6 Essential Gardening Tools for Beginner and Advanced Gardeners

When it comes to a vegetable garden, particularly a raised bed kitchen garden, there are only a few tools you need. So if you're shopping for tools this season, this is the list you want to pay attention to. These are the only tools you really need for a vegetable garden. If we haven't met yet, my name is Nicole Johnsey Burke. I'm the owner and founder of Gardenary Incorporated. We're on a mission to make gardening ordinary, which means we want people like you to love your garden because it's easy, because it's beautiful, and because it's productive. So you're probably going to need some tools to make that happen. But the good news is you don't need a lot. Now, if you're thinking about gardening tools, I'm guessing you're probably imagining like a big hoe, right? Or a shovel or some big, big pruners. But when it comes to the kitchen garden, you want to shrink that down and make it much, much smaller. Because when we're working in raised beds and we've got trellises and lots of plants growing, we actually need tools that are very nice and compact and can help us get into those small spaces. So over the years, I've created a little basket full of my favorite tools. I bring it everywhere that I go, and I'm going to tell you what's inside that basket right now. So the very first tool that I never leave home without is a long, deep shovel or trowel or a spade. I think those are the three main words put in the comments if you know another word for that kind of thing. But we want it deep. And the reason why is because in a raised bed, we're going to be planting very intensively. I love to pack in the plants. Raise your hand if you do too. Break the plant spacing rules is the name of the game. And so we want to be able to dig really nice and deep for every plant that we're putting in the space, making the most of the depth of the raised bed, and then allowing each plant to take up the amount of space it needs, but nothing more. So I love a really nice narrow and deep trowel. This allows me to get into the garden space, make room for the plant, slide that plant in, and move on. You don't need a big shovel. You definitely don't need a wide shovel in order to do that. Now, hori hori is one of the most popular shovels or spades in the kitchen garden space. A hori hori is kind of like two or three Tools in one. It has a really nice sharp blade, and it is very narrow and deep. So it will give you that nice deep hole like you're looking for. A hori hori also has a serrated edge on one side, which you can use to, like, cut twine and cut off plants and things like that. You can almost use it like a pruner. Now, for me, I loved my hori hori for years, literally so devoted to the hori hori, until I found a trowel that is a little bit wider. And once I found that trowel that's wider, I was sold because it just allows me to get a little bit more dirt out of the way, which is basically the exact right width to move the plant in. A hori hori is a little too narrow for me. So if you're out there and you make a wider hori hori, give me a call. So that's number one, a long, narrow shovel, trowel, spade. You know, something that digs. That's what you need. Not a big shovel, not something really big and wide, something deep and narrow. All right, that's tool number one. Tool number two that I love to have in the kitchen garden is a hand rake. Now, let me tell you why in the kitchen garden, one thing that is so important is keeping the soil clear of debris. Why? Because we massively plant these gardens full, lots and lots of plants. And so the last thing that you want is to have leaf debris, leaf litter, and any kind of plant mass sitting on the soil. Why? Because they are roads, highways for pests. So every time you've got a leaf sitting on the soil like this, any kind of caterpillar, slug, snail, it's just going to climb right up off the soil onto the leaf, and boom, it's got a way to eat your plants. And that's not good. So a little hand rake is so nice and easy to use. Every time you're out in the garden space, you literally take the rake and just rake underneath and all your plants, getting the leaf debris off of the soil surface. That keeps the pest hopefully just hiding underneath the soil, not coming to the surface or having to come and show their face completely so that you can deal with them, you know, in other ways. So we're talking tiny little hand rake here. Like you can hold it in your hand and it's just got about five, six prongs on it, and you can just literally rake around all your plants, get the debris out of there. It is a great way to, to clean up the garden to prevent pests. It's also my favorite tool when I'm switching over for the seasons. So if I pull out plants from the garden and I'm ready to start fresh, I usually add 2 to 3 inches of compost into the garden. Then I'll take the rake, and that's how I level out the soil, clear off any debris, and make sure that everything is nice and ready for the seeds and plants that are coming for the next season. So number two is my rake. Number three, I love to have a dibber. So a dibber is helping me make sure my seeds go to the right depth. Depth and no deeper. If you're in the kitchen garden, depth really matters because if you plant the seed too deep, it's not going to germinate. You need the seed just about one to two times the width of that seed and no deeper. Well, a dibber is going to help you do that. So dibbers are generally a little stick, but it's made at a. It increases. What's that word? It's like an angle like this, like a triangle, but longer. And so when you put it down in the soil, it's making this nice little hole that kind of comes to a point. And you have markings on that dipper that show you. This is 1 inch, this is 2 inches, this is 3 inches. So I use this to plant something really deep, like a garlic clove. And then I'll use this to plant something really shallow, like a little lettuce or a spinach seed. So dippers are my third favorite tool. I have them right along, and anytime I'm planting, it just makes it so much simpler. I get my hands in the soil a little bit less, a little bit less dirty, and. And I can be sure that all my seeds are going in at the right depth and no deeper. My fourth tool, and perhaps my favorite of the favorite, is needle nose pruners. So these are pruners that are going to cut your plants, but they're going to come at. At a needle nose. They're going to make this really, really sharp point at the end. So you'll see, like rose pruners and, you know, normal bush pruners, things like that. These are going to be really big and they're going to have a curve to them. And I've just found it is so much easier to work in small spaces. And among all these plants with needle nose pruners, needle nose pruners are going to allow you to get in to every little nook and cranny of your plants and be sure you're only pruning off the things you want to take off and nothing