Coastal 101 - Garden Hand Tools

Good Tools for a Job Well Done

There’s just something about warm weather and sunny days that makes us want to get our hands in the dirt, especially in our gardens. To help you with digging, spading and troweling, Coastal has every garden hand tool – along with seeds and flowers – that you'll need to be planting and cultivating.

The right tool for the right job makes all the difference, especially when taking care of your garden. If you’re just starting out, familiarizing yourself with different tools and their functions can save time and frustration.

To get you started, we thought we’d give you a primer on the most useful hand tools and their purpose:

Spade – An essential part of your gardening tool set the spade comes in a variety of shapes. It’s terrific at digging and moving soil. A spade can have a flat, thin and rectangular blade like a border spade or a more elongated blade like a transplanting spade. They’re not the same as shovels, which typically have a curved blade. Spades are made for churning the soil as well as making holes for small trees, shrubs and flowers. They are good for breaking up roots and weeds as well as an ideal tool for transplanting plants.

Shovels – Designed for digging and scooping dirt, soil or snow. Everyone is familiar with a shovel as it has a variety of uses. They come in shapes like the round point shovel which is the classic shape. The square shape shovel is used more for leveling soil in preparation for laying surfaces. The scoop shovel is just that, large and open-faced, for scooping snow and other materials. For gardening purposes, you want to use the round point shovel to effectively dig and remove good quantities of dirt at a time.

Hoes – Most of us think of the hoe when it comes to gardening. Ideal for creating furrows and deftly cutting out shallow weeds, the hoe is an efficient, light tool that comes in a variety of styles. The traditional garden hoe features a long handle and perpendicular blade. The warren hoe, with its triangular blade, is most suited for prepping seeds and bringing up potatoes and other vegetables just below the soil surface.

Shears – Small pruning shears are ideal for clipping small limbs of trees or shrubs. They’re also delicate enough for pruning flowers such as roses and other varietals and even cutting away dead leaves from vegetables like tomatoes.

Trowels - Used for digging small holes and moving soil, trowels have a pointed blade shaped like a scoop. Trowels can be used for mixing soil & amendments, cultivating and weeding.

Make sure you use a forged style trowel that is stout and not likely to bend when encountering hard pan soil or rocks.

Hand Cultivator – Also used to break up soil. Cultivators are good for spreading fertilizer and removing shallow weeds while not harming the roots of surrounding plants.

Gloves - We can’t forget one of the most essential accessories when working with tools in the garden. Besides keeping hands clean, gloves protect hands from blisters, calluses and cuts, not to mention sun damage. Many styles of gloves are waterproof and you can also select lighter weight or heavier duty pairs depending on the work at hand.

Coastal is Your Garden Center

There’s a wonderful feeling of satisfaction in seeing a garden come into its own. Stop by your Northwest owned and operated Coastal for all of your tool and garden needs, including hundreds of fruit, vegetable and flower seeds.