7 Essential Tools for Gardeners 50 and Older. Garden and lawn tools
Inexpensive implements make it easier to tend plants
Karen Beauchemin calls gardening her therapy. Over the years, she’s spent a lot of time in her West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, garden tending to her vegetables and flowers from her perch on “my little bench.”
That bench is actually a rolling garden seat that wheels around her raised beds and allows Beauchemin to comfortably get down, and stay at, plant level.
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Gardening should be fun, not backbreaking. So, like Beauchemin, invest in the tools that make it an easier and safer activity as you age. Those tools are often simple and inexpensive — or things you can adapt yourself.
Although these implements can help every gardener, those who suffer from arthritic hands or bad knees or who struggle to rise from the ground may find them essential.
“If you make it easier on you, you’re going to be doing it longer,” says Phyllis Turner, 73, a master gardener with the Bedford County Office of Virginia Cooperative Extension. Turner, a retired nurse, works with a therapeutic gardening program that encourages people of all abilities to garden and often highlights supportive techniques, such as how to adapt gardening tools.
Turner and her husband tend a quarter-acre vegetable garden and 25 flower beds. Her favorite leaf rake is one her husband made lighter by cutting 12 inches off the handle. He then wrapped the rake with pipe insulation, making it easier to grasp.
“Long-handled tools … can get very heavy, and they tend to be much longer than they need to be,” Turner says.
Reduce stress and strain
If you don’t want to do it yourself, several gardening tool companies offer ergonomic implements such as long-handled weeders or hand shovels with arced handles to take the pressure off wrists.
“It does reduce a lot of stress and strain,” says Christine Kelly-Begazo, an agricultural agent with Indian River County Extension near Vero Beach, Florida, who has researched gardening ergonomics and grows vegetables, flowers and about 30 pineapple plants.
As for favorite tools, experiment based on your physical abilities, garden and terrain. Turner says her ground is too uneven for a wheeled cart. She prefers “to just scoot around on my butt.” That said, here are seven tools that she and other gardeners say make the work easier.
Lightweight hose
These come in different styles, including coiled plastic, metal and various fibers, and are much easier to drag around the yard. Some retract, others wind on a hose reel. To make them last, drain after use. Price: 35 and up for 100 feet.
Hori hori
This Japanese all-purpose blade is about 7 inches long, 2 inches wide and concave. Linda Scharf, 64, of Onset, Massachusetts, says she uses hers for digging, weeding, measuring depth and cutting weeds. “The weight is really good, and I really have not bought any other tool.” Price: 25 and up.
Adjustable, telescopic rake
These lightweight rakes adjust for handle length and the width of the raking tines, so they are wide enough for a yard or narrow enough for flower beds. Price: 20 and up.
4. Kneeling bench or kneepads
Turner’s husband wears hockey pads. Kelly-Begazo prefers one of the padded seats that flip to become a kneeler with side handles that support you as you stand. Price: 40 and up for a kneeler.
Two-wheeled wheelbarrow
Traditional single-wheeled wheelbarrows can tip when they get heavy, twisting your back, says Turner, who prefers a child’s wagon. Look for carts or wheelbarrows with two wheels. Price: 70 and up, depending on size.
Elevated garden beds
Installing a bed raised off the ground will prevent you from having to bend over or kneel on the ground to do your planting, weeding and harvesting. An elevated bed allows you to sit on a stool or a chair to work on your garden. Build the bed to your own desired height, but be sure to consider the root depth of the kind of flowers or vegetables you’ll likely plant, and use cross supports for anything taller than 18 inches. You can buy raised garden planters or make your own.
The right clothes
What you wear can make gardening easier and safer. Start from the top with a wide-brimmed hat to protect your face from the sun. Next, consider sunglasses or safety goggles to protect your eyes from dirt and stalks. If you live in an area with ticks, wear clothing treated with.5 percent permethrin, and tuck your pants into your socks. Wear long sleeves or invest in a pair of “farmers sleeves” — stockings for your arms that cost about 25 a pair and come in fun colors and patterns. Don’t forget gloves to protect your hands from dirt, bites and chemicals. For weeding, try kitchen cleaning gloves, which are flexible but have a grip delicate enough for the smallest intruder.
