‘Cheap as chips and save backache’: gardening pros on the tools they can’t live without

Getting your garden ready for spring? We asked the experts for their go-to kit, from secateurs and soil knives to trousers with enough pockets for twine

In my garden, the celandines are popping, the blackthorn buds are breaking, and the bees are beginning to bumble. These, to my mind, are all solid seasonal omens, and I for one can feel my sap beginning to rise: time to venture outside.

Though undoubtedly there are cold, damp and dreary days still to come, the spring starting pistol has been fired and months of good gardening now lie ahead. There are seeds to sow, shrubs to prune and perennials to chop back and divide. In all tasks, however, being well equipped makes every bit of difference to the experience, so here are some dependable, tried and tested – and in many cases beloved – tools recommended by professionals, from head gardeners and growers to producers of vegetables and cut flowers.

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The best gardening tools

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Snipping, sculpting and securing

In line with changing attitudes that favour leaving “dead stuff” standing through winter as habitat for wildlife (namely the browned and brittle stems of herbaceous perennials and grasses), the great “cut back” has been certifiably shifted into the new year. From late January onwards, the likes of aster and anemone, miscanthus and chasmanthium can be strategically snipped and repurposed, whether “chopped and dropped” directly on to the soil as mulch, or shipped off to the compost bin. It is the time, too, for pruning back roses, hydrangeas, dogwoods and elders, and other summer-flowering shrubs; and for trimming hedges in advance of the nesting season (typically March to August in the UK).

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Burgon & Ball secateurs

£14.99 at Crocus £13.95 at Amazon

The obvious place to start is with a reliable pair of secateurs. Last year, I put a range of bypass secateurs to the test for the Filter, and cruising through a set of imposed challenges were Burgon & Ball’s RHS-endorsed bypass secateurs. Affordable, comfortable in the hand and durably constructed, these are built for the everyday rigours of cold-weather pruning.

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Felco bypass secateurs

£42.30 at eBay £49.99 at Amazon

For Chatu Madhvani, however – a freelance gardener whose practice champions sustainable, low-resource horticulture – Swiss tool producer Felco provides the ideal model. “My Felco No 6 secateurs, made for smaller hands, have seen me through more than 15 years of tough stems and gritty roots,” she says. “My hand has grown so familiar with their easy mechanics, weight and shape that they’ve become effortless to use – there’s never been any need for a replacement.”

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Niwaki GR Pro S-Type secateurs

£76 at Niwaki

For more, read our guide to the best secateurs

Tobisho Pro Snips bud shears

£99 at Niwaki

Former carpenter turned nurseryman Toby Shuall recommends “indispensable” Japanese tool manufacturer Niwaki. For larger-stemmed material, he prefers its GR Pro S-Type secateurs – a remodelled version of the popular GR Pro pair, designed for ergonomic comfort – and for more delicate cuts, the compact, scissor-like Tobisho Pro Snips. “I use these constantly,” he says. “I have two pairs – one for each end of the garden – as I don’t like wearing holsters or tool belts.” After use, Shuall rubs away grime with a Mini Clean Mate rust and sap eraser, and regularly sharpens with Niwaki’s Twin Diamond File.

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Niwaki double holster

£48 at Niwaki £48 at Burford Garden Co

Head gardener at the Exchange in Erith, Selina Ozanne, does favour a holster to keep all her tools in one place. “I don’t like too many things hanging around my waist – I feel weighed down and less nimble – Niwaki’s double holster fits both my secateurs and soil knife.”

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Similar pick: ARS 321DX-T grape harvesting scissors

£15.95 at My Tool Shed £15.95 at Tooled Up

For the most precise cuts of all, Maggie Tran – head of gardens on the remote north-west Scottish island of Tanera Mòr – is a fan of ARS’s 321DX-M Angled stainless steel scissors. “They’re Japanese-made, and I use them for things like harvesting, deadheading and snipping string,” she says. “I actually use them more than my secateurs – they’re good for quick tidy-ups of soft material.”

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Red fish knife

£2.64 at the Safety Supply Company

For snipping string, Sean Harkin, head gardener at London’s Inner Temple Garden, prefers the efficiency of the Safety Supply Company’s red fish knife. “It’s much less fiddly than using secateurs or scissors for cutting twine, and great for general border works or when training roses.”

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Stihl HSA 26 hedge trimmer

£129 at Stihl From £140 at Amazon

Telescopic shaft pole

£47.99 at SGS Engineering £53 at Stihl

For those hoping to save a little time and backache with the spring chop-back, Harkin says Stihl’s HSA 26 cordless hedge trimmer (and accompanying HSA 26 telescopic shaft pole) has been a gamechanger due to its light weight. “We use this on many tasks, including cutting back perennials and grasses such as Hakonechloa macra, where using the extension pole and the hedge trimmer at an angle, creating an L shape, allows you to cut over a large area quickly and easily.” The trimmer is useful for many other seasonal tasks, he adds, such as trimming topiary or pruning the vigorous summer growth of the garden’s rambling Rosa banksiae Lutea.

