Someone asked what garden tools I would recommend for a beginner, and it gave me pause. Not one to accumulate or hold onto unnecessary stuff, every tool I own, I actually use, and for most of them I am the main moving part. But I didn’t start out with them all.
I’m no Luddite; I value my string trimmer and regularly use a powerful leaf blower for neatening things quickly before company arrives, and sometimes right before a rain to keep leaves from matting and so the garden looks sparkly afterwards. But I don’t have a lawn, so no mower, and because my flower borders and raised garden beds are well-worked, easily stirred with my trusty antique turning fork, I have no need for a power tiller. Any time I really need either I simply rent ready-to-go topnotch machinery, a whole lot cheaper and less troublesome than owning and maintaining them.
Still, I mostly stick with simple garden tools that do their jobs easily without much upkeep, storage space, or fuel. The ones I use are quintessential - perfectly apt for the job at hand, and so practical and labor-saving I don’t see how I can garden without them.
Thinking beyond the cliché pruning shears, hand trowel, and garden hose, all which I use fairly often, I most appreciate an old “turning” fork I inherited from my great-grandmother, which is handier than a shovel for fluffing already-dug beds and mixing in old mulch and fresh compost. I actually have two completely different shovels, each well-suited for different jobs: a small, flat spade for slicing into and turning dirt over, and for making straight, clean- cut border edges for beds; and a regular shovel with its cupped blade and angled neck for moving dirt from one spot to another without it slipping off. I sometimes wish I had a scoop shovel for moving loose stuff.
Because I just say no to most pesticides, I don’t own a sprayer; however, my tool shed holds a few lesser-used other essentials at the ready, including scissors-type hedge shears for keeping the boxwood and yaupon hollies tight, plus heavy lopping shears and a curved-blade arborist saw for removing branches and limbs too big for the hand pruners. All these are the main tools I use every year, though I sometimes grab my old leaf rake for small jobs where the backpack blower is too unwieldy.
But there’s a handful of useful small tools, starting with a flat metal file for honing my shovel blade enough to easily crunch through roots that creep into my beds from nearby shrubs and trees, and for keeping the working edge of my hoe razor sharp so I only have to lightly drag it over weeds, scraping them clean without chopping and without turning up more weed seeds.
Other minor tools that most folks wouldn’t think twice about but are quality-of-life useful for me: watering cans for little jobs; a heavy tarp for piling weeds to drag to the leaf pile; a small shower-head “rose” for the end of the hose, “pot feet” for keeping containers raised just enough to prevent deck rot and patio stains; five gallon buckets for hauling stuff; a can of wasp spray; leather gloves for blackberry-pulling sessions, and flower “frogs” for keeping flowers upright in wide vases. And a hatchet and iron poker for tending the outdoor fireplace.
Looking back, I didn’t start with some of these now-invaluable tools, each added as my garden involvement evolved, and I needed help with some of the chores. Hopefully, sooner or later you will end up using them all.
Felder Rushing is a Mississippi author, columnist, and host of the “Gestalt Gardener” on MPB Think Radio. Email gardening questions to rushingfelder@yahoo.com
