9 Essential Gardening Tool

If you're starting your gardening life – these are the nine things you need to make your plot beautiful.

Fork

Make sure you buy a full width fork – and that you get one that's right for your height. Too many people stoop over a fork and end up with a bad back as a result.

Spade

You can manage without a spade on heavy clay soils because your fork will lift the earth, but on light, sandy or stony soil it wont. A spade is also essential for moving mulches and composts and for cutting through roots in the ground or matted undergrowth.

Rake

For levelling the soil and/or breaking down lumpy surfaces in seed beds. If you have a lawn you're also going to need a lawn rake – a different animal entirely! Hoe This useful tool is great for keeping on top of weeds, saves you bending down and pulling them out.

Trowel

For planting and weeding, for getting your plants into containers, for levelling soil around a newly planted shrub: there are so many uses for a trowel that it's worth buying the best you can – or buy two, one wide and one narrow.

Shears

You can use the same set of shears to cut back hedges, trim shrubs and perennials and to bring neatness to your lawn edges, so it's worth investing in one good pair of shears rather than two less good ones.

Secateurs

Secateurs are essential for fine pruning, trimming and dead heading. There are a variety of styles, choose what suits you best and learn to carry them with you – they are easy to lose and gardeners probably spend as much time looking for them as they do using them!

Watering Can

Even if you have a hose you need a watering can for hanging baskets, to water in new plants and for foliar and lawn feeds.

Wheelbarrow

If you have a reasonable sized garden you've got to have a wheelbarrow, but if your plot is tiny, or a roof terrace, you can get away with a builder's bucket which is of more use than a lightweight garden barrow which will dent and buckle.