Whether you’re pruning back overgrown shrubs, battling back weeds, deadheading annuals, or cleaning up after a storm, these are the essential tools for any gardener. They can save you a lot of time and energy, and make the tasks of gardening much less punishing on your hands and back. Good gardening tools should be made of high-quality materials and last for many years, requiring only an occasional sharpening and tune up. We offer top-of-the-line gardening tools in our Garden Store — the same used by professional landscapers. The Essential Tools for Any Gardener
A good pair of pruners goes a long way. Instead of buying a junky pair to toss out at the end of every year, buy one good-quality pair and make it last a lifetime. ARS, Wolf Garten, Felco, and DeWit all make high-quality tools that will protect your hands and arms from unnecessary strain.
Snips are very sharp, pointy scissors essentially that let you prune in tight spaces. Excellent for cutting gardens, deadheading annuals, and also for pruning your houseplants.
A Cape Codder is basically an L-shaped claw on a handle that lets you scrape under a few inches of
ground in order to uproot weeds. You claw through a section of soil, and then gather up all the decimated weeds into your trug. It makes for a quick and easy elimination method without too much work or nasty chemicals.
Loppers are like pruners but with long arms, to give you more strength and leverage for cutting larger branches, stems, and roots — when pruners don’t have quite the heft you need to get the job done.
A sharp hand trowel lets you loosen the soil and hand shovel a medium-sized hole. Perfect for planting,
dividing or transplanting smaller plants like perennials, annual, and herbs. Also excellent for container gardening.
A Hori Hori Knife is a great all-purpose tool for cutting stubborn roots, digging holes, weeding, and even measuring planting depths.
A hefty rubber trug can be used in endless ways. A great catch-all tote to carry around the garden so you don’t scatter your tools, sun hat, sweater, and other items all over the place. Use it to collect a pile of uprooted weeds, a pile of autumn leaves, or freshly divided perennials. Sprinkle compost from it. Water plants from it. Heck, it can even be used as a picnic basket or luggage!