A garden tool is any one of the various instruments made particularly for landscaping and usually overlaps with the category of construction tools. Garden tools are also divided into manual tools and mechanical power tools. While manual tools, like spades, trowels, forks and hoes, are used in gardens by men and women to gather materials around the garden, power tools are used by construction workers to dig foundations for buildings, drive stakes and paveways. In addition, there are numerous tools used by farmers to protect their crops from bad weather, worms and other predators and to cultivate and grow their produce.

Among the garden tools that most gardeners need are the following: fork trowels, garden spades, hoes, knives, spreaders. These are the basic tools required for garden maintenance and all of them are very essential to gardeners. While choosing garden tools, one should always keep in mind not to buy a tool just because it fits your pocket size. If you are planning to buy tools especially for a small garden, you can consider getting the ones that come with different attachments and have a small stature. This way, you won't find it hard to maneuver and position these garden tools and you will save more space.

There are several types of garden tools made available for landscaping. The tools that fall under this category are the following: hedge trimmers, hand trowels, hand shovels, garden graders, garden tools made of steel, electric lawnmowers and chainsaws. While most of these tools are used for different parts of landscaping, there are certain types of gardening that requires specific garden tools to accomplish the job. For instance, there are certain garden tools made of diamond that is used to divide large areas of land where plowing, planting and other similar activities are required. You may also find the use of garden trimmers for trimming grasses and bushes without having to dig.

The first type of garden tools in the list is the wheelbarrow. This is actually a very basic tool but most individuals who plan to get into the landscaping field don't think much about how useful wheelbarrows are. If you're just starting out as a beginner, you can find many do-it-yourself starter kits in hardware or home depots that have a wheelbarrow with the appropriate attachments for low height landscaping projects. The good thing about wheelbarrows is that most of them come with a handle to make the user comfortable while carrying the tool.

The second type of tools is the spade. The spade is one of the oldest gardening tools. It was first used in digging holes and locating seeds. Spades are generally used to dig up potatoes, root potatoes and cucumbers. There are several types of spades and among them are the following:

Digging tools are basically the tools used when digging up the soil. Most gardeners use hand or arm shovels for this job. But when there are large amounts of soil to be excavated, gardeners use backhoe, bulldozer and compactors. The backhoe is used for digging holes that are too small for hand shovels and it has a large bucket on its back. Bunkers and compactors are used for digging larger amounts of soil and the plow, a rotating machine used to loosen soil that is too hard to dig.

Of course, we can't forget the most popular garden tool of them all - the sharp knife or cutting tool. These tools allow you to cut through the tough plant fibers or roots of plants. You can use it for trimming plants, uprooting them and pulling them because it has a cutting handle. The best ones have a serrated edge and if sharpened properly, can cut through even the toughest plants. It's not just for gardeners, there are also a variety of scissors available, but these are best used for cutting branches of trees and not for digging and planting.

We mentioned gloves and there are a variety of gardening gloves available in different styles, thicknesses and material. There are full-fingered, half-fingered and flat-felled. Flat-felled ones give the user more comfort while using the gloves as they do not dig in the fingers unlike the other types. Gloves are mostly used by people who work in the garden, but they are also quite useful for gardeners, farmers, housewives and people engaged in other outdoor activities.