Improve Your Garden Soil Store

Discover everything you need to get your garden fired up. Quality hand tools tend to work better, and of course will last you a lifetime - so don't be tempted to buy cheap and cheerful.

And we all know that having the right tool for the job makes life so much easier. So always make sure you have a solid range of basic tools to hand.

At the very least you want:

• a good solid spade - make sure it's the right size for you, not too heavy.
• garden fork - again, solid and not too heavy to be comfortable to use
• trowels - maybe a couple, one narrow and one wide - wooden handles age nicely
• secateurs - there's a whole range available for different jobs. Get what you need for your specific garden. (what pruning shears will help)
• buckets - probably a couple, useful for everything from moving water to collecting hand pulled weeds
• wheel barrow - pretty expensive piece of kit, but depending on the size of your garden it will range from useful to vital!
• watering can - get one with a good rose on it, great for odds bits of watering but also feeding plants with liquid feeds
• gardening gloves - again, depends on your garden. You may need heavy duty leather to protect yourself from spiny weeds, or lighter gloves just to protect your skin from blisters and the odd splinter.

There are endless other tools your local garden store will want you to buy. But hold off the urge for shiny new things unless you see specific jobs they would make easier. Lots of gardeners have sheds full of useless gadgets they never use.

And keep your tools sharp too. And yes, even your spade - it will make a big difference. Just don't hit your wellies...

You can sharpen tools yourself fairly easily using a diamond file or a whetstone.

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