The right garden hand tool can make all the difference when working in your small garden. These are my suggestions plus a giveaway.
You wouldn’t try to dig a ditch with a trowel, would you? Of course not!
This same philosophy applies to all of your gardening tasks. When you have the right equipment to do the job at hand it will save you countless hours, and ultimately tons of frustration. Ask any experienced gardener and they will tell you how much easier it is to grow your own fruits and vegetables if you have the right tools and accessories in your arsenal.
What Tools Do You Need for a Small Garden?
The gardening tools and accessories you need will certainly depend on the type and scale of gardening you plan to do.
If you have a large garden plot with a lot of ground-level beds, you will need an assortment of shovels for digging, edging and moving piles of material. You’ll also need a good hoe to keep weeds at bay and maybe a pickax to break up tough soil until you can get all of your amendments in place.
However, if you only have a small area to plant or prefer to limit your gardening to containers, you will need a different set of gardening tools. A durable wheelbarrow to haul mulch and other materials in and around your garden area is also important, no matter the size. I often use mine for mixing homemade potting soil, and for moving mulch bags from the car to the garden area.
Over time, your limited collection of tools and accessories will undoubtedly grow to suit your individual gardening style.
The following items are ideal for small space gardening.
A Good Collection of Gardening Hand-Tools
Short-handled, ergonomically designed gardening tools are great for hand planting and small digging jobs. There are a number of hand-held gardening tools on the market. Here are three you’ll want to consider:
- Short-Handled Trowel. A good trowel is an indispensable tool for any garden, regardless of its size. Look for one with a pointy tip, which makes it useful for planting seeds, digging out stubborn weeds and loosening planting soil.
- A Three-Pronged Cultivator. This tool features 3 individual rake-like prongs designed to loosen soil and create uniform burrows for planting. It can also be used to pull up shallow-rooted weeds.
- A Transplanter. This tool is designed to make transplanting smaller plants. Some styles feature gradation marks to ensure you are planting each plant at the appropriate depth.
To save time, you can look for high quality and affordable pre-packaged hand tool set. For example, you can pick up the highly-rated Fiskars Softouch Garden Tool 3 Piece Set for approximately $18, the Radius Garden Ergonomic Garden Hand Tool Set for $40 or how about the INTOQ 9 Piece Garden Tool Set for $30. (it’s part of the giveaway below, be sure to enter!)
Handheld clippers and edgers are also a bonus when you need to prune herbs and cut back small plants. I use my Fiskars By-Pass Pruning Shears almost daily as I am cleaning up around the yard and garden. I also have a small (but tough) set of stainless steel garden scissors that I use for harvesting herbs. I find them less bulky than the bypass shears and easier to handle for small jobs.
When evaluating hand-held gardening tools, look for those that offer ergonomic design features, such as soft contoured handles designed to hold your wrist in a neutral position. This will reduce unnecessary strain on your hands and wrists while you are gardening.
Here’s what I liked about this set.
- The canvas tote is large, measuring 11 3/4″” L x 5 1/2″” W x 7 7/8″” H inches and is durable enough to use in the garden every day. I’m one of those people who is always putting her hand tools down and then walking away from them, so I expect that this will come in extremely handy and help me keep track of my supplies.
- The cloth seems to be waterproof and the tote has tons of pockets. It has snaps at the top, so you can close it up and keep things contained.
- The hand tools, are not ergonomic but were sturdy enough for me to dig in my potted herbs with no problem.
But I question that folding seat…
Here’s the thing – while gardening is a great way to get exercise, it’s certainly not CrossFit, and my backside is bigger than the small surface area of the seat when it’s unfolded. I was skeptical that the seat would actually hold me, but it did.
It is only 12 inches off the ground, so if you need a place to rest for a few minutes it would work. I didn’t feel that I could bounce around on it much, it’s not that sturdy. This seat could be used for a child, since it doesn’t come with any weight or load recommendations, but I would say that you shouldn’t plan on actually using the seat as a resting place for an extended period of time unless you are 150 pounds or less.
I’ve joined with INTOQ for a Giveaway of the Essential 9 Piece Garden Tool Set. Be sure to take a look and enter to win!
We Love Giveaways!!!
This Giveaway will run from Thursday July 25th, thru Wednesday July 31st at midnight
and is open to residents of the USA only
HI There,
Great offers. and super great deals. So good to try and help others have a self-sustainable garden with heirloom varieties. Thank you.
Thanks for stopping by Talia!
Favorite tool is a spade
I adore dandelion! It’s an awesome pollinator plant and a fantastic medicinal plant for people AS WELL AS EVERY PART OF THE PLANT BEING EDIBLE.. And it’s so cheerful!!!!
I love dandelion too, there is so much you can do with it. Too bad it gets such a bad rap in the traditional garden space.
My favorite bee friendly plant would be Monarda ( Bee Balm). It smells so nice and has pretty flowers.
I love Bee Balm too and just purchased a plant for my new herb garden. They are perfect for tea leaves.
