Top Five Gardening Tools

If you could only have five hand tools for your outdoor work, what would they be and why?

Here are mine:

* Machete - takes the place of many other tools
* Pruners - a good set of hand pruners also help with deadheading, grafting, and harvesting
* Shovel - a good, sharp, round point shovel has a multitude of uses
* Wheel hoe - I haven't picked this up yet, but David the Good has convinced me through his videos that I'm handicapped without one. He's got a point.
* Garden fork -  works great for aerating soil, double-digging, and moving things more efficiently than a shovel.

Tell me where I'm right and wrong.

j

Do I also have power tools? Like, I need a saw. I mostly use an electric chainsaw, but if I wasn't allowed to have that, I'd need to devote one slot on this list of five to a hand saw. And I need to mow. I ues an electric rider, but if I couldn't have a mower, I'd need a scythe. And do you mean all outdoor work or really just gardening?

hori-hori
King of Spades
secateurs
stirrup hoe
a saw or scythe, a hatchet, or a mulch-fork

(A buddy of mine was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya thirty years ago and saw agriculture being performed with only one tool -- a sharpened stick.)

Interesting topic.  A huge majority of my garden is in raised beds.  

Hori knife
Shovel
Garden cart
Secateurs
Pocket knife

I am not sure if a garden cart is a hand tool, but I do push/ pull it by hand.

I should’ve said outdoor gardening work. Yes that’s what I meant. I have an electric chainsaw and electric mower riding mower that help me immensely .

j

Jim Garlits wrote:If you could only have five hand tools for your outdoor work, what would they be and why?

Here are mine:

* Machete - takes the place of many other tools
* Pruners - a good set of hand pruners also help with deadheading, grafting, and harvesting
* Shovel - a good, sharp, round point shovel has a multitude of uses
* Wheel hoe - I haven't picked this up yet, but David the Good has convinced me through his videos that I'm handicapped without one. He's got a point.
* Garden fork -  works great for aerating soil, double-digging, and moving things more efficiently than a shovel.

Tell me where I'm right and wrong.

j

Christopher Weeks wrote:...A buddy of mine was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya thirty years ago and saw agriculture being performed with only one tool -- a sharpened stick.

^ That right there is excellent inspiration for what I'm thinking I should pursue - Over the years I've accumulated a huge tool and machine collection for mechanics, homesteading, gardening, and construction. I find it slightly overwhelming to store, keep up with, and even get around to using sometimes before they rust away!!

My favorite thing is to just be in the garden barefoot, with a "stick" and a "rock" doing the work my genes and intuition tell me is "the right way".

For me a wheelbarrow is very much needed.  It is how I move my compost  and woodchips  

I guess another point worth clarifying is whether I need to devote one slot to a file so that I can keep my hoe and spade sharp. Or is it just assumed we have that sort of backup infrastructure the way you're letting us have chainsaws and mowers? (If it seems like my pedantry is a criticism, let me be clear -- I think this sort of thought exercise is valuable!)

No pedantry taken. I wanted to start this thread to get y'all thinking. You can have your file outside of the "top five."

The thought in the back of my head was a tussle between tools that do one thing very well and tools that serve multiple purposes...and possibly saving you from having to buy another tool. I backpack quite a bit, and though I'm not a gram weenie, I do love carrying items that do several things competently, instead of having to carry more items that only do one thing.  

This is the gardening application of that tussle.

j

Christopher Weeks wrote:I guess another point worth clarifying is whether I need to devote one slot to a file so that I can keep my hoe and spade sharp. Or is it just assumed we have that sort of backup infrastructure the way you're letting us have chainsaws and mowers? (If it seems like my pedantry is a criticism, let me be clear -- I think this sort of thought exercise is valuable!)

Top five:

My favorite and most used is a garden spade.

I can plant seeds, harvest veggies, and do weeding all with that garden spade.

I use pruners next because a lot of perennial flowers and herbs need the woody last year's growth trimmed back.

I have a pointy-tipped garden hoe that I use to get weeds like thistle.

Gloves are handy for certain jobs though I am not a big fan of gloves.

You are going to limit me to five? I don't have a problem, I have a collection!

1.  Steel Digging Bar. (It is my equivalent to using a torch on car repairs but for the dirt. When issues arise, the bar comes out)
2. Bow Garden Rake
3. Opinel Folding Knife (Thanks for this thread, I am going to write up a review and add it to our Gear Review Grid. I didn't consider it a gardening tool until I put some thought into it.)
4. Shovel
5. Loppers

I am a sucker for lists...

1. Pulaski
2. McCleod
3.Hori Hori
4. Stirrup Hoe
5. Spade

The first two are more for "orcharding" than gardening, really. But I like doing that stuff more so there!

Dan Fish wrote:
2. McCleod

How do you find the McCleod?

We had a couple when I volunteered with the firehouse specifically for brush fire calls but I never got to put one into action.

Does it do certain jobs well or an all around workhorse?

I'm pretty certain a Mcleod is strictly used for "dead heading" if you know what I mean!