Strategies for Easier Gardening
- Bring your garden up to you with a garden bag or wheeled containers.
- Paint tool handles a bright color, so you can see them in the weeds.
- Break up repetitive jobs such as weeding, or switch hands to avoid overuse.
- Wear gloves to protect hands and reduce vibration from power tools.
- Wash tools after use, and keep them sharp. To store them, some experts suggest filling a container with builders sand, which drains well and is often used for mixing concrete. Add mineral oil and mix until slightly damp. Brush debris off tools and stick blades or tines into the sand. The sand helps keep the blades sharp; the oil prevents rust.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on May 10, 2021. It has been updated to reflect new information.
Amazon Gardening Tools: Essential Tools For Your Gardening Needs
I’ll begin by saying that I didn’t buy most of these tools on Amazon. For me, almost nothing comes close to a trip to the garden center or nursery—it makes me downright giddy. Most were bought in California and are ages-old.
I was a professional gardener/garden designer in San Francisco (I used a lot of different gardening tools!) and brought them with me to Santa Barbara to use in my own garden. Many were given away but I brought these essentials with me when I moved to Arizona six years ago.
Now that I live in Tucson, my garden needs have changed because my low-maintenance garden is full of cacti and desert plants. I wanted to share my essential Amazon gardening tools with you because spring is here. And if you’re new to this wonderful passion/pastime/hobby, I hope you find these suggestions to be helpful.
Good tools, when properly cleaned and stored, will last a very long time. I buy the majority of what I use (food, plants, soils, amendments, etc) locally, but Amazon sure is convenient. If you live in an area without garden centers, big box stores, and hardware stores, this will help you out.
I’ve had some of these tools so long that the model has been discontinued or the brand has gone bye-bye. These tools are the ones I’d repurchase again, or if I had to buy them on Amazon, would be the replacements.
“The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.” Benjamin Franklin, who penned that quote, certainly knew what he was talking about. And, of course, this applies to working (or playing!) in the garden.
The Best Gardening Tools for Beginners
In the gallery above, you see my most used tools for gardening. I’ve had most of them for years, so they look a little worse for wear. They still get the job done just fine! You may not need all of these tools, but I explain how I use each one, so I hope that helps you out in deciding which are best for you.
My Essential Gardening Tools List
The first five are the tools I use for gardening the most often.
Classic Manual Hand Pruner | 58.99
I flippin’ adore these pruners. They’re the gold standard for professional gardeners. I bought these at Berkeley Horticultural Nursery in 1997. They’re now over 25 years old and still going strong!
All the parts have a lifetime warranty and are replaceable but I haven’t had to replace any. I could replace the plastic coating for the handles but just haven’t gotten around to it because they’re still comfortable to use as is.
Micro-Tip Pruner | 13.88
This is another pruning tool I use regularly. It’s great for snipping finer stems like herbs, flowers, and succulents. Mine is an older model, and the one you see here is the updated version.
Sharpening Tool | 17.03
Clean, sharp pruning tools are a must. This tool is so lightweight and offers real ease of use. I have my pruning tools professionally sharpened every year or 2, depending on the use. This handy little tool fills in just fine in between.
For more details on how I keep my pruners tools ready to go, check out How To Clean And Sharpen Pruning Tools.
Gloves | 8.59
Now, you could say that these aren’t a tool, but because I use them so much, I say they are. I love these because, like other knit gardening gloves, they’re lightweight and allow for ease of hand movement.
The bottoms are coated with PVC, which provides extra strength and is especially helpful when pulling stubborn weeds. I
I also used these gloves, which are very similar to the ones pictured.
Tub Trug Flex Tub | 28.12
When I was a professional gardener, I would send clippings flying all over the place. Now that I’m a home gardener, I like to keep my mess as contained as possible. This Tub Trug is a great option for collecting all your trimmings and weeds.
