The 9 Best Gardening Tools, According to a Master Gardener and a Horticulturalist

CNET

21-05-2025

Handheld fork
Schweiger finds a full-size garden fork to be useful for tasks like loosening soil and digging up potatoes but she can't say the same for handheld forks.
"They always come in sets with trowels and I just never use them," she said.
Dandelion weeder
If you have a soil knife, you don't need a dandelion weeder. That won't stop companies from trying to sell you gadgets that look more like a fondue fork than a gardening tool.
"If you need a weeding tool, get a hori hori knife, not a dandelion fork or other gimmicky weeding tools," Bunting told us.
Store-bought soil tests
Schweiger highly recommends testing the soil in any new gardening location for fertility as well as possible contaminants like lead, especially for urban gardeners. But the ones you can pick up at the hardware store aren't reliable.
"Cheap, commercial soil tests are not particularly accurate," she said. "I always recommend getting a soil fertility test through an accredited lab."
Universities like Penn State, Rutgers, the University of Massachusetts and others offer soil testing services by mail for a small fee.
Self-watering pots
For Bunting, gardeners are better off checking the soil moisture in potted plants than trusting self-watering pots, which typically have a reservoir for excess water and a wick that delivers it to the plant over time.
"I've seen dozens of those," he said. "Not to say there isn't one that works but I've seen more failures than successes."
Moisture meters
Another water-related gadget that's not worth your money is a moisture meter, according to Schweiger.
"I don't think a moisture meter is going to give you more information than you could get by digging down into the soil with your finger," she says.
Sun Joe
Power tools
If you're pretty green in the gardening department, you probably don't need to add power tools to your list of startup gardening tools, Bunting said. However, if you're in the market for tools like leaf blowers, chainsaws or lawnmowers, he encourages people to choose battery-powered electric options over gas-powered models.
"There's great battery-operated equipment nowadays for almost everything that you might need," he told us, noting that manufacturers often make rechargeable batteries that can be used interchangeably in different pieces of equipment in their product line. "I do have a leaf blower but it's battery operated so it doesn't require any fossil fuels or create noise pollution."
Irrigation system
"Everybody wants to install an irrigation system," Bunting says, but he recommends rainwater or hand-watering instead of sprinklers. "When the system goes in, it works, but inevitably, the system gets compromised or the plants grow up in such a way that when the sprinkler comes on, some plants get too much water and other plants don't get enough. It seems like a good idea but it's really not."
Instead, make the most of water from rain or your hose by adding a few inches of organic mulch to the soil surface. That will help retain moisture, allowing you to go a little longer between waterings.