If you’re new to gardening – or even if you’re not – you’re probably wondering what tools you need for your garden and what they are used for. For those wanting to cultivate their green fingers, having the right garden tool set is the perfect starting point. Certain garden tools should be essential to your set so you have everything you need for cutting and clearing, digging and planting, and raking and weeding.

Knowing where to start and what you need to keep your garden in shape can be difficult, so follow our list of essential tools to find out what gardening tool is best for your task.

What tools do you need as a gardener?

  • Clearing tools
  • Digging and planting tools
  • Raking and weeding tools

Which gardening tools are most useful for clearing?

Leaf blowers

Leaf blowers provide an easy way for gardeners to clear their gardens – especially larger spaces – of leaves and debris. However, they also have other uses, such as cleaning gutters or drying garden furniture.

Reaching up to 90 mph, leaf blowers offer professional performance to allow total power control.

Lightweight and compact in design, they reduce fatigue to get the job done quickly and seamlessly.

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Garden Hoses

Garden hoses are useful for a wide range of gardening tasks. From watering plants to cleaning up furniture or paths, they are a vital part of your garden tool set.

When choosing a hose, look out for additional useful features. Anti-kink hoses will spring back into shape if twisted, allowing water to flow still, even if the hose is tangled.

For more controlled spraying, choose a hose with a spray gun, which attaches using a connector. Spray gun hoses allow you to switch between gentle plant watering and more powerful spraying for cleaning tasks.

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Which gardening tools are most useful for digging and planting?

Garden Spades

Spades are essential tools for digging and planting in your garden. Easily cutting through the ground, they can turn your soil over quickly to keep it aerated.

There are three types of spades to choose from; digging, drain and border.

  • Digging spades

Digging spades are used for digging holes in the soil to make way for larger plants, shrubs or trees.

  • Drain spades

Drain spades are much longer and slimmer than digging spades, used for digging narrow tunnels for drainage pipes and cables.

  • Border Spades

Border spades have narrower heads used for working in smaller spaces, such as plant beds and garden borders.

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Garden Forks

Forks are soil-turning tools used for preparing the soil to create vegetable plots or garden borders. They can break up and lift the soil quickly, with durable prongs that make them easy to push into the ground, even on stony soil.

There are three types of forks to have in your garden tool set; standard forks, pitchforks and border forks.

Standard forks

Standard forks are ideal for breaking up heavy, compacted soil, particularly on clay soil, as it won’t stick to the fork as easily as it will to a spade blade.

Pitchforks 

Pitchforks are slightly larger with long, widely separated prongs suited for lifting and throwing loose material such as compost or hay.

Border forks

Border forks are smaller and used in more confined areas where a larger fork might damage plant roots.

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Rakes

Rakes help to break down the soil to prepare it for seeds. With sharp tines, they can easily cut through the top level of the soil.

Available in two types, soil or lawn, they perform different gardening tasks.

Soil rakes

Soil rakes can loosen compacted soil and mix fertiliser or compost evenly. Border soil rakes are ideal for smaller areas such as flower beds, and tarmac rakes are key for levelling asphalt or tarmac.

Lawn rakes

Lawn rakes have longer handles with wide heads and more flexible prongs. Used for raking garden debris like leaves or branch clippings, they are easy to use to clear your garden quickly.

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Which gardening tools are most useful for weeding?

Hand Trowels

Hand trowels are versatile for gardening jobs like weeding, potting and planting. Trowels have a pointed head for moving small amounts of soil, compost or sand, making them the perfect planter tool.

They’re ideal for planting bulbs and seeds and digging small holes for plants in borders. With soft touch handles for extra comfort, trowels are essential for many garden tools.

Garden Hoes

Hoes are a weed remover tool. Lightweight for easy use, they cut off weeds smoothly for quick removal. You can even use them to dig shallow trenches for planting bulbs and seeds.

There are two types of garden hoes to add to your garden tool set; dutch hoes and draw hoes.

Dutch hoes

Dutch hoes have a solid, sharp blade designed to be pushed and pulled over the soil’s surface to loosen it and remove weeds. Using your dutch hoe regularly to move the soil means that new weeds won’t be able to establish themselves and grow.

Draw hoes

Draw hoes with triangular blade shapes cut into the ground and can be easily pulled out. They are great for cutting into the soil several inches deep to cultivate the soil and create trenches for your seeds and bulbs.

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Upgrade your garden tool set

Now you’ve followed our guide on what tools you need for your garden, explore our gardening collection to upgrade your garden tool set.

With garden hand tools, power tools and paints, get all the tools you need to rejuvenate your garden and keep it neat and tidy.

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