Gardening tools - a guide to basic gardening tools for beginners to cultivate your gardens soil.

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Gardening tips for beginners

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basic gardening tools

Keeping your garden looking its best will always involve an amount of care. Even basic maintenance in your garden will require gardening tools to be as efficient as possible - these will be in constant use.

Buying equipment that is as good a quality as you can afford will save you effort in the long term through ease of use and reliability. Walk into any garden centre and there is a huge choice of tools available, so I shall tell you what you will use!

As a minimum you need the basic tools to cultivate your soil. These include a spade, fork, garden rake, hoe, hand trowel, and hand fork.

The spade and fork will be used for essential jobs such as removing large weeds, aerating the soil, digging new beds and if you can afford it I would recommend stainless steel, and as lightweight as you can.

basic tools to cultivate the soil in your garden

secateurs, pruners and pruning saws

For deadheading and pruning, secateurs are frequently needed. Long handled pruners and a pruning saw may also be useful for mature gardens larger tasks. There are three different types of blades for secateurs and pruners - I recommend you buy 'by-pass' types as these have a sharp scissor-like action causing less damage to plants. Shears are mainly used for trimming hedges, but can be useful for cutting back herbaceous plants, or awkward areas of grass.

A watering can is indispensable, along with a mower if you have a lawn and a stiff broom for hard surfaces. You may also require, although less frequently a garden hose, a wheel-barrow, and sprayer (for feed or weedkiller)

Gardening gloves really are kind to your hands, and I always have two pairs - one sturdy leather pair, for jobs such as pruning and most winter jobs, and a plastic coated pair for weeding, damp days and summer jobs.