The average amateur gardener needs a few well selected tools to get the job done right. The right tools will make your task a lot easier, giving you more time to enjoy the fruits of all your time and your labor. There is a tremendous variation on price and quality of tools and an endless selection of gadgets, some good and some not so good.

The first rule for selecting tools is to buy the best quality tool you can afford. I have had enough garden tools bend and break right in my hands to know it is not worth it to buy cheap tools. That doesn't mean you have to be extravagant and over pay. It just means you should spend a little more to buy one high quality spade for instance, than several cheaper ones. Buy a tool that you expect to last you for the rest of your life. I am using forty-year-old garden tools than have been passed down from my wife's grandfather.

There are several good places to buy tools. Your local hardware store, garden center and home center are good places because you can actually get your hands on the tools and feel their quality.

Mail order catalogues are great, too, because they will offer you a larger selection of quality tools, many of them imported, and will usually include captions explaining the different tools.

Finally, be sure to shop yard, garage, and tag sales for garden tools. Some people don't know what they are getting rid of and you can find excellent quality used tools and rock bottom prices. You may even find a few valuable antiques.

The second rule for tools is to take good care of them. Brush dirt and dampness off metal tools and wipe them with an oily rag before you put them away. Wipe the wooden handles with mineral oil or vegetable oil once in a while to protect the wood. Change the oil every year on power tools and keep them clean and dry. Take care of your tools and they will take care of you.

Tools for the gardener are can be roughly divided into six categories: Digging Tools, Hand Tools, Planting Tools, Watering Tools, Composting Tools and Power Tools. I am not going to give you a long list of all the different types of tools you could have. Instead, I am going to give you a short list of the tools that you will actually need to use.

Digging Tools

Forked Spade - Also known as a digging fork, a spading fork or a garden fork, this is the most versatile garden tool you can own. You can use it to dig up the soil and prepare the beds for most of the gardens in this book. It is also good as a compost fork and can be used to dig holes for transplanting.

Look for a tool with a forged head made of heavy gauge stainless or carbon steel firmly attached to a hard wood or steel shaft that is topped with a D-shaped steel handle. The tool should be about waist high.

Level Head Garden Rake - You will need a heavy steel garden rake to smooth the soil and rake out the rocks, roots and debris before you plant. Don't confuse this with a lawn rake which has long flexible teeth to rake up leaves and grass clippings. Choose a rake that has a forged, one-piece steel head with curved teeth attached to a sturdy hard wood shaft.

Edger - An edger is a steel semi-circle attached to a waist high shaft that you use to dig narrow trenches or edges around your flower or vegetable garden to separate it from the lawn. It really does give your gardens a tidy neat look. Look for a good quality edger that has a slight lip on the top side so that when you put your foot on it to press down you aren't digging into your shoes or feet.

Hand Tools

Trowel - A trowel is indispensable for transplanting flower and vegetable bedding plants into your garden. You can also use it as a tiny shovel to dig and smooth out a small area, or to dig holes to plant tulip and daffodil bulbs.

I use both the wide blade and narrow blade trowels and it is a toss up which I use more often. You should choose one that feels comfortable in your hand or just splurge and get both. Look for a solid forged, heavy duty steel trowel that won't bend in your hand.

Pruning Shears - Also known as hand pruners or secateurs, pruning shears will be useful to you when you start planting roses, shrubs, vines and small trees in many of this books chapters. You can also use pruning shears to cut roses and other flowers for bouquets and to cut perennials back in the fall.

There are pruning shears for big jobs, small jobs, left and right handed persons and more. You won't need anything better than a basic or light weight pruning shears. Choose one that feels good in your hands and has brightly colored handles so you won't loose them in the garden.

Lopping Shears - These are nothing more than long handled pruning shears designed to handle larger shrubs and bushes with branches up to one and one half inches thick. You won't need these right away but eventually your will if you do any landscaping in your yard. Look for steel blades and sturdy handles.

Pruning Saw You will only need a pruning saw if you plant The Cottage Orchard chapter in this book and then only when the trees get large. Buy a curved bladed saw with a wooden handle that cuts on the pull action or draw stroke rather than on the push stroke.

Planting Tools

Planting Line and Stakes - This tool can easily be homemade out of two twelve inch pointed sticks and twenty feet of nylon or cotton string. You can also buy ready made ones in stores and catalogues. This tool is for people who want to plant straight rows in the garden. You simply stick one stake in the ground, run the cord along the planting bed and poke the other stake in the ground at the other end. It really does help.

Seed Starting Kit - Also known as propagators, some companies now offer fully stocked seed planting kits which are very convenient. It really is a lot of fun to start your own tomato or flower plants from seed indoors and you get a chance to enjoy a wider variety of seed selections. They come complete with a table-top sized green house, planting pots, soil mixture and a watering tray.

Plant Label Stakes - I can't tell you how often I have heard "I planted something there and now I can't remember what it is." Well, don't let this happen to you. Buy plant label stakes, made of either plastic, wood or metal, write the names of your plants on them and place them in the ground nearby. Most of the major botanical gardens do this, why shouldn't you.

Watering Tools

The tools in this section are selected with water conservation in mind. Almost everywhere there is some water shortage at one time or the other and gardeners should be in the forefront of wise water use.

Watering Can - Watering cans are really useful to water bedding plants when you first transplant them into the ground and then again every few days until they get established. Watering cans come in various sizes, shapes and colors, so pick one you like the best. I prefer and galvanized steel can with a standard, not an elongated spout. Heavy duty plastic cans are also quite good. I think a two gallon can full of water is about as heavy as a typical person can handle.

Rubber Hose and Nozzle - Don't buy cheap plastic hoses. They tend to kink, crack and useless in a very short time. Buy a fifty foot length of reinforced rubber hose with heavy duty brass couplings. You will need your rubber hose to water trees and to hook up to your soaker hose.

I suggest you buy a standard size solid polished brass nozzle. They give you a variable stream of water from light sprinkle to hard stream, they can handle any amount of pressure and they never break.

Soaker Hose - Soaker hoses ooze water out through the pours of the rubber hose itself. With a soaker hose you will conserve up to seventy percent of the water you used to waste when you watered your garden with a sprinkler. Furthermore, they do a better job because the water can slowly seep into the soil down deep where it can be stored and used as the plants need it.

A very environmental soaker hose called Moisture Master is made from recycled automobile tires.