds as you’re weeding, collect those seed heads from plants you don’t want seeding all over the place, dig with it— There are thousands of uses. If you don’t have any ice cream buckets and you don’t feel like buying and eating a gallon of ice cream yourself, just go and ask anyone with kids. You’ll hit the jackpot pretty fast. I would have at least three or four on hand. Try to get ones with wire handles instead of plastic if they still exist.
If you absolutely can’t find an ice cream bucket, go back to your trusty home improvement or hardware store and look for a sturdy plastic two-gallon bucket. Again, you should be able to find one for less than $5 (depending on where you live), and it should last you for years.
Other stuff
Once you have these necessities, there are plenty of other things you can get. I would call these nice to have, even pretty close to must-have, but not absolute necessities when you’re just getting started. These are things you can collect as you go along, often from garage sales or friends clearing out garages. You don’t need to pay full price for any of this stuff, either.
Spade: This square-bladed small shovel is especially useful if you’re going to be planting bushes or trees. Again, these shouldn’t cost a lot, but they should be comfortable in your hands. Make sure the handle is finished well so you don’t get splinters.
Bushel basket: I’m not even sure what this modern take on the old-fashioned bushel basket is called, but I highly recommend having one. They come in a variety of sizes and materials and are wonderful for toting weeds or dirt or even hand tools around in. This is probably the one item that can be a little pricy, but they can be worth it. For general yard work (besides gardening), this is probably the item I use the most.
Watering can: Again, not something you need to pay a lot for. Although buckets are good for getting lots of water on a plant, there comes a time when you want to pour the water on in a more controlled fashion.
A soaker hose: This isn’t exactly a tool, but I highly recommend these for watering your garden instead of a regular sprinkler. You lose much less water to evaporation, the water goes right where you want it, and you avoid the risk of splashing dirt on plants, like tomatoes, that may be susceptible to soil-borne blight.
Wheelbarrow: If you get to the point where you’re transporting lots of things around to different areas of your yard, like plants in nursery pots, bags of compost or rolls of sod, you may want to invest in a wheelbarrow. It saves a lot of trips. Again, make sure it’s the right size for you and your hands, and that you have someplace to store it.
Rake: Although you can get a garden rake, too, I’d get a lawn/leaf rake first if you don’t already have one. These are the best for getting fallen leaves out of the garden without damaging your plants. Stick with rakes with metal tines. Plastic ones just don’t grip the leaves.
If you’re going to be spreading dirt around, though, like you’re maybe spreading compost on your garden or lawn, a garden rake does spread things more efficiently, but it’s not absolutely necessary.
Shovel: While a shovel may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think garden tools, it’s actually the last thing on my list to add to your collection. Unless you are digging lots of holes for trees or fence posts, I don’t see the need for a full-size shovel. It’s probably the thing I use the least. Now if you’re moving lots of dirt for a landscaping project, an in-ground sprinkler system or something similar, that’s a different story.
So, that’s my shortlist of the essential gardening tools. It’s a lot like cooking tools: there’s a ton of stuff you could buy, but only a small number of things you’ll find yourself using over and over again. Start with the essentials and you’ll be well on your way.
What are your essential gardening tools?