15 Best Gardening Tools to Grow Plants Along Your Tool Shed

Your days of using kitchen spoons for digging or seeding and scissors for pruning are over! Let’s face it: Without the right tools, your dream of having a lush garden with thriving plants, colorful flowers, and juicy fruits, will never come true. Ditch those makeshift solutions of yours and replace them with the best gardening tools.

Gardening sounds fun and refreshing but demands lots of time and effort. There are many things to do: preparing the soil, planting, weeding, fertilizing, pruning, trimming, and transplanting. Are there right tools for each one of these steps? The short answer is YES. If you need a list on some of the most essential and popular garden tools, this article is for you.

A List of the Best Gardening Tools

Behind every thick and green garden, there is an army of tools fighting the hard soil to foster new life. Let me introduce you to the soldiers you should recruit now to win the battle on the green field!

Hand Trowel

Whether you want to dig a small hole in the ground or add fertilizers to the soil, hand trowels are there to save the day. These hand tools are conveniently versatile and can take care of many basic gardening tasks ranging from planting, weeding, and moving the soil to transplanting seeds and plants.

In addition to their versatility, what distinguishes hand trowels as one of the most popular gardening tools, is that they are wallet-friendly, lightweight, and easy to use for almost everyone, be they professional gardeners or beginners.

If you are looking for an ideal trowel, go for one with a stainless-steel blade. the sharper the better! A well-balanced weight distribution, a nice and comfortable grip, a durable body, and a fair price tag? Don’t hesitate to add that tool to your cart!

Despite being among the best tools for garden, at the end of the day, trowels are only designed to make ground-level small holes. So, if you need to dig deeper, you should get yourself a shovel!

Shovel

To plant a seed, you need to dig! That’s why shovels are a must-have. They are used for loosening, digging, lifting, and smoothing the soil.

When working in the garden, you need an ultra-durable tool to withstand long exposure to moisture, heat, and cold. Therefore, when digging for the best shovels, stick with the ones designed with fiberglass handles. Compared to wood, fiberglass is more rust and weather-resistant. It is lighter and is better at shock absorption.

Among different choices, go for the one with anti-slip and comfortable grips for less hand fatigue and higher efficiency. When it comes to breaking hard soil, shovels with pointed tips are your best bet and for softer soil, you’d better pick one with a rounded tip. Moreover, a wide step area, a closed back, and a long handle are features that help you get the job done the easy way. 

Thanks to their ease of use and versatility, shovels have secured a spot on the list of top gardening tools but using them comes with a lot of physical effort and I should warn you of possible back pains and overexertion.

Hori Hori Knife

Have you ever dreamed of a small yet handy tool you could use for both digging and cutting tasks in the garden? Try Hori Hori knife! 

Hori Hori, also known as soil knife, is a gardening knife with Japanese origins. Thanks to one serrated side and its concave shape, this hand tool can save you the trouble of carrying a pruner and a trowel around the garden. 

Soil knife is one of the popular gardening tools that belongs in every tool shed. The best hori-hori knives enjoy rust-proof and corrosion-resistant sharp stainless-steel blades, engraved and easy-to-read measurements, and ergonomic handles. To enhance the user experience, some brands add a sheath and a sharpening stone to the menu which is a plus.

Hori Hori knife is the most useful tool for some gardeners and a gardening miracle for others. However, it might not be your best choice for making deep holes or maintaining large gardens.

Related Article: History of Gardening Tool

Garden Fork

Garden forks are among the best gardening tools, especially for those working on stony or compact soil. Thanks to their tines, you can easily penetrate the soil while causing less damage to the roots.

Garden forks come in different types and structures, so you can always choose the one that best fits the task and the ground you’d be working on. A digging fork is your best bet for loosening and turning the soil over in large areas. As smaller and lighter alternatives for digging forks, border forks are the perfect choice for turning over the soil between garden rows and other tight spots. The variety of garden forks does not stop here! Pick a manure fork for moving and turning compost, and go for a potato fork to lift the root crops carefully.

When digging for the best garden forks, always look for the winning combination of strong sharp tins, an anti-rust finish, a soft grip, and a D-shaped and ergonomic handle.

Garden forks are an essential addition to your collection of gardening tools but be aware that their tins are designed to be sharp enough to penetrate hard soil, so you should always handle them with care and store them properly to avoid accidental injuries.

Hoe

To have a healthy garden and maximize crop yields, you need to get rid of the weeds. Weeds are unwanted plants that grow in a garden and, like a parasite, suck up all the water, light, and nutrients that originally belong to the plants and flowers.

Hoes are one of the oldest and simplest tools you could use to fight off the weeds. Just push it into the soil a bit and start your weed massacre!

Different types of hoes are available on the market among which the Dutch and Stirrup models are the most common. To have the best weeding experience, never settle for anything but a durable and sturdy hoe with a sharpened steel blade, an ergonomic ash handle of an appropriate length and a soft grip.

Hoes are handy and easy to use. However, if you choose the wrong model, these top-rated gardening tools will leave you with lower back or wrist pain. Moreover, hoes might be a fast and easy solution to remove weeds in a large area, you might need another tool to uproot individual weeds that pop up here and there in your garden.  

