Favorite Gardening Tools

My husband and I have managed to amass a fairly large collection of gardening tools. We have enough hoes, shovels, rakes, watering cans, trowels, and pruners to ensure that we can both be working in the garden and not have to fight over tools. And I've noticed that we each have our favorites. He gravitates toward the Fiskars PowerGear pruners, while I am never without my trusty bypass pruners from Ace Hardware. Yes, I use store-brand pruners. And I love them! My little pruners are sharp, not too big for my hand, and just the right size to carry around in my pocket. I should really buy another pair, just in case. I do tend to lose things....

Another tool I absolutely love is my little hand hoe, which my husband bought me for Christmas from Johnny's. It is well-made, super-sharp, and it is easy for me to get between even the most closely-planted annuals or vegetables to weed. I used to use a hand cultivator, which is still a good choice, but I like the way my little hand hoe cuts through the soil. And, it looks kind of cool. Deadly, maybe. But cool.

Oh, and then there's the spade my husband and kids bought me for Christmas. I had finally broken my favorite spade during the fall (digging out a monster clump of Siberian irises to divide...) and I mourned the loss of it for weeks. Lo and behold, on Christmas morning, my Santas gave me a beautiful new spade, made by a Michigan company, no less. My spade is made by Radius Garden, and, besides being probably the prettiest garden tool I've ever used, is also very comfortable to use. This line of tools is designed with ergonomics in mind, and recommended for anyone with arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome. Even if you don't have those issues, these are worth buying. It seems like I don't have to work nearly as hard at tasks like digging and sodbusting with my new spade.

And then, there are the tools that drive me buggy. The hose that kinks every time I move from one bed to another. The sprinkler that never seems to spray in the direction I want it to, even after I spend several minutes fiddling with that stupid little dial that's supposed to allow you to set a spray pattern. The grass shears that absolutely kill my hands when I use them.

Do you have a favorite (or least favorite) garden tool? Share it with us!