It isn’t easy to distill hand tools into an essential list! There are so many great hand tools that are useful for growers planting around a 1/4 acre or more of vegetables—a garden of about 50 by 50 feet. But not every hand tool is essential, and some may be more practical at larger or smaller scales. Some tools are more useful when building gardens and less useful in the long term. Indeed, when I say essential, I truly feel a home grower should not be without these garden tools. So for this article I am taking the minimalist approach
A hand tool is an extension of the body, a means of increasing leverage, power and utility from our arms and hands and bodies. Hand tools allow us to do much more work in the garden at a very reasonable cost. A bit of well-designed metal and wood can provide so much benefit!
Ergonomic Shovel
A shovel is very useful. Of course it can be used to form new raised beds by digging out paths. But a shovel can also be used to do the work of a broad fork, double digging out beds. It can be used to bury the ends of row cover or weed barrier. It is also able to dig a hole for a large potted plant.
Shovels are essential, and they should be ergonomic.
Wide Rake
Every grower needs a wide rake to rake the surface of their bed top and help to create a good seed bed! A wide rake is easier to use to make this seed bed surface because it requires fewer passes to smooth the bed top. It also is widened enough that row markers can be placed over tines to help mark out rows.
The bask of the rake can be used to tamp down an area as well to help firm up the seed bed. You could use a bed roller/marker or gridder to help firm the bed top and mark the rows, but it is hard to argue with the affordability, ease of use and multifunctional nature of the good old rake!
But let us not forget the rake can also be used for pre-weeding. Just water a new bed and allow weeds to germinate, then pass over it with the rake again!
Push Seeder
Any garden of this size needs a push seeder. It would be unimaginable to hand seed all the beds in a 1/4-acre garden when a $150 to $250 tool could do this in a fraction of the time, with much greater accuracy for depth of seeding and quantity of seed per foot!
Grub Hoe or Wide Hoe
A hoe is very useful, especially the wide hoe that can be used to hill crops like potatoes and beans and even carrots (to prevent greening and help support growth). These are also useful for furrowing and making holes for planting larger crops like potatoes.
But the wider the hoe, the more it becomes useful for bed forming and reforming by pulling soil back up onto the bed top from the paths.
Stirrup Hoe, Collinear Hoe or Wire Weeder
One of these hoes for weeding between row weeds is essential. The choice has more to do with the quality of your soil. I prefer a stirrup hoe for rocky soil or soil with debris.
Collinear hoes are easier to get between crops for in-row weeding. Wire weeders are great because they don’t harm plants or drip tape, but they need a nice loose soil to easily operate in. Which weeder is right for you? Consider your crops and soil condition.
Harvest Crate
No matter what you are growing, you will want a crate to help bring in the harvest. Crates can be filled with loose carrots or potatoes, or heads of lettuce. You want a container that you can get dirty and easily clean, and which can hold your haul until you get back to the home or barn.
A Good Knife
A grower needs a knife on their belt. A good knife can be used to cut twine for trellising tomatoes, or harvest lettuce and other crops. A longer knife will give your more versatility, but too large and it will be ungainly for smaller tasks like twine cutting.
Certainly, there are specialized knives for everything from greens harvesting to pruning and grafting. But, again, one good knife can get you pretty far.
There are many other hand tools you may consider, especially if you scale up your garden and want to grow commercially. But this short, essential list will help focus your budget for a 1/4-acre garden.
Grow On!