Weed Puller

For a hand-to-hand confrontation with weeds in the garden, nothing works better than a weed puller for you. With one at hand, you can easily remove weeds that have sneaked into your garden ON SIGHT!

A weed puller saves your garden from harmful herbicides and leaves holes in the soil that help it breathe. However, it is an ineffective and backbreaking solution for clearing large lands.

Rakes

Rakes are unsung heroes of all green and lush gardens. From hand and shrub rakes to landscaping and leaf models, if chosen right, you can use them for many gardening tasks, be it loosening and leveling soil, gathering dried leaves, or even removing weeds.

For cultivation purposes, rakes with metal tines are your best bet as they are more durable and better suited for heavy-duty tasks. On the other hand, for gathering leaves, you’d better go with plastic models that are lighter and cheaper.

Rakes are simple, easy to use, and within almost every user’s reach. However, raking can be time-consuming and labor-intensive in large gardens. So, if you’ve just inherited a huge garden and no will to break a sweat, you’d better have second thoughts before putting all your eggs in a rake’s basket! 

Leaf Blowers

nothing beats leaf blowers in the competition for fast and efficient leaf gathering and removal in a garden. These power tools are the go-to choice for clearing large areas or taking care of time-sensitive leaf removal tasks. However, compared to rakes, they are more expensive and are always dependent on a power source, be it batteries or electricity.

The best leaf blowers are cordless, lightweight, durable, and high in power. To solve the dead leaves problem by its roots, the blowers equipped with a vacuuming feature are the way to go. If you have not got yours yet, discover what fits your needs best in the Ronix collection of premium leaf blowers.

Pruning Shears

As one of the top gardening tools, pruning shears are exclusive barbers for your trees and shrubs. They ensure your garden is healthy and easy on the eye by cutting the deadheads and dried or damaged parts of stems and branches with precision and care.

Pruning shears are cost-effective pruning solutions for both professional gardeners and beginners. However, they cave in in the face of thicker branches.

Our recommendation:
Ronix RH-3108 Pruning Shear-Sharp Model
Ronix RH-3105 Pruning Shear-Flora model

Loppers

Loppers are among the highest-rated gardening tools. They are essential for pruning thick or hard-to-reach branches in your garden as part of a bigger plan to prevent the spread of diseases and make way for new growth.

The best loppers have ergonomic telescopic handles and carbon steel sharp blades. However, to achieve the best results, it is also important that you pick the right type as well. Like pruning shears, loppers are of two main types: Bypass and Anvil. Bypass loppers are best fit for cutting fresh and green wood while the anvil type can handle hard dead wood better.

Our Seggestion: Ronix RH-3301 bolt cutter 14 inch

As handy as they are, working with loppers might be challenging for some because they require you to use both hands to close the handles.

Watering Cans

Watering cans are important tools since water CAN both give life to your plants and ruin them! Yes, you heard that right. Regular watering is an important factor in keeping your plants growing and flourishing but if you fail to keep the pressure in check, you might damage the delicate plants and flowers.

As one of the popular garden tools, watering cans ensure the gentle transfer of water without disturbing and displacing the soil. They help you save water and are wallet-friendly and simple to use. However, watering cans are not the best solution for watering large gardens and dense plant rows as it would be time-consuming and backbreaking.

Sprayers

Sprayers enjoy a rightful spot on the top-rated gardening tools list. They are handy and versatile. You can use them in various gardening tasks, from watering the plants and spraying pesticides to adding fertilizers to the soil. 

The best gardening sprayers enjoy a leak-proof and extra-resistant container. They have ergonomic handles to reduce hand fatigue and are equipped with adjustable nozzles to enable flow control.

Read More : Best Garden Sprayers: Pick and Choose Your Garden Guardian

Gloves

It might be tempting to touch the soil with bare hands or trim the plants while feeling their texture but that joy comes with a cost; You may get infected by soil bacteria, cut your hands with thorns, or suffer skin rashes caused by herbicide exposure. As one of the most popular gardening tools, gloves can protect you from all that and more.

To ensure your safety and comfort, never settle for anything but durable and breathable gloves that fit well.

Hedge Trimmers

No list of best tools for garden is complete without mentioning hedge trimmers. They are the magic wands you shake to shape the hedges in the garden the way you want. Be it trimming or pruning, hedge trimmers are up for the task. They make room for new growth by removing the dead and dried parts of hedges, and ensure your garden stays in shape by keeping the overgrowth in check.

The best hedge trimmers are cordless and lightweight. They deliver a high cutting capacity and enjoy an ergonomic D-shaped handle.

Hedge trimmers are handy and efficient. As perfect and resourceful as they are, it might be hard to swallow that these cutting tools cannot take care of garden maintenance single-handedly. Or maybe not! you could always avoid frequent trips to the garage to grab another tool, by choosing Ronix 3-in-1 multifunctional gardening tools that can replace the chainsaws, brush cutters, and hedge trimmers in your tool shed. 

Knee Pads and Kneelers

Knee pads, also known as kneelers, are hidden gems of any gardening collection. Considered to be a burden by some, they still deserve a spot in the best gardening tools list.

Although simple, they can prevent fatigue and potential injuries, make gardening easier, and turn it into a more enjoyable experience. 

Gardening is the art of growing plants, yourself, and your tool shed! Collect all the right tools to Keep the weeds away and the buds close!