tools and equipment in our garden shed

I wanted to write a post about what tools and equipment we have in our garden shed so newcomers to gardening could get an idea of what they need in order to carry out basic, everyday tasks in the garden. 

Not all of these items are absolutely essential.  Use your discretion when considering what you need.  Remember that what you require will depend on what type of garden you have.  On the same token, there are many other tools and pieces of equipment which may be useful to you which we don’t have.

We tend to have duplicates of tools such as spades, forks, trowels and so on as we host wwoofers (travellers with working holiday visas who stay with us in exchange for some assistance around the garden).  As there is sometimes more than one person needing a tool, this is helpful for people to be able to work on the same or different projects simultaneously.
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Secateurs
Secateurs are helpful for pruning fruit trees and roses.  They can be used to trim other plants.
Loppers
Loppers are useful for pruning old, dead canes on roses and trimming hedges.
Spade
A spade is a basic gardening tool which can be used for digging over garden beds, digging out weeds as well as digging large holes for planting fruit trees, roses and other plants.
Fork
A fork is helpful for digging potatoes when they are ready to be harvested.  It also comes in handy when weeding and digging over new garden beds where there are clumps of soil that need to be broken up.
Rake
Useful for collecting fallen leaves and levelling soil prior to planting.
Trowel
Trowels are most useful for digging out weeds and digging holes for to plant new seedlings.
Mini fork
The perfect accompaniment to a trowel, a mini fork is helpful when weeding.
Kneeling pads
These are useful for resting your knees on when weeding, sowing seeds and planting seedlings.  We use old kick boards for swimming for this purpose.
Lawn mower
We have a lawnmower but don’t use it, as a man called Henry mows our lawn.  A lawnmower is indispensable not only for every gardener, but also every house in New Zealand
Edging tool
Useful for tidying up edges after lawn mowing, so the pavement looks neat and tidy.
Rotary hoe
These are expensive.  We don’t have one but our lawn mowing man does.  His rotary hoe made it easy to create new garden beds.
Plastic tie
Plastic ties are useful in securing plants to stakes and trellis.  They can also be used to tie two pieces of trellis together when one piece on its own isn’t long enough.
String
String is handy for tying plants to stakes for support.
Scissors
Scissors are useful for a variety of tasks, including opening packets or bags of fertiliser, compost and potting mix, cutting plastic tie and string, cutting flowers to put into a vase and deadheading flowers after they have bloomed.
Black rubbish bags
Black rubbish bags are a useful way of collecting garden waste, which can then be deposited straight into a garden waste wheelie bin.  They can also be used to collect additional garden waste to be taken to the refuse station.  Black rubbish bags can also be used to store items in the gardening shed.
Nails
Nails are useful for securing trellis to the fence for climbing crops such as beans and peas.
Staples
Staples are useful for securing trellis to the fence for climbing crops such as beans and peas
Hammer
You’ll need a hammer to knock in nails for tasks such as securing trellis to the fence for climbing crops such as beans and peas
Axe
An axe is useful for breaking up gardening waste.  After summer, we were left with a lot of tall sunflower stumps.  The axe was helpful in breaking up the stalks into smaller pieces so we could dispose of them and the stumps in our garden waste bins.
Saw
A saw is useful for pruning thick rose canes and branches of larger plants such as camellias.
Old hosiery
Old stockings make excellent, strong ties for securing plants to stakes.
Plastic stakes
Plastic stakes are the perfect way to provide plant support for crops such as tomatoes.
Wooden stakes
Thicker, wooden stakes are perfect in providing plant support for larger plants such as fruit trees and roses
Plastic punnets
Plastic punnets are useful for sowing seeds in to germinate
Plastic pots
Once plants have outgrown plastic punnets, plastic pots are useful for potting up seedlings
Small plastic medicine glass
These are helpful for measuring liquid fertiliser to be diluted in water prior to application