According to experts, the 9 garden tools you need (and you don’t)

You are lucky enough to Indoor Gardengarden tools are a Backyard grower Best friend. Using some basic gears will help you prepare and plant your garden more easily and efficiently, and help you enjoy a more successful harvest.

But which tools do you really need, and which gardening gadgets can you place on the shelf? We asked the experts and it’s clear they take these things seriously. “I can’t live without my own soil knife,” said Jessica Schweiger of Penn State Extension. Master Gardener Philadelphia County Coordinator.

Read our list of essential tools for your home garden and probably don’t need.

According to experts, nine essential garden tools

gloves

She’s not just a soil knife. “I recommend good gardening gloves,” Schweiger said.

Her favorite warm weather gloves are lightweight yet protective Showa Atlas 360 Garden GlovesHer favorite insulated gloves for use in the garden in cold seasons Bellingham WG338 Rubber Gloves. A good pair is light enough to provide dexterity while protecting your fingers from scratches, scuffs and dirt.

Pruner

Pruners have a variety of uses, from pruning fruit trees to thinning melon vines to harvesting peppers. A good set lasts long, has a sharp blade, Easy to maintain And it feels comfortable in your hands.

“My favorite brand of Pruner is Ferco,” said Andrew Bunting, vice president of horticulture. Pennsylvania Horticultural Association. “It’s a really durable brand. I had it Felco Pruners For decades. I need to change the blades from time to time, but that’s about it. ”

A trout

Tropes and small handheld shovels make small, accurate tasks Seedling Or recruit container plants easier than using larger tools. Bunting recommends looking for trowels made of single steel. Although they may be more expensive than cheaper versions with handles attached to another blade, they tend to break at that junction point.

Soil knife

It is an alternative or complement to the trowel Soil knife It is also known as a digging knife or a horihori knife. This multipurpose tool is perfect for holding a belt or being covered in a back pocket for small tasks that appear around the garden.

“It’s very convenient for digging holes,” Schweiger said. “But there are also sawtooth edges, which allow for strong roots and weeds to cut, and there are measurements on the blade.”

how

Weed removal It is one of the toughest tasks gardeners face. Crouching, pulling, and pulling stubborn weeds can damage your body, but Ho makes the process much easier.

“The lovely sharp hoe really saved my back and made it easier to remove weeds,” Schweiger said.

She recommends a Stir-storm hoeThere is a loop-shaped blade for cutting beneath the soil surface, to take care of more robust weeds. Collinear hoe is ideal for more delicate weeding around low-growing plantings as it cuts blades of unwanted invaders with minimal destruction of low soil.

Garden Hose

Unless you have your garden Confined in a window box Or, some pots in front of you will benefit from a high quality garden hose. Investing in a lightweight, fast flow and durable hose saves money in exchange for a patch leak that was saved later. Bunting recommends Flexogen Hoses or check out CNET overview The best garden hose.

Breaker nozzle

Local hardware stores will display all kinds of sprayers, nozzles and other attachments at the end of the hose. Instead of flashy nozzles with multiple settings, Bunting prefers breaker nozzles. This attachment resembles a shower head and gently disperses the water, rather than spraying it on harsh currents that can disturb the soil or damage delicate plants.

Drama This is Bunting’s recommended brand. The company also makes a watering cane equipped with a breaker nozzle to reach a little easier with aim and reach.

Spades or shovels

You might think that shovels and spades are the same thing, but these garden tools have a slightly different function for your work.

Shovels are intended to move soil from one location to another, or dig shallow holes. There may be a deeper bowl and tips to better penetrate the soil surface. The spade, on the other hand, has a sharp blade that is flat, shallow and straight. It is designed to cut the soil deeper and more accurately, making it ideal for tasks such as digging and digging holes in planting. Bunting recommends brand spades and shovels King of Kings.

rake

You may already have one or two rakes in your hand to maintain the grass and handle fallen leaves. These tools are also useful when preparing ornaments Vegetable garden A bed for planting.

Bunting recommends getting a variety of leaf rakes with thin, lightweight tines on hand when preparing to plant springs or spread compost or mulch over beds. Grading races, sometimes called hard rakes, help level the soil before planting.

7 garden tools you probably won’t need

Handheld fork

Schweiger has discovered that full-sized garden forks can be useful for tasks like loosening soil and digging potatoes, but the same cannot be said about handheld forks.

“They always come in with sets with trowels and I just never use them,” she said.

Dandelion weeeen

If you have a soil knife, you don’t need dandelion herbicides, but that doesn’t stop companies from trying to sell gadgets that look more like fondue forks than gardening tools.

“If you need a weeding tool, get a Horiholy knife, not a dandelion fork or other gimmick weeding tool,” Bunting said.

Store-purchased soil test

Schweiger strongly recommends testing soils in new horticultural sites of fertility, not just potential contaminants like lead, especially for urban gardeners. However, what you can get from the hardware store is unreliable.

“Inexpensive, commercial soil testing is not particularly accurate,” she said. “I always recommend taking soil fertility tests through a certified lab.”

A university like Pennsylvania, Rutgers, University of Massachusetts Others also offer soil testing services by mail for a small fee.

Self-draining pot

In the case of bunting, gardeners are usually better off checking the soil moisture of potted plants than trusting a self-watering pot with an extra water reservoir and a wick that delivers it to the plant.

“I’ve seen dozens of them,” he said. “I’m not saying there’s nothing that works, but I’ve seen more failures than success.”

Moisture meter

According to Schweiger, another water-related gadget that isn’t worth your money is a moisture meter.

“I don’t think a moisture meter provides more information than you can get from digging into the soil with your fingers,” she says.

Power tools

If you have a lot of greenery in your gardening department, you probably don’t need to add electric tools to your list of startup gardening tools, Bunting says. However, if you are in the market for tools like Leaf blower, Chainsaw Or the lawn mower, he encourages people to choose Battery-powered electric options On a gas-powered model.

“Today, there are great battery-operated equipment for almost everything you might need,” he said, noting that manufacturers often make rechargeable batteries that can be used interchangeably on various devices in their product line. “I have a leaf blower, but it’s a battery operation, so it doesn’t require the creation of fossil fuels or noise pollution.”

Irrigation System

“Everyone wants to have an irrigation system installed,” says Bunting, but instead of sprinklers, she recommends rainwater or hand-drawn. “It works when the system comes in, but inevitably the system is compromised or the plants are compromised. When the sprinklers light up, there’s too much water and you don’t get enough of other plants. That seems like a good idea, but it’s not really.”

Instead, add a few inches of organic mulch to the soil surface to make the most of the water from the rain and hoses. It helps to retain moisture and can go a little longer between watering.