You don’t need many tools to create a bountiful garden. Gadgets call us from every side, but it’s seldom a lack of the right equipment that prevents us growing successfully. Start where you are, with what you have. Friends and family will be delighted to have a ‘wish list’ for gardening gifts if you still want that special pair of secateurs or longed-for digging fork.
Here are the tools I use most of the time.
1. Cutting
- kitchen knife – an old one just for the garden for harvesting and also for pricking out seedlings.
- scissors – string, potting mix bags, seed packets.
- secateurs – I like Fiskars
- loppers – the longest lasting ones I’ve had. ‘Westminster’ brand -they came from The Warehouse and were really cheap. I’ve got some loppers with extending handles but I think I’ve used them about twice
- garden shears – quicker and quieter for trimming small hedges than a hedge trimmer.
- wood saw – I wore out a pruning saw and now I have a hand-me-down wood saw.
2. Digging
- trowel – mine’s a seemingly indestructible synthetic one
- hand fork – my weeding companion, gets oxalis out really well
- big digging fork for turning compost, aerating soil and digging out big weeds.
- ‘border fork’ is my luxury digging tool. Somewhere between my digging and hand forks.
- trenching spade is my favourite type of spade for planting trees but I use a fork in the garden much more often.
- broadfork – a beloved beast of an implement for aerating big garden beds without the back ache.
3. Carrying
- willow basket for carrying small tools, string, seeds and for harvesting produce.
- Gubba trug
- wheelbarrow (and a spring rake and shovel for collecting)
4. Watering
- 10 litre watering can
- watering wand for accurate gentle watering
- hose and sprayer head
- Dial-a-mix hose-end sprayer for spreading effective micro organisms, activated worm tea, fish emulsion or seaweed tea.
- hand held sprayer for misting seedlings
I will also include my Masport mulcher. I don’t use it as much now as I did when I had a bigger garden but it turns prunings into mulch very quickly and means that everything possible is retained to add to the organic matter of the property.