Hand-Tools

A good garden trowel is the tool you reach for more than any other in the garden. Planting, weeding, transplanting, mixing soil in pots, cleaning out cracks in the patio. A trowel does all of it. But most trowels sold at big-box stores are stamped steel with plastic handles that snap off by the second season. A proper hand tool costs more upfront and lasts twenty years. I tested seven garden hand tools and trowels. Forged stainless steel, cast-aluminum ergonomic designs, good old carbon steel. I dug in clay, in sandy loam, in rocky ground. I left them in the rain overnight. I drove them through root systems that would break lesser tools. Some bent. A few impressed me. The ones below are the keepers. ...

A good set of garden tools is like a good kitchen knife set — you don’t need thirty pieces, but the five or six you do need should feel right in your hand and hold up for more than a season. Most starter kits are either flimsy (the trowel bends on the third use) or overpriced (beautiful tools that don’t work any better than mid-range options). We tested 6 garden tool sets — budget hand tool bundles, mid-range stainless steel sets, premium forged options, raised bed kits, a complete tool shed starter, and a children’s set for family gardens. ...