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Weeding, seeding and propagating

As warmth returns to the soil, growth begins to stir, and plants both desired and disliked emerge. This means there’s selective weeding to do, but also old perennials to divide and reinvigorate, and new seeds to be sown under cover. And although the dormant season is now drawing to a close, there’s still time to take hardwood cuttings and collect grafting material from trees and shrubs.

Enter soil knives, which are fast becoming the gardener’s most coveted hand tool. Originating in Japan, and to the layperson’s eye resembling a Roman dagger, the soil knife (or hori hori, meaning dig dig) is a broad, sturdy, wooden-handled blade designed for rough use, as a weeding implement (for extracting deep taproots from stony soils) and a planting and propagation tool.

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Nisaku hori hori

£47 at Japanese Knife Company

To tackle the stubborn coastal shingle of Prospect Cottage at Dungeness – the former home of the artist Derek Jarman – gardener and nurseryman Jonny Bruce depends upon his Nisaku hori hori. “With its strong blade and sharp, serrated edge, I never garden without it on my belt. It also comes in handy at the potting bench, when I’m dividing perennials.”

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Niwaki hori hori with canvas sheath

£39 at Niwaki £39.99 at Crocus

Numerous other gardeners recommended hori hori knives, including Toby Shuall and Selina Ozanne, who consider Niwaki’s Hori Hori Pro the best of the bunch. “Next to my secateurs, it’s my most valued tool,” says Ozanne. “I use it for weeding – its length and sharp tip are great at teasing out the taproots of blue alkanet or the pesky runners of creeping cinquefoil – and for planting small plants, as well as most bulbs, reducing the need for carrying around multiple tools.” Wiltshire-based cut flower grower Sophia Gray uses Niwaki’s original (and mildly more affordably priced) hori hori, which comes with a canvas sheath.

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Garden Claw GC 20-06

£47.71 at Amazon

Gray contends with heavy clay soil at her Swindon allotment, which she must prepare each spring for flower production. To ease this intensive labour, she uses the gold and blue Garden Claw GC 20-06, a fork with rotated tines designed for loosening tough and compacted soil. “This has been so helpful in cultivating my plot at relative speed. Being able to stand up while using it, rather than kneeling down, is also much kinder on my back.”

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Mulch border spade

£29.78 at B&Q £39.99 at Mulch Garden

For the majority of soil work, my personal go-to has always been the border spade, and over the past year, the ash-handled, carbon steel-strengthened one from Mulch has been a near-constant companion. In the Garden Museum potting shed, it’s the spade that always gets snapped up first each day.

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Burgon & Ball extended hand trowel

£21 at Farrar & Tanner £19.95 at Amazon

For her own planting jobs, Chatu Madhvani likes an extended hand trowel. “Burgon & Ball’s long trowel has a narrow profile, which allows me to work into tight gaps and reach the right depth to establish small plants and bulbs without damaging existing roots.”

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Niwaki hand hoe

£18 at Niwaki

Gardener Claire Mitchell, whose practice offers sustainable garden revamps, uses Niwaki’s hand hoe for planting in borders. “It uses your natural movements and gravity to loosen and work up planting holes in even the most gloopy clay soils. It avoids the elbow-twisting motion prevalent in trowels and hand-forks, and has a pleasing weight in the hand. It’s so popular with my clients, I save the link to ping across to them.”

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Vintage ice-cream scoop

£4.78 at Nisbets

Mitchell’s other recommendation is a little left-field: “A vintage ice-cream scoop is ideal for decanting compost from large bags into potting trays, or for dolloping compost into a sieve for finer seed preparation. They’re cheap as chips and save backache from lifting and pouring heavy bags.”

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Ladbrooke Multi 35 soil blocker

£180 at Ladbrooke Soil Blockers

For sowing vegetable and flower seeds, you might follow productive grower Josh Sparkes’ lead and do away with seed trays and plastic pots. The head gardener at progressive, organic-principled Birch Farm in Devon, he recommends using a soil blocker, which compacts potting compost into cubes for seed-sowing, removing the need for pots.

“Each year I use our Ladbrooke Multi 35 soil blocker to make tens of thousands of blocks for the farm,” he says. “It allows us to make 35 one-inch blocks at a time and in quick succession while minimising plastic use. The spaces between the blocks also allow for roots to be air-pruned, which means we don’t suffer from root binding and transplant shock, and planting them is a joy as you can simply push them into the soil and watch them root.” For smaller gardens, Ladbrooke also offers mini 4- and 5-block hand-operated soil blockers.

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Grafting knife 605

£115.97 at PG Horticulture

Tina grafting knife

£104.65 at PG Horticulture

For plant production, grafting or cuttings knives are another beloved item on the gardener’s belt. Emily Allard, the propagation expert behind Beth Chatto’s nursery in Essex, has had her PG Horticulture grafting knife 605 for more than 20 years. “If you keep it clean and dry after use, it will last a very long time,” she says. “The knife is light and fits really well into my hand; I can use it all day, handling a lot of plant material.” Similarly, Tom Coward, head gardener at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex, is life-bonded with his fractionally longer PG Horticulture Tina grafting knife, a 30th birthday gift from his mother.