😏

OK, jokes aside, my current top 5 are :
-Garden Fork: I went from having none to having 4 in just a few years. They are just so good at moving biomass and loosening soil, that I've bought enough for three properties, plus a spare.
-Mattock: I have one that has an "axe" head and another with a pick, but both have the mattock blade.
The pick is just better on rocks, but the axe head does ok, and it does roots.
-Spade: I used to prefer shovels, but a sharp spade makes for less work and better outcomes.
-Pruners: Hand pruners if I have to choose a particular one.
To me, pruning is probably the most significant interaction I have with plants.
-Tarps: I choose tarps over wheelbarrows for moving materials.
They are literally and figuratively more flexible.

Wow guess I get to be that guy in this thread BUT:

1) tractor and implements
2) truck and trailer
3) hand tools IE: rakes, shovels, grubbing hoe, Chunk bar / digging bar  etc.
4) hoses pumps sprinklers etc...
5) GOOD Fencing!

Carp I can't even keep it to a list of 5 types of things.

Sorry to be a ---- and rain on this but only 5 tools to garden with is ludicrous. We as people were given the ability to make and use tools so even if you can't afford to buy what you need then make it by god! PLEASE don't disservice yourself by trying to do far to much with way to little.

Sorry to the OP I know this isn't what you wanted to hear but this is real and comes from someone who has been there and done that!

Oops I read the title wrong you said 5 top for some reason I was thinking you said you could only have 5.

MY MISTAKE

I think my McLeod came from Council Tools directly. I am not sure because I got it for Christmas one year. I can speak highly of the Council one. Holds an edge great if you don't hit too many rocks and sharpens easily.

That thing does a lot man. It is absolutely excellent for turning overgrown forest into planting areas. The heavy hoe end cuts saplings up to an inch better than a hatchet, and vines (looking at you, mountain misery) better than anything. It will dig a hole pretty easily too. Really good for mini swales and drainage work. Weeds a garden bed like a champ too, as long as you aren't dodging anything you want to keep! It's not exactly a precision tool.

An oddball use that it excelled at was once I spread straw on a loose, bare and steep hillside and used the hoe end to punch it in on contour lines about a foot apart. It worked excellent to hold the other straw in place to act as a mulch.

I have used it to cut line on an active brush fire (I am not a fire fighter, don't even ask....) and it saved my ass.

The only way I can answer this and keep it to five is to play with the definition of the rules.

For example, I'm going to say my tool belt, or my cordless battery.  By default, if I have my tool belt, I have everything on it.  And the battery itself is not worth much.  however, the things it powers...

For the record, my daily carry tool belt is 6 items:  pruners, soil knife, pocket knife, flashlight, pliers, 11in1 screwdriver.

what are the things I'd highly recommend for yard/landscape/small farm/homestead?

push pull hoe.  not a scuffle hoe, not a stirrup hoe, a push pull hoe.  triangular in shape, flat.  I used to rely on scuffle hoes or stirrup hoes.  I happened across a yard sale with a flat hoe in a design I hadn't seen before. so of course I had to take it home.  It sat for while...it was older, handle was in rough shape, i have no shortage of tools.  I was an idiot.  The first time I used it, I won't say it was a religious epiphany, but I'm telling you...if you think wire weeders/scuffle hoes/stirrup hoes are great, you have got to try this thing.  I don't leave home without it.

pine straw rake.  a few years ago, we had a tropical storm come through. it left a mess in terms of branches and pickup.  such a mess I was motivated to find other ways of getting the job done.  What I found was a pine straw rake.  I keep finding new ways to use it.  thatching, debris pickup, yard leveling, seeding prep, and best of all...you can do it from a tractor seat.

stein arbor trolley.  kind of a niche tool.  there a few competing things in the marketplace, no two quite exactly alike.  There's a reason I selected this one over the others.  It was designed to be pulled by hand and to get branches/logs through gates and across yards where you couldn't take equipment.  I have a list of modifications to make, the first is to extend the drawbar and put a tow hitch on it.  It's something I use practically every day and keep finding new ways to use it.

if shovels are a part of your life or work, I recommend a nursery digging spade.  Mine has a steel handle.  I can dig a hole in asphalt with it.  It slices through roots like butter, and I use it as a pry bar far more than I should.  Actually, who ever gets away with using a shovel as a pry bar?  My brand of choice is king of spades, mostly because it was the first such one I ever used, from A.M. Leonard.  It's heavy.  Mostly, it does the digging for you.  I hand it to someone and they nearly drop it.  After they use it, they want to keep it.  It's another one of the things I don't leave home without it.

I am continuously surprised at the number of people who don't know what a soil knife is.  

I don't know if I regularly use 5 hand tools as it is.

1. Shovel
2. Hand trowel
3. Sharp pocket knife.
4. Wheelbarrow
5. Broadfork (this has positively my gardens more than any other tool.)

I guess I do use 5 but that's about it.

We have hard clay soil, plenty of rocks.

1. Broadfork. I have the EZ digger, bought on Etsy several years back. The tines are replaceable! (We only had one bend after hitting a rock). One of my favorite purchases. Step one in making a raised bed.
2. Mattock with longer handle. Used after broadfork to mound the soil and to break up any clods. Our soil is pretty hard... Step 2 in making a raised bed.
3. bypass pruner. Felco at the moment.
4. 10 tine garden rake to level the mounded beds. Step 3 in making a raised bed.
5. King of spades shovel.

Okay, really hard to be limited to 5 tools because I now cannot really include a hoe...

If I really had to, instead of a mattock OR the garden rake, I would keep one of my two hoes: a fokin hoe/flatcutter - the titanium one; or a Sneeboer half moon. I love them both.