13 Must-Have Garden Tools for Avid Gardeners

Having the essential gardening tools is crucial for keeping your garden in pristine condition. In this guide from Sims Garden Machinery, we’ll walk you through the essential tools you’ll need for your garden and show a few advanced tools that would make a great addition to a dedicated gardener’s toolset.

Essential Garden Tools for Home Gardens

These 10 essential tools will allow you to keep your garden in great condition through planting, weeding, pruning, and watering.

Garden Hose

A quality hose with an adjustable nozzle is a must-have for watering plants around your garden. Different hose lengths will be available, with longer models allowing you to cover a larger garden while offering reduced water pressure. Getting a nozzle that can offer lighter spray options will allow you to cover both established beds and more delicate seedlings and plants. If using a standard spray hose, a watering can should be used for delicate plants. A great choice would be the Gardena classic 30m hose and Comfort Cleaning Nozzle. This nozzle offers both hard and mist options for spray and is designed to save water compared to standard nozzles.

Rake

When autumn leaves start falling a rake is an essential gardening tool, helping to quickly clear debris from your garden. Rakes are also used to loosen soil and prepare seed beds. For leaf removal, an option like the Wilkinson Sword Plastic Leaf Rake would be a sturdy choice, while for soil and planting tasks a stronger option with steel tines like the Wolf Garten soil rake would be a better choice.

Garden Fork

Hand forks and larger digging forks are a common part of any gardener’s toolset. Digging forks will be needed to loosen difficult or compacted soil, preparing it for planting. Its design will also make it effective at removing plants. Handheld forks will be used for smaller or more delicate garden tasks, such as flower beds and borders. Two options we recommend are the Wilkinson Sword Stainless Steel Digging Fork and the Darlac DP541 Hand Fork.

Garden Trowel

The humble garden trowel is one of the most useful items in a gardener’s toolset, used for removing weeds, potting plants, transporting plants, and sowing seeds. Getting a hand trowel that has a comfortable and solid grip, alongside a quality steel head, will help to ensure the best performance. The Darlac DP540 offers this, along with a marked depth gauge to ensure accurate planting.

Secateurs

Sometimes called pruning shears, these sharp cutting tools will help you to clip away branches, essential for pruning and tidying tasks. A two-blade bypass option like the STIHL PG10 would be a comfortable and effective tool for gardeners.

Loppers

A longer cutting tool, loppers will essentially perform the same function as secateurs but will be capable of reaching more difficult areas, with longer handles upping your leverage and allowing thicker branches to be cut. A great two-blade bypass option for gardeners is the Wilkinson Sword Ultralight model, which is around 50% lighter than other models, enabling you to minimise fatigue during use.

Spade

A must-have tool, spades are used for digging and planting tasks within larger garden areas, as well as moving piles of soil around. This means they can also be used for smaller landscaping tasks. Wilkinson Sword produced high-quality digging spades, with stainless steel heads and a weatherproof wooden handle.

Garden Hoe

Garden hoes are used for clearing weeds from an area quickly. The most common design is the dutch hoe, which moves along the surface of your garden, effectively separating weeds from their roots. Another option is the draw hoe, which has a larger head and is used for breaking up soil and tackling bigger weeds. Both dutch and draw hoes are available as attachments for Wolf Garten multi-tools. 

Wheelbarrow

Wheelbarrows are used for moving heavy materials like soil and bricks around a garden. They’re also essential for planting in larger gardens. Good quality one-wheel models will allow you to balance heavier items when moving them. The Hammerlin Camden Classic is a great entry-level choice, storing 85 litres of material.

Gardening Gloves

When operating with sharp equipment like secateurs and garden hoes, protecting your hands is crucial. Gardening gloves will keep you safe from sharper equipment, and will also allow you to maintain a firmer grip in wetter conditions. In addition, they will keep your hands cleaner when working in soil and dirt. STIHL produces a range of gloves, with options like the DuroGrip being a solid choice for gardening.

Most Useful Gardening Tools for Professionals

While the tools mentioned above will cover everything a gardener needs, those looking to take their garden to the next level could benefit from these 3 additional tools.

Lawn Edging Tools

To get the perfect border to your lawn, edging tools such as Wilkinson Sword Long Handled Edging Shears are available, which will allow you to give the boundaries of your lawn a beautiful clean look. This is a tool for gardeners looking to go above and beyond, allowing you to create a truly professional look for your lawn.

Hori Hori Knife

Sometimes called a soil knife, this is a tool long used by Japanese gardeners that is now popular in the UK.  Hori Hori knives have a stainless steel blade with one serrated edge and one sharp edge, with a point at the end and a ruler etched onto the face. It can be used for digging, weeding, cutting roots, and transplanting. For many, a Hori Hori is their most used gardening tool due to its many uses and effectiveness.

Pruning Saw

When it comes to more difficult pruning jobs, secateurs and loppers can prove ineffective. In those cases, a pruning saw could be the best choice. These serrated blades will usually fold away, which is crucial as they can be dangerously sharp. They will be able to tackle more difficult branches while still offering clean and precise finished cuts. We sell a range of pruning saws, with options like the STIHL Megacut being a solid entry-level choice, tackling branches up to 150mm thickness.