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Trug

£6.49 at Red Gorilla From £4.49 at VioVet

No gardening tools list is complete without a portable, multipurpose trug. The 14L Gorilla Tub comes recommended by Andrea Brunsendorf, head gardener of the historic Lowther Castle & Gardens in Cumbria. “Ideal for gathering all tools when working with multiple gardeners and volunteers on a job, they come in great colours to cheer up the greyest winter days,” she says.

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Active wear for active gardeners

Uniqlo thermal T-shirt

Women’s, £24.90 at Uniqlo Men’s, £24.90 at Uniqlo

Thermal long johns

Men’s, £28 at M&S Women’s, from £11 at M&S

What do working gardeners wear when contending with the unpredictable elements of this season? My own personal winter-spring nomination is Uniqlo’s Heattech Ultra Warm thermal wear, namely the leggings and long-sleeve crew neck T-shirt. Either the winters are getting colder or, more likely, my temperature tolerance is declining, but these pleasingly thin yet effective undergarments have put me firmly in the thermals camp. Sean Harkin also vouches for the similarly priced Heatgen Maximum thermal long johns from Marks & Spencer.

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Timberland trousers

£133.98 at Amazon

Choosing clothing that’s not only practical but also comfortable for gardening can be surprisingly difficult, particularly when it comes to trousers. For Sophia Gray, the go-to are Timberland’s Pro Vent trousers. “They have built-in knee pads, which means I can be down on the ground in all weathers without getting soggy knees,” she says. “They also have a built-in holster perfect for keeping tools or twine to hand.”

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Gramicci Voyager pants

£77 at End Clothing £120 at Urban Outfitters

Selina Ozanne opts for the Gramicci women’s Voyager pants. “I started wearing Gramicci for climbing, but they quickly slipped into my gardening wardrobe. The many pockets make them great for tools, twine and handfuls of seed, the trousers have an elasticated waist, and the diamond-shaped crotch gusset allows plenty of room to assume the classic gardener’s squat for hours at a time.”

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Waterproof bib and brace

£131.88 at Strauss

Contrast bib and brace

£25.42 at PPE Online

Working in a frequently wet and windy corner of Devon, waterproofs are essential for Josh Sparkes. At Birch Farm, he wears Strauss’s protective and breathable Bib & brace esprestige. Toby Shuall also dons the bib-and-brace get-up for his nursery work, opting for the Portwest contrast bib and brace: “They’re waterproof. Everyone always comments on my orange trousers – these are cheap but excellent quality, as I hate paying loads for outdoor clothing that doesn’t last.”

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Pawa PG241 thermal gloves

£3.49 at eBay

Showa 370 lightweight gloves

£8.49 at Crocus From £8.98 at Thompson & Morgan

For keeping his extremities equally insulated, Shuall uses Pawa PG241 latex-coated water-resistant thermal gloves. “They’re designed for truck drivers and riggers – they have a thermal fleece inside. They’re a bit thick, but when the weather is harsh, these are the best.” For more fiddly gardening tasks, Ozanne suggests a pair of Showa 370 lightweight gardening gloves. “You have full dexterity, grip and can feel everything you’re doing. They also come in a range of fun colours.”

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Redback safety boots

£110 at eBay £119.95 at R&R Country

Result hardy safety trainer

£27.09 at GS Workwear

For footwear, Mick Brown, production garden manager at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, favours the steel-toe-capped, cushioned Redback safety boots. “No laces, and by far the most comfortable work boots I’ve ever worn,” he says. When the weather warms up, Sean Harkin prefers a lighter boot and recommends the breathable Result hardy safety trainer. “They may not be the most stylish, but during the heat of the summer, they’re a life-saver when working in a public garden where steel toecaps must be worn. They make working in the heat much more bearable.”

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Le Laboureur work jacket

£109.99 at Great Dixter

My own French-made Le Laboureur work jacket, bought from Great Dixter, has been going strong for almost a decade – thick cotton, multi-pocketed and wearable in and out of the garden. Chatu Madhvani, meanwhile, likes the durability and size range offered by Carrier Company. “I’m 5ft with a small frame. It’s been difficult to source workwear without excess volume that gets in the way,” she says. “Carrier Company can customise garments to order. The children’s version of the Work Jacket is a perfect fit, protecting me from the wind and my jumpers from snagging.”

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Guy Cotten prairie coat

£67.84 at Tanner Trading

Gardening in Cumbria, Andrea Brunsendorf prefers the more comprehensive covering of a full-length prairie coat from all-weather clothing manufacturer Guy Cotten. “With a good pair of long wellies, you can handle a lot of foul weather [in this coat],” she says.

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Dickies overalls

£55 at Dickies From £62.38 at Nisbets

Claire Mitchell’s go-to is a trusty set of Dickies everyday overalls. “They avoid draughts round the back while working in borders or shovelling mulch,” she says. “They’re sturdy, come with endless pockets, and you can layer underneath or roll down the top when it gets warmer.”

For more:
• The best secateurs to save you time and effort when pruning your garden
• The best pressure washers for cleaning garden furniture and patios
• How to create a more eco-friendly lawn

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Matt Collins is a garden, nature and travel writer, and head gardener at the Garden Museum in London