Want to pick up gardening? Then you’re going to need the right tools for the job! No matter how much you want to get down and dirty with the earth, you can’t quite do everything by hand.
It’s difficult and takes an unnecessarily long amount of time, and if you had the right tool, you could get twice as much done in the same period!
But what should really go in your toolkit? You’re on a budget, you can’t afford to buy every shiny trowel that you might need, and you really could do with a basic starter set that’ll see you through.
Well, good news! Here are the four must-have gardening tools when you’re getting started on the back yard.
A Good Pair of Gloves!
If you’re gardening without gloves, we urge you to reconsider! Gloves are essential in the gardener’s tool kit, as they prevent anything scratching, cutting, or being absorbed into the skin.
You don’t want a rose thorn getting splintered into your palm; they can be hard to remove, just like any fine piece of wood!
Not only that, but imagine you need to rip out a bunch of stinging nettles or poison ivy. You don’t want your skin to come into contact with either of these plants, and proper gardening gloves will keep prickly stingers and irritating sap off of your hands and arms.
Different Sized Shears
You’ve got your basic set of shears already, most likely. This is your hand-held pair that are good for just snipping and cutting whenever you notice something needs a prune. And that’s great, they’re pretty crucial for gardening!
But you’re also going to need to get your hands on a bigger set of shears that require more than one hand to operate.
Remember, sometimes you need to trim all the way up a tree or along a hedge row, and it’s nice to have a set of shears that doesn’t demand you climb or keep moving the whole time!
Plus, the longer the handles, the more strength behind the cutting movement. Long handles can be pushed on a lot harder, allowing them to cut tougher elements (such as branches or thick leaves).
Hand-held shears only let you press down as much as your one hand is able to squeeze.
A Rake (and a hoe)
Rakes are the next must-have on the list, and special mention goes to their cousin, the hoe, as well.
Without either of these tools, you’re going to be on your knees a lot more than you need to. You’re also going to be handling materials like ground covering, soil, and mulch totally unnecessarily as well.
Need to collect up dead and rotten leaves, and god knows what else could be living on them? Use a rake! Want to spread some gravel over a ground sheet around the shed or lawn? A rake will do the job the best!
All in all, if you’ve got a rake, you’ve got a tool that’ll keep you upright, out of the dirt, and make sure you don’t waste time having to collect or spread by hand.
Wheelbarrow
You might be tempted to go without one, especially if you have a small garden or no room in the shed to put one. But when you don’t have a wheelbarrow, you have no way to transport things that don’t quite fit in your hands.
And when you’re gardening, organic waste, soil, old bits of wood and rock, etc., soon pile up. You’re going to want a wheelbarrow there to easily manoeuvre things back and forth, whether you need to throw them away or simply use them elsewhere.
You don’t need to buy a particularly big wheelbarrow for the shed either!
Get the Gardening Tools You Really Need
If you don’t already own your own set of garden tools, these are the items to pick up.
You’re always going to need a good pair of gloves, to make sure you can grab sharp and/or prickly things without getting hurt.
You’re also going to need more than one pair of shears, depending on how close you can get to the plant you’re pruning. And never forget the power of a rake and a hoe! Plus, if you can get yourself a wheelbarrow, you’ll save your back for another day.
And once you’ve got your hands on the must-haves, you can start budgeting for other tools like lawnmowers and hoses that make gardening just a bit more convenient.
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