Types of Garden Tools: Hand Held Tools

Maintaining your garden is an important part of gardening. Once you have completed your garden project, you are going to need to ensure that it is maintained to a great standard.

It can take a lot of dedication and time to keep up with regular garden maintenance, but there are some key tools that make this process that much easier.

Gardening tools have been used for a long time. Throughout history, we have seen the transformation of garden tools, primarily in the Bronze Age when there was a shift and tools were starting to be made of metal. This is closer to the development of tools that we see today.

The older style of farming tools was used to work the soil and to help sow seeds. Such tools were shovels, hoes, and spades. These were considered to be some of the most helpful and useful tools for garden maintenance. Other tools include sickles and scythes, which were used for harvesting purposes.

Depending on your needs, you are going to want to ensure that you are well equipped with the best machinery necessary to effectively maintain your garden. Typically, garden tools will be separated into two different categories; power tools and hand tools. This article is going to focus on hand tools, but you can find our article on power tools here: Garden Power Tools

Garden Tools: Hand Tools

Early tools were made out of wood, flint and metal, but over time we have seen a shift in the type of materials and designs for such tools.

Hand Tools

Hand tools are more of a traditional tool and have been seen throughout history in various agricultural and gardening settings. Early examples of such tools are:

• Hatchets
• Scythe
• Hoe
• Pitch Fork
• Shovel

You can find many different tools under this category and within this, you can find them for specific purposes. For example, you can get digging hand tools, cutting hand tools and edging hand tools.

Digging Hand Tools

Square Shovel

A square shovel is great for digging dirt that is tightly packed. This is due to the flap tips that pack more of a force and create an easier way to penetrate the ground. You can remove larger amounts of loose dirt and dispose of it else where by scooping it up and moving it. Other uses for a square shovel include cutting edges and roots.

If you are skirting the areas of paths, a square shovel is great for creating straight edges.

Pointed Shovel

There do not pack as much force as a straight-edged square shovel, but they are still great for scooping up and digging loose soil and dirt. They have other uses rather than just digging, they are great for translating other materials, trenching and moving compost to other spaces around the garden.

Trowel

These almost act as small shovels. They have a short handle and are handheld pieces of equipment. This is great for planting new plants and digging out old ones. If you are particularly close to the ground, then this is the tool to use. You should aim to keep the edges of this tool sharp so that they can easily dig hardened dirt.

Fork

A garden fork is a great tool for digging up and loosening hard soil. Its sharp prongs are used for easy penetration into the dirt. They are commonly used for turning over soil in the garden. Most garden forks will have a long handle, but you can buy smaller ones that are used for handheld purposes.

The tines are very strong and solid, making them great for breaking through tough soil.

Spading Fork

This spading fork is also commonly referred to as a digging fork, used for aerating, turning and digging soil that is loose or sandy. The tines are flat, which makes this process easier.

Border Fork

This type of fork is great for digging in flower beds where you do not want to risk damage to the plants and their roots. They do not require much strength and are light to lift and use.

Compost Fork

The tines on this type of fork are thin and bent, which makes it easy to scoop material and turn loose compost. They are a lightweight tool and are great for ensuring that you can effectively mix your compost into the soil.

Fork

A garden fork is a great tool for digging up and loosening hard soil. Its sharp prongs are used for easy penetration into the dirt. They are commonly used for turning over soil in the garden. Most garden forks will have a long handle, but you can buy smaller ones that are used for handheld purposes.

Hoe

A hoe is traditionally used to tear out any unwanted weeds from your garden, but they are also great for breaking down large and hard clumps of soil. It is largely used within the agricultural industry to dig rows in a field.

Edging Hand Tools

Edging tools are created with the purpose of creating a gap between the area that you are wanted to separate from the grass. This can be alongside the pavement for example.

Edging Knife

This is a handheld edging tool that is primarily used when you are working close to the place you wish to edge. If you are working on a small section, such as a small border, then this is a great tool that will help you to most effectively perform the job.

You are going to want to keep the tool itself well maintained by sharpening the edge and preventing it from becoming dull. If you have a bigger section of edging that needs to be done, this type of garden tool is not recommended.

Edging Shears

Edging shears are used to trim the edges around a border or the edges of your lawn. They are angled so that you are able to use them with ease and ensure a vertical cut. The handles on this garden tool are typically long, which prevents you from having to be close to the ground when performing this job.

You can buy longer or shorter ones depending on what is the best size for you.

Edging Tool

A traditional edging tool resembles the shape of half a moon and is attached to the end of a pole. The curved edge is sharp and will cut through the lawn to give you a perfect edge. You can step on the flat edge of the tool to offer extra strength when pushing down into the lawn.

This is a good tool for instances where the job is bigger and a hand edging knife is not appropriate.

Rotary Edger

This is another edging tool that has a rotating blade that cut the edge of the lawn as it is wheeled along. They are great for larger jobs since they are quicker, effective and easy to use, but it might be harder to use them in instances where the dirt is much harder or if there is overgrown grass.

Planting Hand Tools

These types of garden tools will help you to effectively plant flowers and other types of plants in your garden. Whilst you can use manual digging tools, these might make instances where the job is much bigger, that much easier.

