Every day when I walk into the garden, I have four tools at my disposal, and I use them, constantly. And after years of constantly losing my tools and wandering aimlessly around the garden (a common trait among gardeners), I’ve found the perfect way to keep everything where I can find them.
Your number-one garden tool: a great pair of pruners
Any gardener will have a pair on pruners on them all times. If you can keep them sharp, they’re your best friend for cutting flowers, pruning tomatoes, cutting away branches, and in a pinch, cutting garden twine.
Gardeners are divided into two types: those who take great care of their tools and those who tend not to. I’m the latter, so I don’t buy expensive pruners.
The gold standard of pruners is Felco, and if you go into a nice garden center, you can usually try out all the different models. In particular, I love the models that have a swiveling handle, as it alleviates wrist pain. Felcos are always worth the money, but you don’t have to spend $100 to get a great pair of pruners.
At $13, Fiskars’ pruners are a spectacular buy. The handle is comfortable, the lock is easy to use with one hand, and they’re easy to keep sharp. Not surprising, since Fiskars has been making scissors forever. At that price, you can afford to lose them.
For a little more ($26), Corona makes a decent line of pruners as well, and I like this bypass pruner, which has slightly sharper, curved blades for getting into tight spots.
If you’re someone who loves an apron and is committed to wearing one in the garden, you already have a spot for your pruners. If—like me—you like to freewheel it, you’re inevitably going to have holes in all your shorts from keeping them in your pocket. For this reason, you are well advised to get a sheath for them. For $12, it’ll literally save your shorts.
You’ll want to keep a bottle of vinegar on you at all times as well, to spray your shears in between plants. This keeps you from moving viruses and bacteria from one plant to another. This small spray bottle has been my go-to for years—it never melts in the sun, and I can hook it to my belt loops.
The all-purpose planting, cutting and clearing tool: a hori hori
Somewhere in my garden are at least ten hand trowels I’ve loved and lost. I put them down and they just walk away, only to be found early next spring. But my hori hori never gets lost—I never go more than a few minutes without needing it, and it’s easier to hold onto. Similar to your basic hand shovel or weeder, a hori hori is shaped like a long, narrow trowel, with a sharp end and a serrated side. For this reason, it’s clutch for almost anything you need to do. You can dig with it, and in particular, dig smaller holes so you’re not disturbing plants around you, and deeper holes. You can weed with it—it’s sharp and narrow, and perfect for getting under a stubborn dandelion or taproot. You can use the serrated edge to cut string or slice through iris tubers—a notoriously obnoxiously task. Because of its shape, it’s easier to stick the handle in my back pocket and it won’t fall out. You can, of course, get a sheath to attach it to your belt. I don’t wear belts, so the back pocket it is.
The workhorse of a garden: five-gallon buckets
If you walk around your garden for any reason at all, you’re going to start weeding the garden. It’s inevitable—you see a weed, and suddenly, you’re pulling nutgrass and dandelions and wandering oregano starts out of your beds. For years, I would just toss the detritus in the walkway with a solid intent to grab it later for the green bin, but now I know myself better. At all outposts in the garden are cheap five-gallon buckets, always at arm’s reach for dumping weeds into.
Five gallon buckets are also essential for deep watering, so you can dunk plants, or for any kind of mixing you need to do. When planting, I’ll mix up some water and mycorrhizae, and dip my plants into it for better establishment of starts.
Buckets are great to have around, and can easily be obtained at Home Depot or Lowes.
Tougher than rose thorns: leather gloves
I’ve long given up on manicures, my nails will always have dirt under them (for which I recommend this brush, perched on each sink in my home). Whether or not you use gloves to spare your fingers, there are some jobs you can’t do without protection.
For anything thorny, you want gloves. But those cotton gloves—even the neoprene ones—won’t cut it. Thorns go right through them. You want a pair of work gloves, and these are inexpensive, come in a range of sizes, and will survive a rainstorm.
I use them when I’m digging into mud, which is just, you know, gross. When I’m doing a lot of shoveling, they protect my hands, and I use them when I’m around plants that irritate my skin.
The perfect place to store tools in the yard: a mailbox
I needed a place that was safe from the weather, easy to get to, and right by my door to hold all my tools. Otherwise, some migrated to the kitchen table, some to the bench outside my door, and others disappeared into the garden.
It occurred to me that old school mailboxes come with covers, and would easily attach to one of my garden beds. It’s now where I store my hand tools, my gloves and my spray bottle.
It’ll attach with two screws into any wood garden bed, or can be attached to the side of your house—or anyplace that makes sense for your garden setup.