Here in North Texas, our gardening season isn’t over. In fact the Fall garden is about to be fully underway! As soon as these triple digit temperatures drop off, my garden will be full of peppers, tomatoes, herbs, flowers, and squash. But for many of you in the northern states, the daylight hours will be shortening and the temperatures will drop to frost and freeze levels all too soon. So I thought I’d take a review of my 2023 garden and see what my favorite garden tools were.
*Everything I mention today can be found in my Garden Idea List. This is an Amazon Affiliate feature where you can browse all my favorite garden tools, and make a purchase all in one place. I will receive a small commission from qualifying purchases, but that doesn’t affect what I think of these products. For my full affiliates disclosure click here.*
Gloves
First up, my absolute must have for any gardener is gloves. Any time I go into the garden without my gloves, I regret it. Not only do gardening gloves keep your hands clean, but they protect you from spikey plants and wood splinters. Also, this is a true story, I went to the garden just to “do a quick look,” and ended up nearly grabbing a poisonous spider!
The gloves I have in my idea list are leather. They are soft and more comfortable than other gardening gloves I’ve used. But I can depend on the thickness to protect me from pokes, scrapes, and bites.
Apron
Full transparency, the garden apron I use is one I made myself. But it is very similar to the one I have in my garden favorites. Before wearing an apron in the garden, I was constantly putting my various tools and seed packets down and forgetting where they were. Now I only do this half the time! The full apron also protects my clothing for the most part, so I don’t have to change outfits just for work.
Basket
The apron has enough storage for a handful of herbs or a ripe tomato or two. But during full harvest time, I need something a little bigger. I love my wicker basket! It holds a good amount of produce, but it also makes a beautiful backdrop when I take those obligatory pictures of my bounty.
Compost Bin
This year, since most of my garden was in containers, I spent the time I normally would have spent weeding or other garden maintenance diving into composting. Even an apartment dweller could do this for their garden!
First I put any vegetable or fruit scraps into this metal compost bin. (Well whatever scraps are not good for my Rabbits. They love wilted lettuce, carrot tops, and cucumber skins) At the end of the week, or when it’s full, I take the small kitchen bin out to my big compost tumbler. The scraps, my rabbits’ used bedding, and some leaves or grass clipping or paper go in. Then I give it a spin.
Sometimes, I’ll put the kitchen scraps into my worm compost bin. I don’t do this every time though because it takes awhile for my 100 worms to eat the scraps. I try to keep the kitchen scraps equal to the amount of coconut coir and newspaper. A soil thermometer is also a good purchase for your compost bins to make sure it’s getting hot enough to “cook” the scraps down. But for your worms, you don’t want them getting too hot or cold. This thermometer is specifically for worm bins and shows what the optimal soil temp is.
Garden stakes and ties
I use these garden stakes for my tomatoes and peppers. I stake them at the same time I transplant the seedlings then use the garden twine to tie them as they grow. When I grow tomatoes in raised beds, especially indeterminate varieties, I usually add another stake or two and do a Florida weave style trellis.
Raised bed
Speaking of raised beds, my dad bought this raised bed for himself. I helped him to set it up for summer and I was really impressed with it! If you don’t want to build your own raised bed, a prefab one like this might be just the thing.
Shade Cloth
This Summer has been brutal! After I built my raised beds, I quickly put up a shade cloth to protect my seedlings and transplants. This cloth still lets in 60% of the sun but shades the plants during the hottest part of the day. If you are a southern gardener like me, or experiencing a heatwave, I highly recommend a shade cloth or five.
Sun hat and SPF shirt
Protect yourself from the sun too. I was gifted a set like this and wear it all the time. In very hot days, I’ll get the shirt wet before putting it on to keep me cool. This hat has a chin strap to keep the hat on during a windy day and helps to keep sweat out of my eyes.
Garden kneeler
I wouldn’t have bought this garden kneeler for myself. When my dad gave this to me as a gift, I didn’t think I would get much use out of it. But this has really become one of my favorite garden tools this year. You can flip it so the pad is high and use it as a seat. I like to straddle it and lean over one side. But its best use is to kneel on the pad, then the legs can be used as leverage to stand back up. I’m in my mid 30s and I’m embarrassed how many times I’ve found myself stuck in a kneel or squat too sore or stiff to stand up.
Pruners
Whether it’s tomato suckers, deadheading flowers, or harvesting herbs, my pruners are probably my most used garden tool. I have this exact one and it has lasted me all season without becoming dull or sticking. I love the easy slide to lock or unlock the blades.
Grow lights
This last item is actually on my wishlist for the next seed starting season. I used these grow lights this winter and they did not work very well for me. Next year I plan to upgrade to big shop lights like these! Any full spectrum shop light will work, it doesn’t have to be labeled specifically for garden use or seed starting.
My Favorite Garden Tools of 2023
As the 2023 gardening season starts to draw to a close, these tools are the ones that stand out as my most used. My favorite garden tools are simple and inexpensive. Any home gardener would love these as a gift! I recommend these to anyone just starting out as a gardener, microhomesteader, or hobby farm.
