Garden trowels might seem like just another item in your gardening kit but this small tool play an important role when it comes to gardening.
The tool is quite popular for its versatility as it performs various tasks in the garden from scooping fertilizer or soil to breaking up lumps of soil. It is also used for transplanting and other useful purposes in the garden.
At times this handy tool is underrated for the role it plays.
However, for those who love gardening, they can’t deny this tool is the best tool to have for gardening. It comes in different sizes, it is portable and perfect for multiple tasks.
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10 Best Garden Trowels
#01. Wilcox All Pro 202S Garden Trowel
No products found.Ok, this sturdy trowel by Wilcox is a great piece of gardening tool, equipped with beveled edges and sharp blade; the trowel can dig into just anything from the rockiest to hardest of soil.
Additionally, the trowel has depth measurement etched into the blade to provide depth measurement as you dig or transplant and plant your flowers or seedlings.
Stainless Steel Body
The body is made of stainless steel to give it durability and strength and make it strong enough to break up tough soil.
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#02. Edward Garden Trowel
No products found.This garden tool from Edward is a top-notch heavy-duty trowel meant for serious gardening works. It is designed to be bend-proof making it suitable for use in heavy clay or rocky soils.
A multipurpose garden trowel that can fit just about any gardening assignment such as mixing compost, removing weeds, scooping fertilizers and much more.
Ergonomic Handle
In order to relieve the fatigue of the hand, the handle feature an ergonomic design along with a finger grip as well as contoured palm rest made of soft rubber.
The trowel head is oversized to make work quicker and easier.
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#03. Fiskars Garden Trowel
No products found.Looking for a polished trowel with a durable body, this garden trowel from Fiskars is fit for the job.
To make work easier and comfortable, the extra-large handle features a soft grip design and the blade sharpened edge allows you to cut through the ground easily.
The oversize aluminum head enables you to dig, weed, transplant, and loosen tough soil. In addition, there is a hang hole on the handle to allow you store away conveniently.
Padded handle and Aluminum Scoop
The handle is padded fora comfortable grip and relieving the fatigue of the hand during usage along with a scoop made of cast-aluminum making it rust-resistant and durable as well.
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#04. Garden Guru Hand-E Garden Trowel
No products found.This is a trowel designed to make digging, scooping, and transplanting easy for you. It is built for comfortability and durability.
Additionally, all the care and maintenance guide you will need is included with the trowel. This trowel is much more than just doing gardening, you can also use it for outdoor assignments.
Ergonomic Handle Design and Anti-rust Blade
The trowel is made of stainless steel to prevent rust and make it durable enough for planting and scooping.
Additionally, the handle ergonomic design makes it comfortable when handling it reducing wrist and hand stress.
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#05. Kemaier Garden Trowel
No products found.A garden trowel design for human comfort with unique human engineering.
Its suitability for multiple tasks such as planting and transplanting, scooping soil and fertilizer, etc. is what makes it a good fit for your gardening activities.
The trowel light weight makes it a handy tool to carry along anywhere in your garden.
Handle and body design
The handle is designed to give you a comfortable grip thus reducing hand fatigue while the body is rust and corrosion resistant as well as waterproof. It is ideal for all types of working environments.
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#06. Radius Garden Hand Trowel
No products found.There is just something unique about this garden trowel. Oh yes, It is the curved ergonomic handle that is unique about this trowel.
That is not all, even the name of the garden trowel is unique to its design. The Natural Radius grip name was given to the trowel match perfectly with the curved shape of the trowel handle.
However, the trowel is much more than just the handle, it is lightweight and strong for various gardening work you have going on.
Thermoplastic Grip and Patented Blade
To give users a more comfortable grip, the garden trowel was given a comfy non-latex thermoplastic grip with an ergonomic handle to lessen wrist and hand fatigue. In addition, the blade made of die-cast aluminum which makes it resistant to rust.
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#07. Fiskars Fiber Composite Garden Trowel (79796931J)
No products found.This highly durable and lightweight trowel or transplanter is a mark of an effective gardening tool.
To make depth measurement easy for you, there is a gradation mark along the blade.
Designed in such a way that it won’t bend or loosen easily and the trowel handle is designed with a hole to store it easily.
Nyglass construction
To give a remarkably strong body, the garden trowel is made of fiberglass composite / Nyglass nylon making lighter yet stronger than most metal types in the same category.
It is protected against rust and its slender blade is perfect for all types of gardening works.
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#08. Edward Tools Carbon steel Garden Trowel
No products found.Another Edward garden trowel to feature on our list, this trowel is built for soil or clay digging.
In addition to that, there is a depth measurement etched into the blade to check how deep you dig during transplanting or planting. The handle is comfortable and easy on hand with its ergonomic design.
Carbon Steel Body and Anti-rust coating
The body is made of carbon steel to make it durable and guard against breaking. Additional, to guard against rust, a rust-resistant coating is used to protect the trowel body.
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#09. GSI Outdoors Trowel
No products found.For easy digging and other activities in your backyard garden or outdoor activities, this GSI trowel is an ideal tool to own to perform those tasks.
Not only does it dig easily but its serrated edges mean it will also perform quite well in tough soil. The GSI pride itself on the durability of the garden trowel.
The portability of the trowel means it is an essential backpacking item for hikers and campers.
Charity Support
We have seen more and more companies opting to support a charitable cause and you can count GSI among too.
The company donates 1% of its GSI Outdoor trowel sales to an organization called Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.
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#10. Tierra Derco International Garden Trowel
No products found.Now, what about a trowel that is not just a trowel but also doubles as a rake? Yes, that is right, the Tierra “Trake” is a combination of both trowel and rake, which means you get the function of two tools in one.
