Must-Have Vegetable Garden Supplies

If you have the correct supplies at hand, growing a vegetable garden can be more enjoyable and seem less like a chore. Choosing and using the right tools for specific tasks makes planting and maintaining a vegetable garden less frustrating.

While you don't have to spend a lot of money, if you buy quality gardening tools they will last a long time and are a wise investment. When you're at your garden center or home improvement store, choose heavy duty or professional garden implements. Here is a list of must-have vegetable garden tools:

• Trowel. A hand-held tool, a trowel is scoop-shaped and used for digging dirt, small holes, and for setting plants. Select a trowel with a sturdy wooden handle and a steel blade.
• Pruner. Also called pruning knives, vegetable gardeners need small, hand-held pruners for cutting things like dead branches and shaping plants. Make sure the pruner feels good in your hand, and buy a quality set.
• Weeder. There are many varieties of weeders. Choose one that has a sturdy handle, good action around the wheels, works quickly, and gets rid of weeds easily.
• Spade. Spades are designed for working soil, not moving it. Unlike a shovel, spades lies flat on the ground and is a precision digger. Choose one equipped with a foot rest, and one which is appropriate for your height.
• Kneeling pads. While you could lay a piece of cardboard to kneel on in front of your vegetable garden, foam knee pads lend better comfort. The more gardening you do, the more knee pads you will go through.

There are other must-have vegetable garden supplies besides tools. Even if you have the best tools, your garden will fail if your soil is poor, you have garden pests, and no water supply. Be sure to include these supplies on you list:

• A quality garden hose long enough to reach your garden.
• A soil test kit and the compounds of lime and sulphur to adjust your soil.
• Quality seeds and starter plants.
• Plant cages, such as for growing tomatoes.
• Plant stalks and stakes, such as for growing bean climbers.
• Organic or synthetic fertilizer.
• Pesticides.
• Garden fencing to keep wildlife from eating and damaging your garden.

While you don't have to invest a fortune in garden supplies, you do need to buy heavy duty or professional materials. If you spend a little more money at the start, you will save money by not having to replace shoddy tools, inferior plants, and cheap fertilizers that can burn your garden plants.