Gardening Tool Lessons for First-Time Gardeners

Give a man a vegetable, and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to garden, and he’ll eat for a lifetime. That doesn’t sound too original, because it’s not. It’s this old proverb that mentions fishing instead of gardening. But it still rings true and does make sense.

You do reap a lot of benefits from gardening, including something to serve on your table and decorate your home with, among others. And if you want to start tending some vegetables, flowers, and other plants, it isn’t so difficult, really.


Among the first things you need to do is to start knowing about gardening tools. Here are 3 simple lessons that you can learn in a breeze.

Lesson #1 – Research.

Gardening starts with prepping the soil and keeping it healthy. This means digging, clearing away debris, cutting away old growths, watering the plants, etc. All these can be done easily with the right tool. You need to have your basic set of tools. And before you run off and buy them, it’s important to know the starter tools you need to have and their uses.

Lesson #2 – Get to know The First Five.

Typically, your first set of garden tools should consist of the following:

 Hand Trowel. It’s perfect when you’re planting herbs, taking out the weeds, or digging around corners. Make sure to buy a hand trowel made from stainless steel or, at least, with a stainless steel head for sturdiness and durability.

Spade or Shovel. This is a gardener’s main digging tool – making a garden bed, digging holes for plants, and moving dirt from one area to another. Get yourself a spade with a head of strong steel and thick handle made from fiberglass. It can be a bit pricey, but a good investment. A quality spade can last for the rest of your gardening life.

Rake. This is the tool that will keep your garden clean. It doesn’t need to be expensive, just sturdy. You might have to buy 2 types – one to reliably whisk away all those leaves (leaf rakes) and another to rake the soil (level head rake) in garden beds to flatten, till, and weed before planting.

Hoe. This is your ally when you need to weed a large garden. You need a wide hoe for a vegetable garden and a thinner hoe for perennial. You’ll prefer this to a weeder, because it can take out tough grasses easier.

Pruners.
These scissor-like tools can snip, cut, and harvest vegetables and flowers. Depending on your purpose, there are a number of types of pruners. Bypass pruners are used to cut live branches, while anvil types are made for dry branches. Bypass loppers have long handles that will help you reach branches of shrubs and low trees, and anvil loppers are useful when cutting branches of bigger and taller trees.

Lesson #3 – Keep everything organized.

All gardeners need to keep their stuff organized to save time and money and to prevent accidents caused by gardening tools strewn all over the ground. Sooner or later, gardeners must have a storage or tool shed  that can help them put these precious instruments in order.

About the Author


Raquel Merc has mainly contributed about travel and lifestyle. But she’s also started writing a variety of articles on home management and parenting since becoming a mother in 2010. Among her recent works feature ideas and insights on food and home, including articles for Simply Sheds.

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