Small Hand Tools For Gardening

Tom Merton

When it's time to care for your spring blooms, you need the right gear. But before you pull on your gardening gloves, think about your needs. The best gardening tools focus on what you'll actually be doing. For example, if you love low-maintenance houseplants, a hand tool set including a shovel, scoop, and small rake, is essential so you can repot. The set is also helpful for up-close work when you're kneeling on the ground, say, getting those perennials or bulbs in soil. Alternatively, if you're a beginner tending to your first vegetable garden or making your own compost, you need tools that have long handles, such as a digging spade and garden rake, so you don't have to hunch over. And if you love all plants (and you know you do!), both types of sets will make your life easier.

Whether you're looking for a single gardening tool or the best sets for beginners, seniors, or options that the professionals use, we've got you (and your ground) covered.

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Best Hand Trowel

14" Stainless Steel Trowel

This stainless steel trowel has a sturdy grip and nice heft but it's not so heavy that it will cause hand fatigue. It's ideal for planting bulbs and dividing perennials, and it's especially good for cutting through clay soils. With its red handle, you'll also spot it readily in the garden bed.

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Best Beginner Hand Tool Set

3-Piece Garden Set

With a trowel for digging, a transplanter with depth markings, and a small cultivator for weeding, you have everything you'll have all of the essentials for basic garden tasks at a reasonable price.

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Best Hand Cultivator

5-Tine Garden Cultivator

This steel hand-forged cultivator has a nice, wide spread so you can weed or loosen soil quickly.

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Best Manual Garden Tiller

Long Handled Steel Tiller

This steel tiller, with a 40-inch long handle and large foot platform for stepping on, is perfect for loosening garden soil without having to bend over in the garden.

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Best Multipurpose Garden Tool

Hori Hori

Made from steel and bamboo, this multi-purpose garden tool cuts, digs, and saws through roots, digs out weeds, and makes dividing plants a breeze. Based on a Japanese design, the hori hori, which loosely means "dig dig," is essential for multiple gardening tasks.

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Best Spade

Spade with Long Handle

With its carbon manganese blade (to improve sturdiness) and a fiberglass handle, this spade will cut through roots and turf easily. The handle is 58 inches long, giving you additional leverage in rocky or heavy soils.

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Best Mini Tool Set for Houseplants

3-Piece Houseplant Tool Set

This miniature tool set with wood handles ranges in size from 6 to 7.5 inches long, so they're just right for digging around in small house plants, such as succulents.

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Best Digging Fork

Digging Fork with D-Grip Handle

Whether you're turning compost or unearthing a fresh crop of potatoes, you need a digging fork to make the job easier. This one has a hardwood handle and a convenient D-grip.

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Best Ergonomic Transplanter for Seniors

Ergonomic Transplanter

This transplanter has a curved handle to reduce hand fatigue. It's also a good tool for anyone with diminished hand strength, such as seniors, and people with arthritis. The brand makes several other types of ergonomic hand tools as well.

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Best Garden Rake

16-Inch Bow Rake with Fiberglass Handle

Thanks to a sturdy fiberglass long handle, this rake is just the thing for smoothing out your garden bed and breaking up clods of dirt.

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Best for Seniors

6-Piece Garden Tool Set with Kneeler

This garden tool set comes with all the basics including a trowel, rake, and pruner. A garden apron with roomy pockets to stash your tools as you work is also included. Best of all, it can function as a seat or flipped over to use as a kneeler so gardening chores are easier on your back and knees.

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Best Potting Scoop

Potting Scoop

This oversized potting scoop will help you shovel soil around new plantings or into large pots as you transplant. Made from stainless steel with a bamboo handle, it has a comfortable feel in the hand.

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Best Garden Shovel

Stainless Steel Garden Shovel

This shovel has a round handle, which offers a better grip, regardless of your height. Its blade is slightly cupped so it cuts through heavy soils more easily than a flat blade. The design also works well for digging in tight spaces.

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Best Professional Gardening Tool

Felco Classic Manual Hand Pruner

Thanks to their steel blades, these pruners are a favorite of professional gardeners. Every piece of the pruner is replaceable, so they'll last a lifetime, and their Swiss design has remained unchanged for 50 years.

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Best for Vegetable Gardens

Long-handled Weeder and Cultivator

Don't force your plants to compete with the weeds for water, nutrients, and sunlight. This USA-made long-handled weeder and cultivator allows you to stand and use the pointed steel tip to grab those nasty weeds. It also comes in a hand tool version.