You can also use it for hauling around small plants, harvesting produce, or mixing up blends like this DIY Succulent Cactus Mix. I also use it when composting instead of hauling a 40 lb. bag around. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and jazzy colors.
Extra Thick Kneeling Pad | 11.99
I had a smaller, thinner kneeling pad for years, but it blew away in the middle of an extremely windy night along with the Tub Trug. Both this and the Tub Trug I purchased not too long ago on Amazon.
Let’s face it, knees are boney, and I like to protect mine from the hard ground when weeding, planting, pruning, and/or composting. This kneeling pad is extra big and thick yet very light and easy to carry around.
Hand Tools | 15.99
These hand tools are great for all kinds of gardening, especially in containers or garden beds. Even if your garden is on a deck or balcony, these are quite useful.
My various hand tools are pieced together from various sets, but I like the one above because it has a narrow pointed trowel (which I use often!) and a weeding fork. This toolset, also with soft ergonomic handles, is another option.
Bypass Loppers | 22.98
My loppers are so old and used so much that the brand name has worn off. I bought them at Orchard Supply Hardware (which has since gone bye-bye) and believe they are their brand. These are necessary if you have trees and shrubs on your property, as they cut through those larger branches.
Mine have telescopic handles (meaning they extend), which I find quite handy when reaching taller branches. You can find loppers with different types and sizes of blades depending on what your needs are. The loppers up above are a good basic model with a stainless steel blade and cut branches up to 1.5″ in diameter.
Watering Can | 19.87
This is a must-have for watering container plants and those newly planted in the garden. It’s also great when you don’t feel like hauling along the hose.
It’s sturdy, and this 2-gallon size holds a good amount of water. The nozzle unscrews if you want a more concentrated flow of water rather than a gentler shower. My watering can is similar, and I have had it for years now with little sign of wear (except for the salt stains!).
Bionic Steel Garden Hose | 57.99
I can’t tell you how many clients’ garden hoses I struggled with. They were heavy, kinked, and in general a pain to haul around and roll up.
Garden Tools for New Gardeners
This bionic steel hose is light and rolls up like a dream. I have two of them (one is 50′ and the other 75′), and they have been long-lasting in my garden. It doesn’t have an extremely powerful spray, but I love the ease of use. Any avid gardener knows having a great hose is a must.
Essential Tools for Gardeners
This Flexilla Hose has better pressure, is heavy-duty yet lightweight, comes in many lengths, and is very popular.
Hand Saw | 16.98
I don’t use this hand saw often now that I have a desert garden. I include it because your property may be more vegetated.
They’re great for cutting branches which your pruners and loppers can’t. We also used them to score and cut off the bottoms of tangled and extremely bound root balls.
Shovel | 45.99
Let’s face it; shovels are necessary for digging. I bought mine (an older model) over 30 years ago, and despite the fact it’s pretty beaten up, it gets the job done.
They come with different handle sizes and different blade shapes. The one pictured above is a good, all-around shovel with a 57.5″ length. I also own trench-digging and floral shovels but rarely use them anymore.
Rake | 32.25
I used a rake often as a professional gardener to clean up the “pruning carnage.” You’ll find this useful for the same, and if you live in a climate with many deciduous trees and shrubs, it’ll be necessary for the fall.
This rake is collapsible and telescopic, making it a breeze to store, use, and carry around.
Hori Hori Garden Knife | 22.95
The blade, one side smooth and the other serrated is super sharp. I found this garden knife handy for digging, scoring, and loosening root balls, cutting thick roots, and planting bulbs.
Weeding Sickle | 19.80
My garden here in Tucson gets very few weeds because it doesn’t rain very often. If yours has a lot of weeds (especially in the spring), you’ll find this very sharp tool handy. It cuts through crabgrass in no time!
This is me showing off my gardening tools:
I had other gardening tools, but I just wanted to include the ones I often used here. I hope this list of Amazon gardening tools is useful to you.
