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!
One of the issues I think almost all gardeners have dealt with at some point is figuring out how to keep garden tools from rusting. No doubt we’ve all gone to grab our favorite spade in the spring only to discover that beautiful metal we remember from last season is now brittle and brown. If […]
A shovel is a shovel is a shovel. Unless we’re talking about the best shovel. Then there are all sorts of shovels. Short-handled, long-handled, rounded, round-point, square-point, serrated, trenching shovels, ditching shovels, digging spade, garden spade, perennial spade, and scoops.
The mysterious USDA planting zone (aka plant hardiness zone) isn’t all that mysterious once you get to know it. It’s like the overlooked love interest in every 80’s RomCom. Always there in plain sight. Always ignored. Then one day, you wake up and realize that no, you can’t plant a banana tree in Maine. But you could have the best darn blueberries in the world. If only you had noticed earlier that your USDA planting zone was there telling you all along that blueberries are the way to go.
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 […]
As someone who has suffered from back issues since I was a teen, and vertigo as an adult, the idea of bending over for a long time, and the standing up and sitting down over and over again routine is something I dread. So while I’m not a senior, I empathize with and actively seek […]
I love growing my own food, but I’ll be honest about the fact that there are things I don’t look forward to each summer. For example, I’ve never been great at watering consistently, so I got myself an automatic drip line system. And I don’t know why, but I always forget to fertilize, so I […]
Ah, the garden trowel. It’s the trusty sidekick of any green thumb worth their salt. But did you know that this humble tool has a rich history and a plethora of myths surrounding it? Well, strap in folks, because we’re about to dig deep (pun intended) into the world of the trowel. First, let’s talk […]
The summer of 1970 holds a special place in my heart, not just because it marked the beginning of a scorching Sacramento summer, but because it was the season I discovered my trusty hula hoe – a tool that would prove to be a game-changer in my landscaping adventures. As a young and eager kid […]
I have always been a bit of a lazy gardener. I love to plant things, and I love to take care of them and watch them grow. But sometimes by the time fall swings around, I decide to let everything else go to the chipmunks and the birds. This year, I’ve decided that I’m going to […]
I admit that I have a weakness for journals. Whether it’s a gardening journal, travel journal, or any other kind of journal, there’s something about the blank page and the perfect pen that makes it feel like endless possibilities. A journal is the beginning of a journey. And when you’re done with it, you can […]