I think my favorite bee friendly plant is a Rose. They are so fragrant.
I love rose too, our bees too. Unfortunately they are favorite plants for Japanese beetles.
My sweet clover attracts honey bees tremendously well.
I plant a lot of marigolds, in the vegetable garden and in pots on the patio. Great for the bees, but also help deter pests!
My favorite bee friendly plant right now is borage! It really seems to draw the bees into my garden and it really thrives! My plant was the largest one I had seen prior to it falling over from being so top heavy.
That’s one of my favorites too!
Looking forward to some of these new to me FB finds. I do not do twitter or the other things. Jonica
Love Roses and Sunflowers – and may others!
This is such a great offer ! My favorite tool in the garden would have to be my knee cushion lol.
Oh, mine too! For years I had one made of a piece of black rubber that was just perfect. I lost it when we moved to Texas.
My favorite tool for gardening is a small trowel. Thank you for hosting this giveaway!
yep I like the small trowel too.
I’ve been looking for an all in one site, this seems to fit the bill
I usually pick up the short handle trowel, so I guess that is my favorite garden tool.
Thanks for this opportunity to learn and expand my interest in growing and using herbs.
Great Information, Thank you!
favorite tool is the handheld rake, works wonders on the weeds too
I love the hand trowel, It seems to be the one I reach for more often. Thanks for hosting this great giveaway!
My favorite tool in the garden is my sunhat to protect my face while I am tending the garden. Not sure if that’s considered a tool or not, but I wouldn’t want to garden without it especially in the summer. 🙂
Thank you for this giveaway. I’m glad it isn’t a series of talks available for a limited specific time.
My favorite garden tool is the trowel. It’s versatile and helpful. Thank you for this opportunity!
As corny as it might sound, my favorite tool for a small garden has always been my hands. I often don’t even remember to wear gloves. Ouch! Since I’m so scatterbrained, and always lie to myself that I’m just going to “do this one thing real quick”… my hands are always attached, thankfully.
My absolute favorite garden tool is a digger. It has a long blade, kind of like a trowel but not quite as curved or wide, and one side is serrated. When I worked for a landscaper we used that tool SO MUCH. It was so handy for digging holes/transplanting, dividing plants, even building stone paths and jamming the dirt between the pavers. I have owned one from 2 different companies and learned the one with the orange handle was definitely the best choice for me since I tend to lose things like that 😉 !
The tools I use most are my trowel and my pruners… I don’t think I could pick one or the other to be my favorite. ☺️
I really like gardening, but I’m not very good at it yet. Working with the soil, growing beautiful things that are also useful, makes my heart happy.
With beginning to grow more herbs this bundle couldn’t come at a better time! Thank you for contributing to my education on herbs and being the awesome folk you are!
Great giveaway! Thank you!
One tool I love is the bulb planter. I use it for more than just bulbs; I use to make small holes for small plants and roots.
Right! The right tools make a task better and easier.
I think a small rake to get in between plants :0) Thanks for the giveaway and useful info!
This is a great giveaway. fingers crossed! My personal favorite tool has never let me down.. I always have them with me…. My hands! There is nothing like the feel of the earth in my hands, but it sure does a number on my nails lol.
When soil is less than wonderful, either a cobra head tool or, better yet, a hori hori knife. Unless one is dealing with very sandy soil or soil with great tilth, I find either of these quite helpful.
New to your blog and fb page. Love what I’m seeing so far.
I love garden scissors. I use them for cutting herbs, flowers from the garden and I use them in the kitchen for preparing the herbs for drying and cutting fresh herbs for salads and other recipe. I have a 2nd pair that I use in flower drying and crafting.
Great helps and information.
My trowel gets a lot of use, and I also like my pruning shears. My shears are my favorite.
Thank you so much for this post. I have recently gotten into gardening and trying to find out what tools do what and what I really need has been a process. This post has definitely come in handy.
Love my hand-held drill-powered auger the best!
My favorite garden tool is anything that makes watering easier! Thank you for the giveaway!
Great giveaway !
So appreciate your efforts! I am a newbie to the garden scene and all this fascinating info is just a gift! Thank you!
Oops! My favorite tool is my bowl filled with soap and water to kill sucking beetles- wow is it efficient!
My favorite tool is my pruner. Thanks for the giveaway! <3
I don’t have a favorite tool yet because I am just a beginner in this small garden adventure. Trying to learn how to grow my own food.
I would say my long handled claw for removing weeds. It sure helps with eliminating them.
I would love to have this set of tools.
I love my hand cultivator.
I love a little hand shovel or snips:)
Found your site from a link from the making herbal Preparations 101 course. I can see I will be here a long time and back many times after today, loaded with valuable information!!
My favorite tool in a small garden would be my hands, I can not loose them 😉
Thank you.
My favorite garden tool is a trowel. It really makes weeding easier for me. 🙂
My favorite tool is my hands 🙂
For my small space gardening I use my spade the most.