Note: This post was originally published in 2019. It was updated on 2/8/2020 again on 4/17/2023.
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Must Have Gardening Tools – Learn About Common Garden Tools And Equipment
If you’re in the market for garden tools, one stroll through the tool section of any garden center or hardware store can make your head spin. What kind of garden tools and equipment do you need, and what are the best tools for garden and lawn?
Information about Gardening Tools and Equipment
The best kinds of tools vary widely depending on a huge number of factors, ranging from your physical ability, size of your garden, type of soil, and even your gardening style. For example, an urban dweller with a balcony full of containers requires very different tools than a homeowner with a huge vegetable garden or an orchard.
The best way to proceed is to start with a few essential tools that will serve you well for nearly any type of gardening. You can always expand your tool collection with more specialized tools later, especially as your garden grows. This is true for those seeking lawn equipment as well.
Must Have Gardening Tools
While there are essentially all kinds of tools to choose from, here are suggestions for a few basic tools for gardens and lawns that are definite must-haves for nearly anyone who gardens and any type of garden.
Gardening gloves– Don’t even think about gardening until you have a good pair of gardening gloves, whether you have a big garden area or a few containers. They needn’t be expensive, but a sturdy, comfortable pair will keep your hands clean and blister-free. Gloves will also protect your fingers from thorns, burs, and slivers.
Trowel– You’ll definitely need a hand trowel for digging small holes for planting perennials, annuals, or bulbs, or a host of other small digging jobs. Garden trowels also come in handy when scooping and moving soil during potting or repotting of plants.
Garden scissors– You may be surprised at just how often you depend on garden scissors for trimming small branches, harvesting herbs, deadheading plants, or cutting flowers for floral arrangements. Again, these are useful tools for anyone to have on hand.
Shovel– Although general-purpose shovels are often used for digging, they are best for moving and lifting materials such as mulch, compost, soil, or gravel from one area to another.
Spade– A spade is even more important than a shovel, so if your budget is limited, opt for the spade and leave the shovel for later. A good spade is useful for digging heavy soil, breaking up dirt, removing sod, breaking up roots, or edging a flower bed.
Hoe– Hoes are used mostly for weeding and cultivating. There are many types of hoes on the market, including triangle hoes that are especially good for working in tight spots and scuffle hoes that slice weeds from the surface of the soil.
Garden fork– Also known as a digging fork, this tool may not be essential if you have a small, tidy yard, but a good garden fork will serve you well if you need to loosen up firmly packed or rocky soil, remove clumps of plants without losing too much soil, or if you need to mix in compost or other soil amendments.
Rake– A leaf rake is a must if you have trees on your property. A steel rake is required if you need to smooth out the soil surface or work in compost or fertilizer. Most vegetable gardeners depend on steel rakes.
Kinds of Tools for the Lawn
Even if your lawn is somewhat small, certain types of equipment are a must for providing adequate lawn care and maintenance. The two most common being the lawn mower and weed eater.
Mower– Among the most essential of all tools for the homeowner is a good quality lawn mower. Whether a traditional push mower, a self-propelled walk-behind mower, or a riding mower is up to you, and in many cases, this decision will be based on the size of the property. Those with large lots may want to look into the time-saving benefits of a riding mower, while those with smaller areas to maintain may be just fine with an inexpensive push mower. Options like mulchers and baggers can be great time savers as well. A quality lawn mower should be an investment in the appearance of your lawn, and a well-made mower can last for many years. There are many options to choose from, so it pays to shop around before making a decision.
Weed eater– A weed eater is another must have tool. These handy little machines can cut your workload a great deal, and if you don’t already have one, chances are you will be in the market for one at some point. Weed eaters are the perfect choice for those hard-to-reach places where the lawn mower will not reach. When shopping for a weed eater, it’s a good idea to consider its weight, power, and cost. While a powerful weed eater may be great for making short work of weeds, it may also be quite heavy to carry around.