Maintaining a beautiful backyard is a worthwhile endeavor, but it will require some manual labor on your part. Don’t let the idea of getting your hands dirty scare you. There are many different gardening tools out there designed to make the task of yard upkeep more comfortable and streamlined than it used to be.
These days there is a tool for everything. The following guide will outline some of the tools most integral to yard upkeep. Gardening tools are designed to make your job easier and even fun!
Trimmers
Having trimmers is a necessity for maintaining a clean and tidy garden. There are different kinds of trimmers available for you to use, depending on the garden area.
String trimmers are a little different from the traditional weed-whacker or weed eater, although they have a similar purpose. Instead of using blades, string trimmers utilize a piece of plastic string to cut away the frayed edges of your lawn.
Discover more about lawnmowers here.
When walking along the pavement outdoors, it looks sloppy to have weeds and grass creeping onto the cement. A trimmer will allow you to get a smooth, straight line and create an elegant, well-kept appearance.
If you decide you dislike string trimmers, a traditional weed-whacker or bladed trimmer will work fine too. But string trimmers are better at adapting to irregular shaped lawns or areas that are hard to navigate with a bulky piece of machinery.
Aside from trimming the edges of your lawn, it is necessary to maintain hedges, bushes, and other forms of shrubbery. A hedge trimmer will get the job done faster than a pair of gardening shears.
It is better to use shears for small touch-up pruning jobs than for trimming an entire row of bushes. Hedge trimmers are like chainsaws but are more lightweight and slenderer in appearance.
They allow you to get farther reach to protect your limbs and it will get the work done in a much smaller increment of time than if you were to trim on your own.
Saws
Occasionally, especially if you live in a wooded area, you may have to deal with an unwanted tree, or tree branch, creeping into your yard. Sometimes there is nothing you can do about a tree that continues to grow until it’s obstructing sunlight or becoming an ugly blot on your typically picturesque backyard.
The best choice of saw is a hand pruning saw. These saws are small and agile. They’re easy to use and a necessity for anyone who must deal with maintaining trees regularly.
Depending on what type of pruning saw you’re looking for, they have some that even fold up to take with you on the go. Despite their size, these saws have potent blades that should be able to cut through large branches with no problem.
If the tree branch you’re trying to get rid of is higher up and you can’t use a ladder due to a disability or other reason, a pole saw maybe your best bet. Pole saws are essentially pruning saws constructed on an extension pole. You can buy a manual pole saw or one that is powered by electricity.
There are other saws out there, depending on the magnitude of your tree-cutting project, but these are two of the most uncomplicated and easy-to-use saws.
If you need something more heavy-duty, you could consider a chainsaw or a double-edged pruning saw. Reciprocating saws are beneficial to gardeners attempting to cut something located in an awkward spot that can’t be reached with a larger tool.
When working with power tools, be sure you always use gloves and follow proper safety protocols to keep yourself from getting injured!
Shovels
Shovels are some of the most commonly used gardening tools. If you’ve got a green thumb and are hoping to start a vegetable patch or flower garden, then you will use shovels more often than any other tool. But you should be aware of the different types of spades. You can’t use the same one for every job.
Out of all the shovels you may wind up keeping in your tool shed, the trowel will be the one you keep on hand all day. Trowels are small, metal (though they do come in plastic), shovels used to re-plant bulbs or to transfer plants from a pot to a bed.
It is much easier to use a hand-held trowel to get down in the dirt and adequately place each flower or seed packet than to try and use a larger shovel that will uproot too much dirt with one scoop. Typically, trowels have sharp tips to help you break through hardened layers of topsoil.
Apart from trowels, digging shovels are also incredibly common. Digging shovels, like the name suggests, are meant for digging. You may use these in preparation for constructing a flower bed, to dig up a tree trunk in the yard, or to lay fertilizer over a fresh flower bed.
These shovels have a long handle and a sharp tip on the bottom to quickly dig down into the dirt. Unlike trowels, digging shovels are meant to be used standing up.
However, if you’re trying to move a high volume or something heavier such as gravel, you may want to consider a scooping shovel. Scooping shovels have much larger blades with more depth to allow them to pick up a greater volume of material.
Finally, you should consider purchasing a great trenching shovel to help with irrigation flow in your garden. These shovels are thin and have narrow blades to allow you to build trenches alongside your garden.
Other Tools
While the tools we’ve gone into detail about above are all necessities when starting work on your garden, there are a few other essentials you’ll need before getting started.
It is recommended you get yourself a reliable pair of pruning shears to do quick touch-up jobs on any of the hedges or trees in your yard. This way, you won’t always have to resort to a massive power tool but can do some fast maintenance before the problem grows out of hand.
You will also need to make sure you have a watering can available, or a hose, to keep your plants hydrated.
To make gardening more comfortable and more enjoyable, you should invest in a pair of padded gloves to protect your hands from blisters. It’s also nice to have a kneeling pad for days when you intend to spend a few hours outside planting. Other tools you may want to consider are wheelbarrows, a sprinkler system, a rake, rear tine tiller. In the winter you might need snow blower.