Essential Tools
Orchid Lady
Posts: 5,800
Hi All,
I have been been trying to get my garden, greenhouse and veg patch going for a few years, without much success. This year I am on a mission to do it!! I am getting a new greenhouse and for my birthday got a hoe and spade, I would like some advice on what other tools I need as essentials.
I want to try and get the best quality I can afford so that they will last, therefore I don't want to get loads of 'cheap' tools and advice on which brands would be helpful as well as a small selection of the most useful tools for use in all areas of my garden.
Also, I do have a pair of shears which are years old (they were my husband's grandads), they are a bit rusty and stiff but seem like good solid ones, will I be able to 'renovate' them easily?
This is my first post so I hope it makes sense!! Thanks 
Posts
Hi Tracey - i love my Sneerboer tools, but they are pricey. I have had my family club together for Christmas and birthdays for the ones i have
.
Essentials for me are a hand trowel, hand fork, spade and border fork, and a decent pair of secateurs and some sort of sharpening stone. I also use a kneeler.
Re renovating a pair of shears - if you can get movement by oiling the joints, and can sharpen the blades (with your new sharpening stone recommended above
) then i would imagine they would be ok
Thanks Chicky, I've just read some other threads about a stone, might try and find one. I will also need some good sandpaper for the rust but I think they will be ok.
Hi Tracey, the two things I use most and would be lost without are my hand trowel and border fork which do 80% of the work in my garden and veg plots. Next would probably be the spade, secateurs, rake and hoe. I really recommend using stainless steel tools with wooden handles but have a quite a variety of makes and can't really put one make above another - I just bought the ones that 'felt right' when I handled them in the shop.
I don't have any one favorite make, but I do agree with Bob about the feel of tools. I have a spade that was pricey bought as a gift and I just can't get on with it, the angle of the handle doesn't suit me.
Think of all my tools I use my fork the most.
Hoes, get good hoes!!! a sharp Dutch hoe for regular jiffling of the soil surface to keep down newly germinating weed seeds, and a draw hoe for preparing the soil surface for sowing seeds. I use them more than any other tools. After that comes the border fork and the rake, then the spade and the lawn rake.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi Tracey5
All of the above, plus a sharp pair of scissors a ball of nylon twine, and it my seem obvious - a wheelbarrow! I went a year without one and now I have one, brilliant.
Oh yes, hand trowel and fork - v. important
And a wheelbarrow - I had one for Christmas
there was a rumour going around here that OH was getting me a unicycle ....... but it turned out to be a wheelbarrow 
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
A good watering can about 5lts with a fine rose and a 90 deg basket attachment I have three all the same and a cheap red can for feeding all with removable roses
Clueless
Have a look at Fred's Shed website.
I've been using his site whenever I need new garden tools.
He's disabled and tests garden tools from his perspective.
I can thoroughly recommend his site and suggestions.
I have no connection whatsoever with the aforementioned Fred, but I did write to thank him for his excellent recommendations.
Good luck
Pete
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Buy tools with Ash handles and carbon steel blades /tines. There are plenty of makes to choose from, but just dont buy anything with plastic or metal handles. They bend or break very quickly.