Hand Seeder

When you are planting seeds in your garden, picking holes and placing in seeds can feel monotonous and if you're wearing gardening gloves, then keeping hold of small seeds can be quite difficult.

A hand seeder will often have a compartment that you can place the seeds into so that when you dig the sharpened edge into the dirt, it will cause a seed to fall into the hole you have just created.

Bulb Planter

A bulb planter makes it much easier to plant bulbs around your garden. The tool will dig a hole that is deep and wide enough for a bulb, removing the dirt. You can drop a bulb into the hole and use the same dirt to cover the bulb back up.

You can also get smaller bulb transporters that do not have a long handle. This is good for jobs where you are close to the ground.

Hand-Held Weeder

Whilst this tool is primarily used for weeds, it is great for pulling out plants by the root, meaning that the entire plant is removed. In instances where you are replanting flowers, transporting them or getting rid of them completely this tool can be incredibly helpful.

Hoe

A hoe can be used in this instance too. You can create long trenches where seeds can be placed and then covered back up. This tool is particularly popular when you are planting fruits and vegetables.

Pruning and Cutting Tools

These types of garden tools and used to maintain plants, such as cutting back leaves, and branches and trimming shrubs. If you have dead leaves or you want to remove fruit and vegetables from what they are attached to, then pruning and cutting tools are a necessity.

Secateurs

Secateurs, also known as clippers or pruners, are probably the most popular tool when pruning garden plants. These are effectively hand-held scissors that are strong enough to cut through branches and twigs up to three-quarters of an inch thick.

Loppers

Loppers are like much larger secateurs that are capable of cutting through branches and twigs that are much thicker and up to an inch. They have longer handles which makes it easier to reach higher and more awkwardly placed branches. There are two different kinds of loppers, which are bypass and anvil.

Bypass loppers will have one blade that slides past a base as it cuts the stem. However, an anvil will connect with a base and the blade cuts the stem. They are easy to use, but the bypass loppers are much more precise.

Pruning Saw

A pruning saw is used to cut shrubs and small trees. They have similar teeth to what you find on a saw, that is used to cut through the slightly thicker branches and twigs that a lopper wouldn't be able to cut through.

These can come in different shapes and sizes. Some are straight and some are curved to make it easier to reach certain branches. If you are cutting particularly high trees, you can find extended pruning saws that are on the end of the long pole, with a curved blade on the end.

Hedge Shears

If you have hedges in your garden, hedge shears are a must-have. They are an easy and effective way to keep your hedges well maintained and trimmed. They will have a straight sharp scissor-like end to them that can provide a nice straight cut to your hedge.

If your hedge has strong branches, then shears are not the best option as they are best at cutting through soft stems and leaves.

Garden Scissors

In the garden, you are quite often going to find instances where you need scissors and your typically home scissors may not be strong enough. You can buy specifically designer garden scissors that are made with the intention of cutting twine and forms of packaging.

Additional Garden Maintenance Tools

Whilst most tools can be sorted into categories where multiple tools can be used to do the same job, there are other tools that are essential for your garden.

Garden Rake

A garden rake is a great garden tool to own if you have a tree in your garden. Leaves can be raked and your garden can be kept clear. You can also have a soil rake that is used to maintain flowerbeds and other patches of soil.

You can get a leaf rake, which has a wider and flatter set of tines that make it much more effective at collecting loose material that is on your lawn or in your flower beds. Bow rakes have a flat and straight set of tines that make them better for pulling out weeds and handling heavier materials.

Garden Broom

If you have decking or concrete in your garden, then having a garden broom is useful and keeping the pathways clear. This can be used to sweep up materials you have trimmed, cut or cleared during the maintenance process.

A garden broom is essential to keeping your garden clean. A garden broom will have thicker and rougher bristles that make dealing with garden materials that much easier.

Garden Dustpan and Brush

After you have used your garden broom to sweep up the debris, you can use a garden dustpan and brush to pick up the collected material. Like the garden broom, the bristles will be stronger and rougher than your average household dustpan and brush.

Garden Trolley/Cart

If you have a large set of tools, a garden trolley can be incredibly useful for transporting your tools around the garden with you. These carts will be on wheels so that you can wheel them around your garden.

Additionally, if you are transporting large bags of compost, it makes the job easier than the strength needed to wheel and wheelbarrow. You can use the trolley to collect garden waste so that disposal is easier as well as transport plants around your garden.

Wheelbarrow

A wheelbarrow is designed to hold large amounts of garden matter that easily be wheeled in and out of your garden. You can get them in many different materials, though it is worth noting that steel will be much heavier than plastic.

Lawn Spreader

A lawn Spreader is great for ensuring that your lawn stays beautiful over the summer. They are cylinder-shaped bucket that is on wheels. You fill the cylinder with lawn seed or fertiliser. The lawn spreader will scatter this across the lawn when wheeled across.

Kneel Pads

When you are working outside, especially close to the ground, knee pads are great for protecting your knees against the rough and hard surface of the ground. They are light and can come in many different forms, such as plastic and foam, which will provide different levels of comfort.

They are very easy to transport around the garden.