Best Tools In The Garden & How to Restore Gardening Tools

Let’s talk about gardening tools—dependable tools, made to last, that you will actually enjoy using! Because who doesn’t want to work smarter, not harder?

You don’t need a shed full of expensive equipment to grow a successful garden, just a few high-quality tools that get the job done year after year. Here’s a list of my top tools in the garden that can help you grow bigger, along with how to clean and restore tools the way my Grandpa taught me!

This Is Not a Drill

Choosing quality tools can make all the difference between reaping frustration and disappointment in the garden or cultivating a more enjoyable season. 

Warning: after reading this, you may want to buy new tools for yourself! And quality tools would make great gifts for gardeners on Christmas, birthdays, as a thank-you, or any other occasion.

Types of Garden Tools

There are several categories of garden tools, including hand tools, irrigation and watering tools, seed starting equipment (like seed starting trays, seedling heat mats, and grow lights), and garden power tools, such as tillers. Some people might even consider garden trellises and vertical planters as tools, but let’s stick to discussing gardening hand tools in this blog post.

This is not a sponsored blog post or video; these are the garden hand tools that I personally use and trust. Being transparent, many of these tools are available for sale in our online store. But I don’t promote them because they are in our store, instead they are in our store because we truly love to use them on the farm and want to share them with you! 

Why Quality Matters

You can buy cheap hand tools and replace them all the time, or you can buy high-quality tools once and learn how to keep them in good shape, costing you far less money in the long run. I prefer to buy tools once and have them last for a long time.

Tools in the Garden

After years of gardening, some tools have become my tried-and-true favorites. This is a list of the tools that I don’t want to garden without:

• Hori Hori - This multi-purpose tool is a family heirloom in the making, and it is one of my favorite tools! The Hori Hori has a serrated blade, a flat blade, a twine cutter, and a concave design so it can be used as a trowel.

• Square Hoe - I’m not as young as I used to be. A simple square hoe or an extended-reach hoe & cultivator is a utilitarian tool that I really like to use so I don’t have to bend down as much. It’s such a handy tool for working the soil, making rows, and weeding. 

• Garden Trowel - I use my aluminum garden trowel almost on the daily for everything from transplanting to making DIY potting mix. I also have a long-handled trowel that I really enjoy using. It can do all the jobs of a regular hand trowel, but saves me from bending and kneeling.

• Traditional Digging Tool - The EZ-Digger garden tool and the EZ-Digger Korean Triangle Blade are both compact, quality, hand-forged tools. Their curved steel blades work like a plow, easily slicing through soil while the short hardwood handle offers control and balance. Designed for comfort and built to last, they're ideal for digging, transplanting, planting, weeding and detail work in raised beds or containers.

• Micro-Tip Snips - These are great for harvesting herbs, cut flowers, lettuce, and other veggies in tight places that you can’t get normal pruners into. Fiskars Micro-Tip Snips are tiny, super sharp pruners that do the work that so many other tools can’t do. 

• Bypass Pruners - Good quality bypass pruners with adjustable tension and replaceable blades is a handy tool to have in the garden! I use bypass pruners all the time for jobs like pruning fruit trees, collecting scionwood for grafting, pruning berry bushes, and harvesting tomatoes or squash. 

• Pole Saw - The Fiskars 2-in1 pole saw extends from 7 to 16 feet, which means that, standing on the ground, I can still prune fruit trees in my orchard and maple trees in my yard! I love it because it has a saw blade and a regular blade on a pulley to lop off smaller branches.

• Dibbler - This tool gets an honorable mention. A dibbler is a tool that you can stick into the ground to quickly and easily make perfect planting holes. It is a specialized tool that I primarily use for planting, but it certainly makes the job go faster.

Materials Needed to Restore Gardening Tools

My Grandpa taught me a really simple trick to restore old tools. The goal is to remove surface rust and old, weathered varnish on tools. 

You only need these things to keep your tools in ship-shape:

• Sandpaper - You don’t need anything crazy to remove surface rust. My Grandpa warned me not to let people sell me a bunch of things to restore tools when all that is really needed is sandpaper or steel wool. A rougher grit sandpaper can remover surface rust from metal, and a finer grit can clean off old varnish and weathered wood. (This pack of sandpaper has assorted grits for the various jobs.) 

• Boiled Linseed Oil - A good quality boiled linseed oil will not go rancid like vegetable oil or olive oil. That makes it very good for restoring and protecting wood products and metal. 

• Lint-Free Cloth - You will need a clean, lint-free cloth or rag to apply the boiled linseed oil.

• Blade Sharpener - A good blade sharpener is indispensable for sharpening your Hori Hori, shovels, garden scissors, bypass pruners, and other tools. It makes a significant difference in the overall functionality of your tools and their lifespan. I love the Work Sharp Blade Sharpener; I have used the heck out of it for years, and it's still great! 

How to Restore Hand Tools

The first rule of thumb for taking care of your tools in the garden is to keep them clean and dry after each use. You might need a garden tool bag or a gardening tool organizer rack to organize the chaos that can be a garden tool collection, and make it easier to carry all your tools out of the garden to be stored in a shed or garage between uses.

Then check at least once a year after finishing preparing your garden for winter, to see if they need more than a surface cleaning. When the time comes to restore tools, follow these steps:

1. Clean Tool  - Remove any dirt and debris from the tool and let it dry.

2. Remove Surface Rust - Use a rougher grit sandpaper, like an 80-grit, to remove surface rust from the metal parts of your tool. Rub the rough sandpaper back and forth quickly with even pressure until the shine of the metal comes through and all the surface rust is removed.

3. Sand Wood - Use a finer sandpaper, such as 120-grit, to remove old varnish and weathered wood by applying light, even pressure, and working the sandpaper back and forth in the direction of the wood grain.

4. Sharpen the Blade or Edge - Follow the directions on the blade sharpener to sharpen your tool correctly. Pro-Tip: It is very important to maintain the same angle along the entire length of the blade. 

5. Re-Clean the Tool - Remove any dust created during the previous steps. Make sure the tool is clean and dry before applying the oil. 

6. Rub on Boiled Linseed Oil - Apply boiled linseed oil to a lint-free cloth and gently rub it onto the entire tool, wood and metal, to protect it. Move in the direction of the wood grain and make sure you coat all parts of the tool, taking care not to cut yourself on the newly sharpened blade. Let it sit for about 15 minutes and then wipe off any excess oil. 

And that is all there is to it! This is such a great way to extend the life of your tools and make sure they last for many years to come.