There are many useful gardening tools out there, all at different price points. When purchasing your garden tools, think about versatility. How many different ways can you use a particular tool? Most-used garden tools are simple in form, budget-friendly, and can be used for at least three or four different tasks.
It’s tempting to roam the aisles of a big box home and garden store and scoop up everything you could possibly need to build a garden tool kit. The smell of fertilizer and peat moss wafting in the air. The polished concrete floors, helping your shopping cart glide like butter to the checkout.
Our advice when building a garden tool kit? Keep it simple! Seasoned gardeners don’t use all those doodads and gadgets you can find lining the gardening aisles.
As for weeding? To rake or to spray, that is the question! Like many garden tools, you can go all out and spend hundreds of dollars on a Lithium-ion, cordless weed killer sprayer. But weed killers can be pretty icky, especially when going near vegetables. As for weeding tools, there’s really no shortage to choose from. Generally speaking, there are two types of weeding tools: short-handled and long-handled. Short-handled tools can let you be a little more precise and you only need one hand to use most of them. The downside is that you have to sit or bend over to use them. Long-handled tools are nice because you can stand and they also give you more leverage. However, these usually require two hands and it’s not unheard of to damage one of your vegetables if your aim is a little off. With that in mind, here are some of our favorite weeding tools.
In the articles below, we dive into everything you need to know about garden tools, and you can learn more about them in our How to Grow a Vegetable Garden: 10 Things Every Gardener Needs to Know Before Starting a Food Garden freebie. Enjoy!
My daughter has a number of subscription boxes, from sensory play boxes to kid chef boxes. Before our dog passed, he even had a subscription box! My social media feed is filled with subscription box ads for clothes, wine, and coffee. As gardeners, however, we all know that gardening subscription boxes are where it’s at! […]
My daughter is just about at that age where she really loves reading with me. For a while there I thought she might just be meant for parkour or extreme sports, but lately she’s down to sit for a few minutes while we read. And since we both love gardening, I went looking for gardening books for preschoolers and was not disappointed!
Let’s just talk about the pink elephant head flowers in the room, shall we? Weed killer sprayer could very well be your best friend’s sister’s ex-boyfriend’s favorite band. For our purposes, though, we’re sticking to actual garden tools. (Speaking of bands, am I the only one with R.E.M. “Gardening at Night” in my head every time I snip some basil in the evening?)
Okay, maybe it’s a bit tongue in cheek to say that the best weeding tool for your vegetable garden is a goat. But did you know that some office parks and building managers actually hire goats to clear fields? It’s true. And is there anything cuter than a baby goat? Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet a lot of money on it.
The only thing better than enjoying the produce from your garden is planning your garden. I could spend hours looking through seed catalogs, checking out the latest garden equipment, drawing maps of what my garden might look like, and, naturally, thinking about the best type of wood for raised beds. After all, you want something that isn’t going to rot, but you also don’t want anything treated with chemicals.
How’s the back? Has it stopped aching yet? Charles Dudley Warner said: “What one needs in gardening is a cast-iron back with a hinge in it.” He was right! Mine’s only just recovered from the snow-shovelling season and now the gardening season has arrived to restore it to its usual dull throb. Regardless, I’m thrilled […]
Oh, the perfect garden bed. ‘Tis a dream of every gardener. But if you’re used to using a hoe, rake, spade, or other hand tools, a garden tiller, despite its helpfulness, can feel a bit intimidating. It’s kind of like riding a bike, then switching over to a car with a manual transmission. There’s nothing wrong with either, and if you’re just heading to the grocery store for some eggs and cheese, the bike is just fine. However, the car is probably a better option for that family vacation two states over.
The decision to learn how to grow potatoes in a bag is not one to be taken lightly. Are you short on garden space but still want a crop of universally delicious starch bombs? Or maybe you like science experiments. You probably fall somewhere between Mr. Wizard and Bill Nye in age and have always been drawn to DIY science like crystal-growing, rock-tumbling, and figuring out which dish soap makes the best bubble solution.
Over time, the soil in your garden can become compacted and dense. As we walk through the garden or move heavy equipment over it, the pressure pushes all that soil closer and closer together. And as you may know, garden aeration is necessary to loosen that soil. Looser soil makes it easier for roots to […]
Some years ago, when I was a kid, I planted my first “garden.” It wasn’t exactly what you might recognize as a garden, and unless you count rocks, there wasn’t really anything growing in my garden. But the holes I dug were world class. Probably because, in all the wisdom of my single-digit years, I knew I had the best tool for digging holes for plants: a stick.
