The tools a new gardener actually needs

People starting a garden either buy nothing and struggle, or buy a whole wall of tools and use four of them. The list below is the four, plus the six that genuinely earn their spot once you are past the first season. And I have said where it is worth spending, because on about half of these the cheap one is a false economy and on the other half it makes no difference at all.

1. A trowel

The one you will pick up more than anything else. Planting seedlings, scooping mix, levering out a weed that has got its feet in.

Buy well. A cheap trowel bends at the neck the first time it meets a rock, and once it has bent it never comes back. Look for one where the blade and the tang are one piece rather than the blade being riveted onto a socket.

2. Gloves

Dirt, thorns, splinters off a stake, and whatever is living under the pot you just picked up.

Fit matters more than price. Gloves too big for you make fiddly jobs impossible and you end up taking them off, which defeats the purpose. Synthetic leather ones last well and stay flexible.

3. A spade

For anything the trowel cannot handle. Planting a shrub, shifting compost, edging a bed.

Buy well, and buy the right length. A D handle suits shorter work and more leverage, a long handle saves your back on digging. Keep the edge sharp with a file and it cuts through roots instead of bouncing off them.

4. Secateurs or bypass pruners

Deadheading, trimming, cutting back. A bypass pruner cuts like scissors and suits live green growth, and an anvil pruner crushes against a flat plate and is better on dead wood.

Buy well. This is the one where cheap really shows. Blunt pruners crush the stem rather than cutting it, and a crushed stem is an entry point for disease. Clean them and keep them sharp.

5. A watering can, a hose, or both

A 5 or 9 litre can with a rose on it for seedlings and pots, because a hose on full will wash a seedling straight out of the mix. A hose with an adjustable head for anything bigger.

Spend on the fittings, not the can. Cheap hose fittings leak, and you will replace them twice before you replace the hose.

6. A rake

Levelling soil, clearing leaves, spreading mulch. A metal garden rake for soil work and a fan rake for leaves are genuinely two different tools, and if you are only buying one, get the metal one.

7. A kneeler

Nobody thinks they need this until about an hour into their first proper weeding session. A pad or a kneeler seat, and the seat versions flip over so you can sit on them, which is worth the extra.

8. A garden fork

Loosening compacted ground, turning compost, lifting root vegetables without spearing them.

Buy well if you have clay. A cheap fork splays its tines the first time it meets hard ground. If your soil is heavy this is not optional equipment, it is the tool that makes the rest possible.

9. A wheelbarrow

Once you are moving soil, mulch or pots rather than carrying a bag at a time, this saves your back and about half your time. A poly tray is lighter and will not rust, a steel tray takes more punishment. A flat free wheel means never pumping it up.

If a barrow is too much for now, a garden cart or a trug does most of it.

10. Somewhere to write things down

Not a tool exactly, and the most useful thing on the list. What you planted, where, and when. Next year you will want to know whether the tomatoes went in too early, and you will not remember.

Shop related products

The tools themselves are all on the shelf in store rather than on the website, so here is what pairs with them online.

• Brunnings Seed Raising Mix 5L. Finer than potting mix, which is what small seed needs.
• Brunnings Premium Potting Mix 36L. The general purpose bag.
• Manutec Soil pH Test Kit. Worth doing once before you blame yourself for anything.
• POPE 4 Piece Watering Set. Fittings and a nozzle in one go.
• POPE Handy Spray Gun. Adjustable, so you can go gentle on seedlings.

Did you know the whole tool list above is in store and not on the website, including Cyclone and Gardenmaster spades, forks and rakes, Gardenmaster and stainless trowels, bypass pruners and secateurs, a garden seat kneeler, gardening gloves, watering cans in 5 and 9 litre, and Kelso wheelbarrows in poly and steel. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf, or come in and pick one up, which is the only way to tell whether a spade handle suits your height.

What is online sits in garden products.

More for getting started

• The 7 habits of successful vegetable gardeners
• Avoid these 7 mistakes in your vegetable garden
• Homemade plant food to keep your plants happy

I bought a cheap trowel, bent it, bought another cheap trowel, bent that one, and then bought a good one, which is a learning journey I could have skipped.

Cheers,
Candeece