Enjoy gardening even more with these favorite time-saving garden tools. Make planting, weeding, watering, and hauling easier and more efficient.
What takes up the most time in your garden? For me, it’s planting, weeding, watering, and hauling things from one end of the yard to the other. Anything that helps me do these jobs faster (and with less wear and tear on my body) is an instant win.
The problem is, there are so many tools out there. Some are wildly expensive and some are too cheap, if you know what I mean. What’s actually worth buying?
I’m a firm believer that gardening doesn’t have to be complicated and that our tools shouldn’t be either. When I’m in the garden, I want to enjoy myself and get the “work-work” over with as cleanly and efficiently as possible.
Over the last six years, I’ve narrowed down my tool collection to a few favorites that really save me time, conserve energy, and help me stay motivated instead of frustrated and overwhelmed.
You don’t need a whole shed full of tools to be a good gardener. A small collection of smart tools will do for many seasons.
These are my top ten time-saving garden tools that I use over and over and would hate to be without. They’re easy to use and worth having in your arsenal whether you’re a hardcore vegetable or flower gardener, or just squeezing in a little gardening on the weekends.
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The Quick List
Here’s the short list of favorite garden tools. I’ll dive into each one in the next section, or you can tap the link to jump to the tool you want to learn more about.
- Bow Rake
- Bypass Pruners
- Hori-Hori Knife
- Floral Snips (Needle Nose Shears)
- Garden Cart
- Retractable Hose Reel
- Garden Gloves
- Planting Auger
- Dibber
- Half-Moon Edger
Do you have all these tools and still struggle with gardening? You may be making one of these 10 mistakes.
10 Time-Saving Tools Every Gardener Should Own
1. Bow Rake
To be clear, this is not a flimsy plastic leaf rake. Those have their uses, of course, but a bow rake is a must-have for breaking up dirt clods and leveling garden beds and for spreading compost or mulch.
It has short metal tines to grab clumps with. Flip the rake over and you can use the long metal rod to level out soil or sand.
I use this mostly to pile up compost, spread mulch, and to smooth out soil in my any of garden beds. I also use this to create rows in my in-ground beds before I plant seedlings or direct sow seeds.Test out bow rakes before you buy and choose one that’s solid and feels good in your hands.
2. Bypass Pruners
Sharp handheld bypass pruners save time and energy by:
- Making clean cuts, which leads to healthier plants
- Lessening hand fatigue
- Cutting through the first time (for faster pruning and harvesting)
My top recommendation for bypass pruners are Felco #2’s. They’re an investment, for sure, but they do make gardening easier and less frustrating.
I’ve broken many lesser quality hand pruners. Save yourself the trouble and get the good stuff.
3. Hori-Hori Garden Knife
If I could only keep one hand tool, this would be it. A hori-hori knife functions as:
- a trowel
- a weeder
- a mini-saw
- a measuring guide
This garden tool is always on my belt in the spring when I’m planting seedlings and seeds, dividing and moving perennials, cutting sod, and ruthlessly popping out weeds.
It has a wide blade with a pointed tip that works really well to dig in my garden’s clay soil. I like that one edge is serrated so I can saw through woody stems and roots easily. It does a decent job at digging up long dandelion tap roots and thistles.
I love the simplicity of the hori-hori knife and that it allows me to switch tasks on a whim without having to switch tools constantly.
4. Floral Snips (Needle-Nose Shears)
I realize that I’ve got three different cuttting tools on this list, and I considered leaving the snips out, but I really can’t. I use my floral snips all the time as a cut flower gardener.
It’s great for cutting flower and foliage stems and deadheading quickly. It’s at the top of my list of gardening tools for cut flower gardeners.
I love having a pair of snips with me as I’m in my vegetable or flower garden because it makes harvesting quick and easy.
5. Garden Cart
If you have a tiny yard, you may not need a cart or wheelbarrow, but I have a decent-sized backyard and weak arms, so a garden cart like my Gorilla Dump Cart is indispensable.
It’s much easier to maneuver than a wheelbarrow; it glides over grass and mulch even carrying heavy loads, and the dump feature makes it easy to empty the cart in one go.
I use my Gorilla Cart for:
- transporting mulch, compost, and soil
- carrying freshly dug perennials and my shovel
- moving new plants and bagged soil or mulch from my car to the garden
- taking weeds and garden debris to the burn pile
I could go on, but you get the picture. This Gorilla Cart reduces strain and speeds up all these tasks. I think I would cry if you took my garden cart away.
