Any job is easier with the right tools. You’re ready to start your Phoenix garden, so you’ll want the right tools for the job.
There are several garden tool essentials needed to garden. Look for sturdy, good quality tools that will last and that are comfortable for you to use.
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9 Basic Garden Tools Every Gardener Needs
- Spade
- Cultivator
- Transplanter
- Long handle garden shovel
- Hand trowel
- Bow rake
- Garden fork
- Hand pruner
- Gardening gloves
Garden Tool Essentials: What you Need for Your Garden
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A Garden Spade: A garden spade is your basic digging implement; use it to cut the soil to make holes for planting. This is a must have garden tool if you want to plant vines, trees, and shrubs.
Cultivator: No one wants weeds in their garden. You can either pull them out by hand or use a cultivator. A cultivator is used to loosen soil, aerate, and remove weeds.
Transplanter: Similar to a trowel, a transplanter is the ideal tool for transplanting. The long narrow blade make it easier to get under a plant’s roots making transplanting easier.
Long Handle Garden Shovel: This is an item every homeowner should have, especially a gardener. The job of a long handle shovel is to move material. It comes in handy when moving decorative rocks, compost, soil and sand.
Garden Hand Trowel: A garden-sized shovel, hand trowels are for digging and planting. If you will be gardening with kids make sure they have a garden hand trowel to use as well. There are many times you will want to use them at the same time.
Bow Rake: This is another item every homeowner should have. The bow rake comes in handy for moving around the popular decorative rock or granite minus found in most Phoenix yards.
A Garden Fork: Garden forks are a good tool for your vegetable or flower garden. They are perfect for soil that is full of stones and for breaking down clods of soil.
Garden Tools: Pruners
Hand Pruners: If you’ve planted any rose bushes or any shrubs at all, hand pruners are an essential gardening tool. Hand Pruners are available in three distinct types:
- ‘bypass’ with two curved blades that resemble a scissor. This type of hand pruner is used on plants for a clean cut. Use on live plants such as rose bushes and shrubs.
- ‘anvil’ where a single straight blade cuts on to a flattened base. An anvil hand pruner is can cut through dead wood.
- ‘ratchet’ which are similar to the anvil.
Generally you will just need a bypass pruner. These are the most popular and make nice clean cuts on your bushes and shrubs.
Anvil pruners are for cutting tough dead wood. They work with more of a slicing cut.
Ratchet pruners work the same way as Anvil pruners, except pruning is done in stages. A ratchet pruner is easier for people who have less strength in their hands to use.
One of the tools we use regularly is a long handed Anvil lopper. This tool is handy to reach higher branches or if you don’t want to get too close to a thorny shrub you can still easily trim off dead wood.
Gardening Gloves
Gardening Gloves: Truth be told I rarely use gardening gloves as I prefer to feel the soil in my hands. However, this does involve a longer clean up process. If you don’t want to have to scrub your hands and fingernails after your visit to the garden you may want to invest in gardening gloves.
If tackling large rose bushes, or thorn covered plants such as bougainvillea you may want heavy duty gardening gloves that cover some of your arm as well.
Optional Garden Tools
Garden Rake: Unless you have deciduous trees in your yard, a garden rake is not really necessary in a Phoenix, Arizona yard. If you do have a lot of trees that shed than you may want a leaf blower and a garden rake.
A Long Handle Hoe helps you to manually till up the ground. So, if you have a large area of dirt or a raised garden bed they come in handy for breaking up the dirt and planting rows of seeds.
A Wheelbarrow can help you haul dirt, rock, and/or mulch. If you don’t plan on hauling a lot of materials you probably don’t need one of these. However, if you do then a wheelbarrow will save you time and probably be easier on your back.
Tiller is a great tool if you are designating a new area for a vegetable garden. If you don’t want to purchase a tiller, your local home improvement store may offer this tool as a rental.
A pick axe or a Mattock can come in handy if your yard is back filled with rock.