I love tools, but especially garden tools! Whenever I see them, I marvel at their diversity and usefulness. It's amazing how the perfect tool can make a job so much easier! But even though I adore tools and have way too many, I've come to find that most of them really aren't that useful. Season after season I find myself coming back to and using the same set of 5 tools. Here they are, listed in order of importance.
1. A Very Sturdy Trowel
If you can only have one garden tool, this is the one you need. It can do everything - digging, weeding, building beds, scooping soil, stirring liquid fertilizer, you name it. The problem is that most trowels are made very poorly. The best I've ever found is a solid cast aluminum. It doesn't rust and it will break before it will bend! So, look for a type like that first. Unfortunately, they are almost impossible to find. The next best thing is a trowel with a very solid neck - the area between the head of the trowel and handle. This is always where they break, so pay most attention to that.
If you can only afford an inexpensive trowel, go for a pretty solid looking hard plastic one. The cheap metal ones will easily bend when using it for all but the lightest of tasks. The plastic isn't as sharp so it can be a bit harder to use for digging holes, though. So if you can afford two dollar store cheap trowels, use the metal one for breaking up the soil and the plastic one to scoop it.
2. Stirrup Hoe
This is not the big, flat hoe from American Gothic. Those hoes actually do more harm than good for weeding! If you have one, don't use it unless your goal is to move a lot of soil. The beauty of a stirrup hoe is that it does not move a lot of soil and that save you a lot of work! A stirrup hoe slices underneath the soil leaving the top layer intact. And that's what you want. It cuts off the weeds roots, but doesn't bring more weed seeds to the surface. If you sharpen the edges of the hoe it becomes even easier to use.
Without the need to move all the soil that a traditional hoe would, the work of weeding your garden is not very labor intensive. Just be sure to do your weeding before the weeds get too big (over 3" tall and the smaller the better).
3. Garden Fork
These tools are starting to gain more popularity. And they should, because for most digging projects a digging fork is going to make the work much easier and more efficient. These tools use so much less energy than a shovel for the same job! The only exception is when the soil is particularly loose and falls apart when digging or for very wet and sloppy soil.
4. Cape Cod Weeder
There are a lot of different types of hand weeding tools, but by far the most versatile is the cape cod weeder. I almost never see this tool in garden centers so you'll most likely need to buy it online or out of a catalog. A similar type of tool was given to me by a Japanese visitor to a student-run garden that I used to manage and I was amazed at how it transformed the tasks of hand weeding.
Just like the stirrup hoe, this weeder cuts under the top layer of soil making the job less labor intensive and not bringing new weed seeds to the surface. It can even work under mulch or pea gravel in landscape gardens. Keep the blade sharp for an even easier job.
5. Shovel
Though I am not a big fan of the shovel for most digging projects, I do love the shovel for, well, shoveling! Shoveling compost onto garden beds, shoveling mulch or pea gravel, shoveling soil into raised beds! The shovel isn't good for digging, but it's great for moving things around and you will definitely need one as part of your tool supply.
Lots of tools look interesting and seem like they could really make gardening easier. But most of them won't. Stick to the basics for almost all your projects and spend that extra money on pretty planters, garden art and other fun extras!
A digging fork can also sideline as a straw/hay mover.