The Best Gardening Tools for a Thriving Garden

In this post, I’m sharing info on the best gardening tools for a thriving garden. I talked to all my gardening friends (both those who garden for fun and for business) and asked for their opinions on the “must-have” tools that make gardening easier.

Why This Article Was Originally Created…

It all started when we broke our third shovel in two years. I am beyond frustrated with the awful quality of gardening tools out there these days.

I’m sure you can all relate. Everyone seems to agree that tools have gone down in quality over the years. 

While some fortunate folks are still using wooden-handled tools that they inherited from parents or grandparents, the rest of us are cycling through new item after item in our never-ending desire to find something that won’t break.

In my quest to find good-quality gardening tools, I reached out to everyone that I knew who loved to garden. I asked both friends who casually gardened for fun and friends who garden more seriously and/or run some sort of gardening business. 

The bad news is that none of them could mention a trustworthy gardening company to use that would hold all the essential gardening tools. I was REALLY hoping to have one source for getting all my garden shopping done. I am soooooo tired of reading hundreds of reviews on an item to try to find the best quality one out there. I would love it if there was one tried-and-true company that would have all the gardening tools that I need. 

The good news, however, is that there were a lot of similar products mentioned by my gardening friends to make up a list of high-quality and must-have items that will help you create a thriving garden (and a happy gardener, which is just as important).

Below, I’m going to share the Top Three Gardening Tools for a Thriving Garden; these were the items that nearly everyone mentioned and I think they are the most essential gardening tools. After that, I’ll add a few more ‘Honorable Mentions’ for other gardening tools that my garden guru friends added to their lists.

Here’s Where I Need Your Help

If you know ANY trustworthy company that consistently makes good-quality gardening tools, please add them to the comments section below! I’m desperately trying to find some small businesses to support that will make my life easier with gardening tools that won’t break. 

Also, if you think there’s another essential gardening tool that isn’t on this list, please add it to the comments, too! In my spare time (hahahaha), I’ll try to research them and see if they should be added to this gardening article (and also possibly added to my gardening shed).

The Top Three Best Gardening Tools for a Thriving Garden

Nearly every gardener that I asked for input mentioned these three gardening tools. Based on their reports, I plan on adding these things to my gardening tools ASAP (I already own one of them…more info below).

1. Pruning Shears

Pruning shears are an essential gardening tool. They are super useful for pruning (duh) your flowers and plants, but they are also great for making quick work of harvesting things, as well as trimming branches and deadheading. If you get a really good-quality pruning shears, you can trust them to cut cleanly and sharply, which prevents damage to the plants and helps deter disease.

I have broken two pairs of pruning shears in the last few years, so I’m still on the hunt for a good-quality pruning shears to purchase. Fortunately, some of my friends have had some success finding better ones than I have. I can’t promise you that these particular pruning shears are the best, only that they have been working for my fellow gardeners, so I’ll mention them below.

1. Gonicc brand pruning snips (find them here)

Both Cottage Farmstead and Growing Green Family Farms mentioned that they use Gonicc brand pruning snips for both harvesting and pruning plants.

2. Corona AG 4930 Pruners

My garden friend (and landscape designer) Jon Fritz mentioned that this specific pruners have worked for him for over 12 years. I do not know where you can buy this specific one, but if you can, this might be a winner!

2. Hori Hori Knife

I had SOOO many people recommend a Hori Hori knife to me over the years. So last year, for Christmas, I received one from my wonderful husband and I completely agree that this is a must-have item for a gardener!

A Hori Hori knife originates from Japan. It combines the functions of multiple tools in one: a trowel, a knife, and a saw. I love that I can carry only a Hori Hori knife around with me and do almost all of my gardening chores.

I personally hate carrying around a bucket full of gardening items when I’m in my garden and now I pretty much just care this Hori Hori knife around with me and accomplish almost everything I need. 

I use it to dig into the soil, cut both twine and plant stems, and the serrated edge has been used for all sorts of random things – like sawing open mulch bags or fertilizer bags.

Naturally, a Hori Hori knife is pretty sharp, so a sheath/covering is a necessity. Mine comes with a sheath with a belt loop. Sometimes I actually put it on a belt, but I find it cumbersome when I go from standing to kneeling, so I often just have it in my basket and carry it around. 

