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Eco warrior princess tools gloves secateurs unsplash
What gardening tools and equipment couldn't you do without? Our Gardening Club members and Thrive staff share their most useful items.

It's very easy to pack the garden shed full of all the wonderful different gardening tools and items of equipment available. But, often a small number of tools and equipment become the most important. We asked our Gardening Club plus people working across Thrive to share their most useful gardening tools and equipment.

Find the results by category below!

Top tip

If you are looking for adapted tools for particular activities or health conditions, read our guide to specialist or adapted tools.

  • "A pair of trusty secateurs is of course one of my most useful items."
  • "Sharp secateurs."
  • "A decent pair of sharp secateurs."
  • "I couldn't be without secateurs, scissors or string."
  • "Adjustable length handle loppers."
  • "I use my long handled hoe for weeding."
  • "My most useful garden equipment is the oscillating hoe. I love it because it’s great for weeding quickly and effortlessly. It saves your back."
  • "An oriental / Japanese hoe."
  • "A kneeling mat for weeding."
  • "A patio knife for those pesky weeds."
  • "Kitchen scissors! Best way to cut any flowers – but also work well to trim/prune/tidy when can’t be bothered to unpack the whole gardening kit from the shed."
  • "Plant labels, so I can keep track of what I’ve sown."
  • "A labelling pen, so I can remember what seeds I've sown, collected, or what I've propagated or divided."
  • "I love my hand trowel and Burgon & Ball fork with the slightly longer handles."
  • "This short perennial spade from Burgon & Ball."
  • "Personally I find that a hand fork, kneeler and bucket are my go to pieces of equipment."
  • "A cultivator that fits on a Wolf Garten medium length handle."
  • "I garden a lot using a gardening stool and relatively lightweight hand tools."
  • "My most useful tools are my mattock (with a pick one end and mattock blade the other) and my pointy round head shovel. Both are excellent for heavy ground with lots of stone and brambles!"
  • "My padded kneeling stools and my hand held multi tool."
  • "I drag around an old Ikea bag to put dead plants, soil and cuttings in."
  • "My gardening trio are a kneeler, trowel and collapsible garden waste bag."
  • "I'd go for long-handled leaf grabbers as my most useful item."
Garden shed with tools
Inside a garden shed
  • "A ball of string."
  • "My garden shed."
  • "My ‘garden slippers’, which allow me to quickly go outside and have a potter about without having to struggle with putting on boots or doing up laces."
  • "My phone, to find out on YouTube what I’m supposed to be doing or to call more knowledgeable friends!"
  • "I wouldn’t be without my dog’s company in the garden."
  • "My dog, Jack. He sort of helps!"
  • "My lovely wife is the best thing to have with me in our one-acre garden, I wouldn't be without her by my side."
Dog in a flower pot
A dog in a flower pot. Moderately helpful in the garden.

The special mention award for the item with the most nominations goes to:

A Hori Hori. Part trowel, part weeder, part knife, this is a hard-working multi-functional tool.

  • "I use my lovely Hori Hori knife for weeding and planting and it’s the most useful tool in my garden shed."
  • "At the risk of sounding trendy, my most useful item is my Hori Hori. It’s my trowel, my knife, my saw, my dibber – and it comes in a cool scabbard too (okay it’s a sheath not a scabbard)."
  • "My favourite tool is my Hori Hori knife, because it does so many things."
  • "This - Hori Hori - Japanese Trowel from Niwaki – is an absolutely brilliant tool!"
  • "I would not be without my Hori Hori – perfect for weeding (especially the long tap roots on those pesky dandelions), planting bulbs, and small plants, hand hoeing and I’m sure many more uses!"

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