The trake is also 17 inches long to make it easy to use while sitting or kneeling, this will prevent putting too much stress on your back by over bending.
Blade Graduations and Terradynamic Design
Depth measurement is etched into the blade permanently to give precise measurement when planting, transplanting or just digging.
The terradynamic design of the trowel makes soil penetration easier and ergonomic design of the handle makes handling easier also.
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Benefits of Using Garden Trowel
Garden trowels have proven useful in many gardening applications, which is why it is quite a popular tool for gardeners. There are many benefits attached to the use of garden trowels, some of which are:
It makes work like transplanting and planting more easier for gardeners with the way trowels are designed, a gardener finds it easy to dig the transplanting hole and transfer the transplant into the hole using the garden trowel too. The same goes for planting.
For backpackers, a garden trowel is also a handy tool. The use of garden trowel is limited to the garden alone. It can be used for other outdoor activities too like digging a poo hole.
Most garden trowel also features a depth gauge that allows you to measure the depth of the hole you need accurately.
How to Use a Garden Trowel
You can start by placing the blade tip into the ground then applying pressure as you hold the handle so as to push the blade right into the soil.
When the bottom of the tang reaches the ground then you can push out the soil by pressing down the handle’s top end.
After which you can lift the trowel with the soil out of the hole you are digging. You can place the soil next to the dung hole or anywhere convenient. So you repeat the process until you have the required hole size.
Maintaining Tips And Tricks For Garden Trowel
For any tool to last for a long time then it must be properly maintained and look after. To maintain a garden trowel then you must clean and sharpen the blade as well as store it properly.
Cleaning the garden trowel
This process requires a rag, sand, wire brush, oil and a bowl of water then you proceed by submerging the garden trowel into the bowl of water as this helps slackens the dirt on the trowel.
After that, you use a rag to wipe the water off the garden trowel and light dirt on the handle can also be wiped off.
Now, in case there is some tough dirt that refuses to come off using rag and water, you can use the wire brush instead to clear off the dirt.
Additionally, you can remove rust spots from the blade using a wire brush.
As soon as the dirt is cleared off the blade then it is time to put some oil as a form of protection against rust.
The best oil to use is the type free from petroleum products such as vegetable oil. Additionally, coasting the handle that is made of wood will help it last longer and make it waterproof as well.
The method to use when applying the oil includes filling the bowl with oil and sand then moving the garden trowel blade through the sand a few times to coat the blade lightly with oil.
After that you make the handle go through the bowl as well to coat it too in oil.
Sharpening the trowel blade
Ideally, the best thing is to ensure the trowel blade is sharpened periodically and you can easily make use of a hand file to do this.
This will keep the edges sharpen to ensure that it can easily go through harden roots and soil. In order to sharpen the blade:
Grab the trowel using your less favored hand and use you favored stronger hand to file the edges using a hand file. You do that by titling the file against the blade between an angle of 5o and 30o then moving the hand file downwards.
After every stroke, you move the file away from the body and start from an initial point again. Repeat until the edges are well sharpened and coat with vegetable oil.
Proper Storage of the Garden Trowel
The trowel is best stored in a shed where it is cool and dry and protected from moisture. Given that the exposure to moisture can make the blade rust and the handle rot. You can store it on a tool rack for easy storage and retrieval.
Features To Look For When Choosing A Garden Trowel
Blade
The blade of the garden trowel varies according to their functions and uses. For example, a pointed, curved, or beveled blade is better suited for cutting through compact soil and digging up gravel or rocky soil.
On the other hand, a blade that is wide will easily scoop lots of soil and useful for transplanting. While a narrow and slimline trowel blade is ideal for digging deep into the soil as well as removing weeds that are tough.
At the same time, there are garden trowels with back-blade wings, which can be utilized to remove tough weeds and roots.
However, for measuring fertilizer or soil depth then the best trowel are those with graduation markings to help you get accurate measurements of what you want.
Handle
The way the trowel handle feels when it is handled is also vital particularly if you use your trowels for very long hours and heavy-duty works.
That means the handle you will choose must be comfortable enough to use for such long hours. An ergonomic handle is quite popular for long hours work as the handle usually features solid plastic or soft molded design for a solid grip of the handle.
In case you need additional control over the way the handle is designed to reduce hand and wrist fatigue then you can check out a garden trowel with distinctly curved design along with the padded handle.
A larger handle with palm rest made of rubber and finger grip designed in a contour shape can help relieve stress on the wrist and hand.
You can also decide between a long or short handle as the long handle can give you additional control when you are using your garden trowel to dig deep in hard and compressed soil while the short handle is good for scooping soil from a small plant or flower housing.
FAQs
What are the uses of a garden trowel?
The tool is made up of plastic, wooden or metal handle and a metal blade. The garden trowel is utilized for transplanting flowers and plants, planting or weeding, breaking up clumps of soil, digging holes and mixing additives and fertilizers.
How many types of garden trowel blade do we have?
We have about ten different kinds of blades with each having its own function and performance for specific gardening activities.
Final Verdict
Among garden tools, we can say the garden trowel is certainly among the most versatile. The tool’s ability to prod, dig, and shovel makes it quite handy.
The garden trowels are very useful garden tools every gardener can’t do without. The uses extend even beyond gardening into camping and hiking.
To choose the right one for your needs then you have to be clear with your requirements as well as the tasks it is needed for. Tough soil requires rugged trowel but soft soil may not require such.
The activities you also want to use them for, play a great role in choosing the right garden trowel for your garden.
Last update on 2023-09-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
