"Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all." — Thomas Carlyle
There are only four tools you need to start gardening right now: a digging fork, a hand trowel, a soil rake, and a watering can. All these are available at any hardware store or your local nursery. Getting your watering can from one of these places is fine, but let the buyer beware on tools. They don't make 'em the way they used to. If you want to go on the cheap, your tools may not outlast the first month. No kidding. For even the casual gardener, the best value is to pay for the best names, like Sandvik, Felco, Spear and Jackson, Brookstone, or Garden Tools of Maine. Look for sturdy, hand-forged construction, particularly with the digging fork and soil rake. Expect to pay in the upper 20s and 30s for a set of these items.
My favorite set of hand tools comes from Brookstone's. They're made of die-cast aluminum with fat, non-slip handles. The set sells for $35 — a pretty good price considering you get the trowel plus a cultivator, fork, planter, and a narrow weeder.
Down the line, if you get tired of using your office scissors to trim the hedges and the dustpan to move yard piles, add the following tools to your garden box: extra sharp pruners, an edger, a shovel, and a maddox. For bigger jobs, rent rather than purchase the tools you need: tillers for turning large amounts of soil, jackhammers for digging fence post holes. Until then, you're right — the kitchen knife makes a fine gardening tool.
These days, I search for old tools the way people search for found art at a flea market. Which is where I look, in fact, since good tools are a sort of lost art. Modern tools are expensive even at discount stores, and they're cheaply made, with soft wood handles poorly connected to the metal end. They can begin to rust within a month of purchase. What a waste! Instead, why not enjoy a long, pleasant search for an old coal shovel with a rugged wood handle; an aged, indestructible metal wheelbarrow; or a hickory-handled pickax at this summer's street markets and garage sales? The price will be cheap and the tool worth the wait.
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