Recommend me your best garden tools

[NotSoLittleDove]

I'm a little fed up trying to get a gardener in to tidy up the shrubs, so I'm going to learn to do it myself! Please can you recommend me your favourite garden tools for a novice - I'm thinking an electric trimmer, some type of weeding tool and a set of shears.

Any recommendations would be really helpful, as well as any other tools that would make it easier and fun (especially as I don't like creepy crawlies at all!). I have some gardening gloves, so that's a start!

The hori hori knife is the best thing since sliced bread. Buy a decent one. I started with a cheap thing that bent, so I got a steel one from a Japanese tool place, and it's magic.

Their handles usually fall off, and then it becomes challenging to find uses. I have 4 at the moment but only one has handles. DH has about 5, mostly without handles. One of mine sits under the outside tap, so when watering I can leave it on at a trickle and dip the watering can.

This is what I carry around my hand tools in

@MereDintofPandiculation Thanks, I forgot about Wilko for gardening products, I'll have a look at some of their things too.

@NanTheWiser This may be a silly question, but does that weed slice just slice over the top of the soil, so doesn't remove the weed roots? Should I be aiming to dig the roots out as well, eg with the hori hori knife? Or is it ok to slice and hoe after?

Re electric tools, I got a hedge trimmer with metal gears very cheaply from Lidl and it does the job perfectly. It's not battery powered but I already had a 50m extension cable for all things garden related so that doesn't worry me.

if you get a hori hori knife, just remember it is bloody sharp. I was faffing about with mine and managed to slice through a finger. Didn't even notice until I was wondering why my glove was wet...

Whatever brands of small handtools you get, try and get ones with pinkified brightly coloured handles. Green and brown look nicely gardenery, but they're a bugger to find when you just put them down a moment ago!

Hoeing of for annual weeds and perennials thatikdon't grow again form roots. Doe it on a hot day and they'll shrivel and die where they lie.

Buttercups, most grass etc, need roots pulling out too - grasp the plant near the base, use trowel in oth hand to lift the soil, an pull

nettles, bindweed, ouch grass you'll need to get out all roots, so troel and turn over top 6 inches an pick out the roots. these are the things that send out underground runners to produce new plants away from the parent, so you'll recognise the thicj long roots.

Yeah, I cut my finger the first time I used a hori knife. Now I always wear thick gloves - another thing to add to the list!
Another good tool is a Japanese mini scythe. Much easier to use than shears for cutting back grasses and soft perennials.

Yes, it just cuts off all the above ground growth, that’s what hoes do. Annual weeds shouldn’t regrow if hoed off in dry weather, but deeper rooted weeds will need to be dug out.

Thanks everyone, really useful tips 🙂