Best Advice on Hand Tools to make Gardening easier.

Garden Gloves, Secateurs, and all Hand Tools and gardening equipment.

Where to buy Garden Tools

Choose somewhere where you can try out the tools, make sure that they fit comfortably in your hand and that they are the right size, shape and length for you.

Don't buy from Car Boot sales unless the Trowel,Fork, Secateurs or what ever are clean, (not rusty), and in really good condition.

DIY stores are good, you will have a choice of Hand Tools to pick from. Find a Tool that you like, then try the Internet to see if you can get the exact same tool cheaper. Buy the best Hand Tools that you can afford and look after them.

Garden Spade

If you don't have a big garden then go for the Border Spade. The blade on this is narrower making it lighter to handle and easier to use, also I would go for stainless steel.

When digging with steel spades that have been galvanized or painted the soil sticks to the spade and makes digging hard work and tiring. Stainless steel does not rust and is easy to clean.

Garden Fork

Same as above, go for the Garden Border Fork, for lightness and ease of use, it’s not as essential to go for a stainless steel border fork, but if you can afford, then why not have a matching set.

Hand Trowel

One of the most important Gardening hand tools in the garden armoury. Definitely pick stainless steel blade with a smooth wooden / varnished handle. Plastic handles will give you blisters in the palm of your hand quicker than wood, as will rubber.

There are special trowels for planting bulbs, but in my opinion these are a waste of money as an ordinary trowel with do the job perfectly well.

Gardening Gloves

Garden Gloves come made of many substances i.e. Cotton Plastic Neoprene Leather Latex etc

There are 2 types of gloves that are necessary for the home gardener and they are :-

A) Waterproof

Use with insecticides / fungicides etc, and when handling wet material.

B) Thorn proof Gloves

Leather gloves, provide hand protection for any amount of gardening jobs from digging the garden to pruning shrubs to felling trees to building a patio to laying a garden path.

Not to mention protecting your hands from those thorns when pruning roses or trimming back that deadly pyracantha hedge.

C) Cotton gloves

These are ok for the minor jobs, such as cutting flowers, staking and tying up plants.

D) Plastic gloves

Fine for basic watering and also for painting fences etc

E) Latex gloves

These are thinner and have more feel therefore can be used for taking cuttings and also used on other wet jobs.

Shovel

Steel shovels are robust, but try and get a light shovel that hasn't had the blade painted.

Brush

Buy a stiff brush which is a good Hand Tool and will be more useful for sweeping up wet soil and gravel, concrete paths etc

Wheelbarrow

Useful when doing some hard landscaping and for carrying heavy materials. When you do buy one; purchase a steel wheelbarrow with a pneumatic tyre, for ease of use pushing over soft ground.

Do not go for the galvanized barrow with a narrow, solid wheel, this twist when carrying heavy materials and sink into soft ground, making them impossible to push.

Use purpose made garden refuse bags for lighter material, (some councils provide these for free and empty on a regular basis).

Watering Can

These come in plastic and metal versions. Choose the plastic cans for lightness, preferably with a short spout which comes with an extension for watering those plants just out of reach.

Also go for one with a fine brass rose for watering seedlings and small plants. I personally think the best watering cans are made by Haw's and would use no other make.

Knife

Indispensable for the taking of cutting from plant material and pruning shrubs down to cutting a piece of string for tying up that wind blown delphinium.And probably the most useful tool and most used of all.

If you can, get a good Budding Knife, although a strong penknife, as long as it is kept sharp, will do for most jobs.

Secateurs

Important to get the correct type of secateur. Choose a pair with scissor action. This leaves the cleanest cut, giving less chance of disease from entering the wound.

And the best make in my opinion are "Felco" Secateurs. I have had a pair over 25 years and they are still going strong. Separate blades can be bought and are easily replaced.

Hand Shears

Used for cutting short runs of hedges, "privet, and box" etc, or trimming back shrubs, Pick the type with wavy or serrated blades for a better cutting action.

Make sure you feel comfortable with the pair you choose and they do not jar your wrist when closing. A blade length of 30cm should be OK.

Long Handled Shears

Used only for "edging off", i.e. cutting the overlapping grass on the edge of a lawn Really saves a lot of backache on a large lawn.

Hoe

Buy a push garden hoe with a 12cm steel blade. Another essential Gardening Hand Tool for cutting those weeds down in the flower or vegetable border during the summer months.

Used regularly it can save a lot of time, trouble and backache. Make sure the handle is long enough so that you are not stooped over when using the hoe and that the blade is level with the floor or slightly dipped down at the front.

Rake

Two types available. A hard pronged steel rake and the spring tined rake. Both have their uses, but if I had to choose one then I would choose the latter.

The spring tined rake is a Hand Tool mainly used for raking dead grass out of lawns, but it is also ideal for cleaning up fallen leaves and raking up shrub clippings, rubbish etc.

PS

If you buy several gardening hand tools at the same time, ask for a discount, after all the supplier can only say no.

PPS

It was always drilled into me when I was an apprentice, that a good gardener always carries four items :- 1) A sharp knife 2) A piece of string 3) A Pencil 4) A Plant Label

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