You’re inspired and excited to garden! Now what? Gather up some ideas and hatch that plan. What you will need: gloves, a place to plant your plants, seeds to grow, and some tools to use for digging in the dirt. Below you will find various checklists to help you get started!
- Container Garden Checklist
- Raised Bed Garden Checklist
- In-Ground Garden Checklist
- Other Suggested Tools and Supplies
- How-to Gardening Videos
Container Garden Checklist
Using containers (pots of all shapes and sizes) allows for the least amount of tools and supplies. To get started, all you really need is a pot, soil, seed and some way of watering it all.
- Seeds or starter plants
- Containers with drainage holes and any additional components, for example: saucers, stands, or various types of mounting hardware
- Potting mix
- Gardening gloves
- Foam kneeling pad
- Hand trowel and hand rake
- Scissors, snips, or pruners
- Watering can, hose and nozzle, or drip irrigation
Raised Bed Garden Checklist
If you felt spunky and have built a raised bed, which is a large scale container garden, you might need a few more items for your gardening needs.
- Your raised bed structures
- Seeds or starter plants
- Garden soil or compost
- Gardening gloves
- Foam kneeling pad
- Hoe and weeder
- Pruners (scissors or snips)
- Garden rake
- Shovel, spade and hand trowel
- Watering can, hose and nozzle, soaker hose, or drip irrigation
In-Ground Garden Checklist
Having and prepping an in-ground garden bed can be labor intensive, but with the right tools it can relieve the amount of labor needed to achieve a great garden.
- An area to put your garden
- Seeds, seedling plugs, or starter plants
- Garden soil or compost
- Gardening gloves
- Foam kneeling pad
- Cultivator, hoe and weeder
- Pruners (Scissors or snips)
- Garden rake
- Shovel, Digging fork, Spade and Hand trowel
- Watering can, hose and nozzle, soaker hose, drip irrigation, or sprinkler
Other Suggested Gardening Tools and Supplies
All the supplies can be found at any garden store.
Protection
- Gardening gloves for protection against insects, soil organisms, blisters
- Wrist wrap for those with wrist injuries or wrist irritation history
- Foam kneeling pad
- Hats, protection for your face and eyes from too much sun
Hand Tools
- Hand trowel for digging and planting
- Hand cultivator for aerating soil
- Hand hoe or weeder for removing difficult weeds
- Scissors, snips, or pruners for trimming and harvesting plants
- Garden knife for cutting and weeding
Large Tools
- Garden rake for leveling soil and spreading mulch
- Spade for digging, transplanting, and edging garden beds
- Shovel for digging and moving bulk matter
- Digging fork for turning and loosening the soil
- Garden hoe for removing weeds and clearing soil
- Large cultivator for aerating soil
Tip: When you go to buy larger tools such as rakes, spades, shovels, forks, and hoes test them out to make sure they feel good for your height.
Transport Tools
- Basket or bucket for harvesting plants and carrying supplies
- Wheelbarrow or garden cart for moving soil and mulch
Irrigation
- Watering can for delicate plants, small gardens, or hard-to-reach beds
- Hose and nozzle for general watering for various sizes of gardens
- Soaker hose, drip irrigation, or sprinkler for large gardens or automated irrigation systems
Weed Control
- Mulch (This could be rocks, wood chips, growing cloth, paper, cardboard, and garden plastic sheeting)
Links to guide you
New veggie garden? 6 tips for keeping it healthy through summer
Gardening Videos: Topics include container gardening, herbs, cole (broccoli, kale, etc.) crops, leafy green vegetable, tomatoes, peppers and more.