Starting a home garden can be as fun as it is rewarding. But even the most amateur gardener will quickly realize that it takes more than seeds and sunlight to create that dream lawn. Learning your way around the gardening tool aisle can be an intimidating prospect. This article will walk you through some of the basics of buying your first tools.
First of all, don’t get carried away. There are a lot of tools that you don’t need – at least not right away. As a beginner building your collection, you’ll do best to stick to the basics. A shovel and a spade are invaluable. A shovel is round-ended, good for large digging projects, and a spade is the shovel’s square-headed cousin, useful for edging beds and moving and removing sod and soil. When purchasing these, look for steel heads and strong handles of wood or fiberglass. These tools are also worth some investment, as you will use them often and they will last a long time.
A spading fork, or digging fork, is used to open up the soil before you plant, so it clearly needs to be one of your first purchases. Caution here, though – spading forks are not pitchforks, so don’t buy a pitchfork and think you’re all set. A spading fork has a shorter handle and four square tines that are wider than a pitchfork’s and enable it to take on more heavy-duty digging and turning. Your well-purchased spading fork will be indispensable to you once your garden gets going.
Be just as selective in your choice of a hoe, another invaluable home gardening implement. Choosing a hoe can be tough, not only because there are so many out there, but because it also depends on what type of garden you’re growing. A vegetable garden is best cultivated with a completely different hoe than a perennial garden is. Keep your garden’s specific needs in mind as you weigh your purchase options.
Now we’ll get into some of the smaller tools, which are usually less expensive but no less important. Steel-tined cultivators and dandelion diggers are hand-held tools perfect for digging up weeds and readying soil for planting. Hand trowels are great for smaller plants and container gardens. If we close our imaginary trip down the aisle with a good pair of shears, you should now have all the tools you need to get started.
A great way to stay out of the confusion of the stores is to shop from the comfort of your home, which you can do at toolsnow.com. This on-line resource offers many varieties of the tools discussed above, and you can build your home garden arsenal with just a couple clicks of your mouse. The site also offers a stainless-steel, sun-powered solar light set, a beautiful and environmentally-friendly way to light up your lawn and garden.