6. Retractable Hose Reel (and Hose, Obviously)
Watering shouldn’t be the hardest part of gardening. For years I struggled to pull out a heavy hose and wind it back up by hand or left it in a pile where it would inevitably get kinky and tangly. Then I’d have to pull out the watering can. Sigh.
Once we got a Hoselink retractable hose reel, I started to get why people love watering their gardens so much.
Once you get one, you’ll understand it, too.
7. Garden Gloves
Do gloves count as a tool? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be a happy gardener without a pair like these. Sometimes I’ll garden barehanded, but we struggle with thistles and other thorny weeds, so I don’t like to be without gloves.
This pair that I use fit my small hands snugly, allow for movement, and protect my hands without being too bulky. They are comfortable and save my hands from getting torn up or blistered. Highly recommend.
8. Planting Auger
“I can’t wait to plant spring bulbs!”
If that sentence made you wince and you just died a little inside, then clearly you’ve never planted bulbs with a garden auger.
This thing is a game-changer. We bought one a couple years ago to plant 400 daffodil bulbs and I have never been more grateful for a garden tool.
It attaches to a drill and digs perfectly sized holes in seconds. Even if you have dry clay soil. It’s not just for bulbs either, you can use it to quickly plant 4-inch annuals as well.
Get an auger with a long shaft so you can use it standing up. Your back will thank you.
And when you do, come back here in the fall, re-read that first sentence, and tell me how it felt to say that with a giant smile on your face.
9. Dibber
This deceptively simple garden tool is an absolute time-saver if you transplant a lot of seedlings into your garden. Instead of lifting soil to make holes with a trowel, all you do is stab the soil with your dibber, wiggle it around if you need a larger hole, plant, and move on.
It’s very efficient and creates perfectly sized holes for seedlings and transplants. You can use it to plant seeds as well, but honestly, I typically just use my hands.
10. Half-Moon Edger
A clean edge is one of those small details that makes a garden look finished—and fantastic.
I use my half-moon edger every spring and again in late summer to tidy up edges quickly. It cuts through overgrown grass on the edges and slices through sod cleanly. Having neat edges will keep a garden from looking overgrown and wild (even if it is in fact, overgrown and wild).
If you love a natural-looking garden with clean edges, this tool is a must-have.
And 3 Gardening Tools I No Longer Use…
There are 3 gardening tools I no longer use. I bought them because I thought I was supposed to. They came in beginner sets or showed up in gardening videos. and while plenty of gardeners love them, they just didn’t fit the way I actually garden.
First: the hand rake (or hand cultivator).
It came in my very first set of garden tools, all shiny and matchy-matchy. But honestly, I never really understood what it was for.
Breaking up soil? I’ll just use a bow rake.
Raking up a tiny scattering of leaves? I’ll just use a leaf rake.
Every time I need to do a job like these, I skipped over the hand rake. Eventually it broke, and I tossed it in the trash. I realized I don’t need three tools that do the same job.
Second: the bulb planter.
Maybe this works perfectly in soft, fluffy, well-draining soil. That is not what I have.
The first fall I tried using one, I planted 2 bulbs before it bent out of shape in my dehydrated clay soil. Kneeling on the ground trying to cut out precise little circles with a bulb planter is not my idea of a good time.
Now I use my planting auger. It’s faster, easier, and I can stand up the whole time.
Third (this might be controversial): the soil blocker
The gardeners who use them love them. I see the appeal. I understand the method. I tried the method!
But over time I’ve realized something important: I don’t need to adopt every gardening trend to grow a beautiful garden.
The soil blocker is clever. It eliminates plastic and naturally air prunes roots. It’s just not how I like to start seeds.
And that’s the bigger lesson, right? Not every must-have (even my must-haves!) is a must-have for you.
Sometimes cutting your work in half isn’t about buying more tools, it’s about letting a few go.
The Right Tools Make Gardening More Enjoyable
Garden tasks like digging, weeding, and watering don’t have to be a drain on your time and energy. The right tools (ones that actually fit how you garden) make all the difference.
Using the right kinds of quality tools will save you from being frustrated and help you work more efficiently and happily.
Start with a few, invest in quality when you can, and let your garden grow at a pace that feels good.
After all, it’s not about achieving perfection or keeping up. It’s about creating a garden that fits your life.