As a child you have probably seen your mother or father pottering about in the garden. They seemed to be working with lots of tools. You might have played with a gardening tool as well. Now that you are grown-up and have your own garden you too will need those garden tools.

A visit to your local garden shop will reveal that there are many different gardening tool items available. The price range will vary from one piece to the next. The tricky part is buying what you need and not going for lots of expensive things that you might never use.

The first item that you will need is a spading fork. This gardening tool looks like a pitchfork, but it has a shorter handle and the tines are wider. You will need to use the spading fork to dig into hard soil and open the ground up for planting.

After your garden is dug up, you need to prepare the soil with the hoe. This gardening tool is wonderful to cultivate the surface of the soil. A well cultivated soil will allow nutrients and water to seep into the ground and nourish the plants. A round ended shovel is another item that is good for larger digging projects. With a round ended shovel you can plant trees and shrubs in your garden.

Water is a gardener’s best friend. You need to buy a watering can that has a long nozzle. With a long nozzle, the rate of water coming from the can is very gentle on your plants. Also long nozzled watering cans let you water plants farther away from you. With young seedlings in your garden a watering can that has a detachable head is a useful gardening tool.

The best way to level your garden prior to planting is to use a bow rake. This rake has a metal frame that is shaped like a bow. The tines are short and are attached to one side of the rake. With a good bow rake the removal of large clods of earth or rocks can be done. When you turn to the flat side of the rake, you can smooth the soil and get it ready for planting.

Good but inexpensive garden shears can remove dead branches and stems from your plants. You can prune and shape your trees and shrubs with this gardening tool. Before you buy a pair of garden shears or clippers as they are also called, make sure that the shears will fit your hand comfortably.

These garden tools are just the basic ones that you will need the most. As your interest in gardening expands, you will gain more knowledge about the different gardening tool items that are available and what is best suited for you and your garden.