that's going to be fruiting or producing the food that you're growing. I've been using needle nose pruners for years and it's a game changer. I prune quite a bit, in fact, in the way that I plant a garden, that's kind of the only thing I do. I don't fertilize, I don't mulch, I don't weed, I just prune. And so I need pruners that are good. I probably have 4, 5, 6 pairs of pruners that I'm always losing in my garden. So I need five or six so I can use one, lose it, and then go find the one I lost last week and start again. So get yourself a bunch of needle nose pruners. And if you're planting my way, the gardenary way, you're going to have lots of pruning to do because we massively plant our gardens so that pruning and harvesting really is the only task that we have to do. So you're going to need a really good tool to do it. Next up is twine. So coming along with the idea of the gardenary way of planting with loads of plants inside the garden, you need to tie the plants up, you need to have plants up onto trellises and supports so they're not sprawling all over the garden and falling over all the other plants that you planted. And so I keep twine with me at all times. A big ball of twine. We also have some twine that hangs on the trellises. So I'll keep just rolls of twine right there at the ready when I'm working with my plants. And so right as I'm pruning, I'm also cutting twine and tying up plants along the trellis to one another and to stakes. So all those vining plants, things like tomatoes, pole beans, cucumbers, that's in the warm season, even things like nasturtiums and other vining flowers. And then in the cool season, you got snow peas, sugar snap peas, fava beans, all those vining plants, they need to be tied to the trellises and you're going to need some twine to do that. Now you can find all these other, like plastic little clippies. And the garden industry has all these extra things that they sell these days to make attaching things to a trellis, you know, seem more easier. Something easier. But I Just love twine because I can tie it biodegrades. It's usually made of jute and so it'll eventually break off over a year or so. It'll take off, come off the trellis, but I can also tie it, untie it, move it up, move it along. It doesn't break the plants, it never causes harm to the leaves or anything because it's so nice and tender and natural. So twine is your next best friend in the kitchen garden. And finally is a planting line. Now, I didn't start using one of these until just a few years ago, but a planting line is my final tool. That is a must have for me. So again, to go with the gardenary way of planting, which is packing in loads and loads and loads and loads of plants, I like to have a planting line so that I can plant right alongside and make sure everything is staying in a nice line. So with the square inch planting method, that's what we do at gardenary. Beyond the square foot, we'll have the line and I'll just plant right along that line and then we just simply pick up the line, move it a little bit over, and then plant the next kind of plant. And when you're planting this closely, when you're using seeds and plants like in a variety, I love having a planting line to make sure everything is staying in place. And when it all grows in, it's going to have this nice symmetry and beauty to it, even though I had lots of different plants and seeds going in at the same time. So a planting line you can make yourself, you're simply going to have like two stakes and then a row of twine or string that you can put at one end of the bed and the other. So for the planting line, you only need something that is the length of the bed. So for me, my beds are 8ft long. So I need a planting line that's got a stake to put on one end and one on the other and then a line that goes right across so you can make your own. I've done that for years. And then we just started carrying some planting lines in the gardenary shop too that are a little bit fancier and a little bit longer. So if you're growing in a big long row, you that's more than 8ft long. We've got you with our planting line too. So that is it. That's all you need. You don't need a hoe or a shovel or I don't know what else are those weeders you don't need any of those special kind of tools. You just need a deep, narrow trowel or spade. You need a rake, a hand rake. You need a dibber, you need a planting line, you need a pair of pruners. And then finally you need some twine. So those are my six favorite tools that I cannot do without. When it comes to planting in the kitchen garden, there is a bonus, and that is my seed spacing ruler. So not a must. But when it comes to planting seeds, I'll have that planting line out and then I'll use a seed spacing ruler as I go along to make sure I'm getting all my seeds spread out. I'm a lazy gardener and a lot of times I don't spread out my seeds and then I pay for it for a long time afterwards because I just don't want to come back and pull those seeds back out of the garden. So if you want to add one more to this must have list, it would be a seed spacing ruler. Again, super easy to use. You could get one. We have one in the gardenary shop, but you can also make one yourself. You could take a ruler and literally drill holes every inch along the ruler and then you just place those seeds inside those holes. Kitchen gardening is so different than ordinary gardening, than row gardening. It is much more high touch, but it's also just easier. You're not needing these big shovels. This isn't about big physical labor. This is more about tender and special labor. This is about getting in, taking care of plants in the minutia. And so you really don't need these really big tools. You just need a few small tools that allow you to do a great job. So if you like one of my tools, tell me about it in the comments. Or if you have a tool to add to the list, I would love to know that too. Most of the tools mentioned in today's episode are all inside the gardenary shop. I only carry the things in the shop that I actually use in my garden. So if you want to check those out to get ideas for the kind of tools you want to have for your garden, you can do that@gardenary.com or go to Shop Garden to go straight to our tools and supplies. All right, thank you so much for listening to the gardenary podcast. If you found this helpful. If you are ready to go get you some tools to make your garden game even better, then I would love it if you subscribe to the channel or tell your friends to come and watch too. I can't wait to see you next time on the Grow youw Self podcast. Thanks for listening and I will see you next time. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. You can keep listening anywhere you love getting your podcast delivered on Apple podcasts on Spotify, iHeartRadio, you name it, we are there for you. And if you want to read the notes and get our free resources to help you grow more, you can go to gardenary.com podcast.