Here are a few options for Hori Hori Knives:

1. I purchased this Hori Hori knife from the Nisaku company. I’ve only owned it for a year so far, but it has become my most-used tool and so far shows no sign of breaking.

2. My friends at Cottage Farmstead and Growing Green Family Farms use both the Barebones knife and the Lehman’s brand and they claim that both of these Hori Hori knife brands have held up well in their gardening adventures.

3. Stirrup Hoe or a Wire Hoe

A stirrup hoe and a wire hoe are two similar gardening tools that are designed to slice weeds just below the soil surface. They are designed to clear large amounts of weed with minimal effort. A wire hoe is thinner than the stirrup hoe, but both have rave reviews according to my gardener friends. There are some images below that show the difference between the two.

I currently do not own one of these because I use raised garden beds and purposely fill the beds with as many plants as possible to make it so that I don’t have to weed very much. Neither of these hoes would work with that way of gardening. BUT if you do traditional gardening at all, these tools are a ‘MUST-HAVE’, according to all the gardeners that I reached out to. 

2. Here’s an image (below) of a Stirrup Hoe, recommended by my garden friend (and landscape designer) Jon Fritz and also from fellow gardener Jill Winger from The Prairie Homestead. Neither had a company that they recommended, but they did rave about owning this type of garden tool. If you have a favorite stirrup hoe company/brand, please let me know!

Honorable Mention Gardening Tools That Are Also Awesome

While the above three were consistently mentioned by my gardening network, there were a few outliers that I think also need to be recognized. If you are on a garden budget, I would start with the top three gardening tools. After that, read through these extras and think about if they should have a space in your garden tools as well.

1. A Spading Fork.

If you make your own compost, a spading fork is definitely something you should purchase (once you can afford it). A spading fork not only turns and aerates your compost pile with ease, it’s also great for turning soil in smaller spaces (if you’re interested in turning soil in larger spaces, you might want to look into also purchasing a broadfork).

I got this spading fork from Bully Tools as a Christmas present last year. It’s made from 100% USA steel and it FEELS high-quality. I love it and I hope it lasts for years and years to come. It has helped my compost pile become useable soil WAY quicker than before, since I used to I struggle to turn it with a basic shovel.

2. A Collinear Hoe.

A Collinear Hoe is an ergonomic garden tool designed by famous gardener Eliot Coleman. It features a long handle and a thin, sharp blade aligned with the shaft. This lets you stand upright using a comfortable “thumbs-up” grip to slice small weeds just below the soil surface. It is extremely lightweight with a thin blade designed for cutting weeds, and not moving earth.

I do not own one of these (yet) but it does seem more helpful for my garden beds than the stirrup hoe and wire hoe, mainly because the blade is smaller and can fit around my plants better. I LOVE Eliot Coleman (his gardening book The New Organic Gardener is one of my favorite gardening books), so I trust a product that was created by him.

My gardening friend Jon Fritz highly recommends this gardening tool.

3. Root Slayer Shovel.

A Root Slayer Shovel is a heavy-duty gardening tool featuring an inverted V-shaped cutting tip and jagged, serrated edges along the sides of the blade. It is designed to slice through roots, compacted clay, and rocky soil, and it combines a traditional spade, root saw, and hatchet into a single tool.

If you live in a clay-heavy soil/garden area (like me in South Carolina), this tool is a great idea to add to your garden shed. Plus, if your garden is close to trees, you will find the root-slayer option of this tool is a life-saver. I don’t own one of these yet, but it’s definitely on my list to buy in the future!

Final Thoughts

I’m still on the hunt for some trustworthy garden tool companies – so please, let me know if there’s a company that I should try in the future! I’d love to stop breaking shovels, pruners, hedge clippers, etc. 

I also want to remind you that you don’t HAVE to own these tools, and certainly don’t think that you need to buy ALL of them at once. I’ve been gardening for over 20 years now, and I am still very slowly purchasing new garden tools for my garden over the years.

It takes a lot of trial and error to learn what type of garden tools will make your life easier. I’m not a big fan of the capitalistic mindset that ‘buying something will make your life easier’. So take your time figuring out what you need to buy to make gardening a happier and easier experience. 

Hopefully this list will inspire you to think about your gardening needs and hopefully these gardening tools will make vast improvements to your garden and sanity. 

If you think of other ‘essential garden tools’, please let me know in the comments!