25 Garden Tools and Their Uses (with pictures)

As a longtime gardener, I have used and tested every tool on this list. Even though there are hundreds of garden tools, I’ve narrowed it down to 25 commonly used garden tools and their uses. 

An organized pegboard filled with handheld garden tools.

Small Hand Tools

1. Trowel

A hand holds a well used garden trowel.

Use: A trowel is used for digging soil and creating a planting hole or removing weeds. 

2. Watering Can

A watering can pours water onto tomato plants.

Use: A watering can hauls water and waters precisely without a hose.

3. Hori Hori Knife

Someone holds a hori hori knife with inch markings on it.

Use: The serrated edge on the hori hori knife can be used for harvesting or chopping. Additionally, the knife can be inserted in the ground vertically to dig out weeds and soil for planting. It’s a multipurpose must-have tool for every gardener. 

We personally own four of these so our family can work together on weeding or planting if needed.

4. Japanese Weeding Sickle

A well used japanese weeding sickle being held by someone.

Use: A japanese weeding sickle is used to cut weeds at the soil surface or just below. When turned vertically, the blade can make a small planting hole.

We also own several of these. It is a favorite weeding tool among the kids.

5. Pruning Shears

A pair of rusty pruning shears is displayed.

Use: Pruning shears are used to cut off small branches on fruit trees, cut woody growth, or vines or stems.

There are many plants that require pruning, especially fruits! I use the pruning shears for fruit trees, raspberries, and pruning blackberries.

6. Dibbler

A metal garden dibbler tool is held up.

Use: A dibbler has a sharp edge and shape presses a cylindrical hole into the ground. It’s used for planting. For example, we recently used this tool for planting garlic.

7. Grape and tomato shears 

A small pair of tomato pruning shears.

Use: Tomato shears are the perfect size tool for pruning tomato vines and harvesting both grapes and tomatoes. 

The small snips can fit into tiny spaces so it’s very easy to remove tomato suckers.

8. Soil Block Maker

A metal, two inch soil block maker on a counter top.

Use: A soil block maker creates seed starting blocks without all the plastic. The soil is compressed into a block shape and a small area is pressed down at the top for the seed.

I have instructions on how to make soil blocks and a soil block recipe if you need it!

9. Pruning Loppers

A set of loppers for pruning.

Use: Loppers are a pruning tool that removes small limbs from trees. When the pruning shears are too small to make a cut, I use these as the next step up.

Garden Tools with a Long Handle (For use While Standing)

10. Stirrup Hoe

A five inch metal stirrup hoe with a wood handle.

Use: A stirrup hoe is used for weeding and cultivation. The stirrup cuts under the soil surface to remove weeds and roots. Usually a push and pull motion is used.

11. Rake

A thirty inch metal rake with a wood handle is leveling soil.

Use: A metal rake pulls material and levels it. In the garden it’s often used for taking off debris on garden beds and leveling soil. 

12. Shovel

A well used steel shovel is being held.

Use: A shovel is used dig in the soil or haul materials onto the soil. A shovel usually has more of a scooped shape to hold soil.

13. Spade

A metal garden spade with a wood handle hangs on a wall.

Use: A spade is similar to shovel but typically has a straight edge, is flat, and stronger. It is meant for edging and cutting into the soil in a more precise manner.

14. Mattock or Pickaxe

A pickaxe is with a metal pick and steel shaft is being held by someone.

Use: A pickaxe is great for loosening and digging stubborn or rocky soil that a shovel can’t penetrate.

15. Broadfork

A broadfork is partially pushed into the soil.

Use: A broadfork is pushed into the soil and pulled back allowing air to penetrate the soil, at the same time reducing compaction.

The benefit of the broadfork is it loosens soil while maintaining soil layers.

16. Wheel Hoe

A wheel hoe is being pushed down a garden walking path.

Use: A wheel hoe Can have different attachments used for weeding or plowing. Most often a stirrup hoe is used for weeding.

The stirrup is attached to a wheel making the weeding motion fast and easy. If you have large areas to weed and the weeds aren’t too large, a wheel hoe is a real time saver.

17. Seeder

An earthway seeder for use in the garden.

Use:  A seeder plants seeds. The hopper is filled with seed and you can switch out seed plates or rollers (depending on type of seeder) to fit different seeds.

As the tool is pushed through the soil, a small furrow is made, seeds are dispensed, then covered with soil.

18. Wheelbarrow

A wheelbarrow hauls plant debris.

Use: A wheelbarrow hauls materials like weeds, compost, and soil. The single wheel makes it good for maneuvering in tight spaces like garden rows without as much compaction.

19. Garden Cart

A garden cart is pulled by a person on a snowy day.

Use: A garden cart is on four wheels instead of one like a wheelbarrow. This makes it easy to haul materials or harvests with ease. 

20. Pitchfork 

A pitchfork hangs on a shed wall with a hook.

Use: A pitchfork forks into and and moves materials like straw, hay, wood chips, leaves, and more. 

We love the kind above with tines closer together because it works well for wood chip mulch.

Garden Power Tools

21. Tractor

A full size John Deere tractor with a bucket scoop on the front.

Use: A tractor is a multi use machine. The bucket on the front can haul heavy garden materials like compost and mulch with ease. It also has a wide variety of implements that can be attached for use. In a large garden, a brush hog, tiller, plow, and seeder attachments are frequently used on the tractor.

22. Flail Mower

A person walks behind a BCS tractor with a flail mower attached to the front.

Use: A flail mower is a standalone tool or an attachment to a tractor. It stays above the soil level and chops up a vegetation. It slices both horizontally and vertically to create very fine pieces of crop residue. These pieces quickly decompose in place and add organic matter to the soil.

23. Walk Behind Two Wheel Tractor

A person leads a walk behind tractor as it creates garden beds with a rotary plow.

Use: A walk behind two wheel tractor is a small machine with a powerful engine that is controlled by walking behind it. Many different implements are available for hooking up to the tractor.

Some examples of attachments are a tiller, flail mower, or plow. A walk behind tractor is easier to maneuver in tight spaces than a full size tractor. It also has much less weight than a full size tractor so less soil compaction occurs.

24. Tiller

A image of garden tiller on a white background.

Use: A tiller is a standalone tool or an attachment to a tractor. It mechanically breaks the soil into super fine particles. It has a heavy impact on the soil and can break up soil deeply in the ground. But the result is a surface that is light and easy to plant seeds or crops into.

As you can tell be the photo, this is the only tool we don’t own or use. But it is quite commonly used in a garden.

25. Rotary Plow and Plow

A rotary plow attachment for a BCS tractor.

Use: A rotary plow like the one pictured above plows soil up onto the surrounding soil to create a raised garden bed. Other plows are more manual and push soil to the sides, or turn soil over.

Conclusion

Hopefully you’ve found this list of 25 garden tools and their uses helpful! We have a large garden and use all these tools. An organized garden shed houses all the tools so they are ready to use and easy to find when needed.

This post contains affiliate links. Here is the full disclosure.

Hopefully with the descriptions you can determine which tools are the most helpful for your own garden.

Am I missing any of your favorite garden tools? Let me know in the comments if there is one you love not pictured on this list 🙂

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