Best Garden Trowel
The garden hand trowel can be used for everything from planting to weeding, cutting through dry soils to digging out roots. The garden trowel is one of the essential basic garden hand tools. However not all trowels are created equal and sometimes it’s not easy to see the difference until you've been digging a while. Our recommendations should help you choose the best hand tool for you.
Here’s some things that you should look for in a trowel.
Strength
Believe it or not I’ve snapped a trowel blade completely off before working in hard soil. It was a Christmas present and not a cheap one. It just goes to show that price doesn’t always mean quality. When doing work like planting or weeding through the year you can’t expect the soil to be welcoming all the time. So you need a trowel that doesn’t snap under the strain.
Comfortable Handle
Uncomfortable handles can lead to sores and blisters. No one wants that! Most of the time I would choose a sturdy wooden handle over a plastic or rubber one. The plastic/rubber handle has a tendency to move or deform in your hand if you are working tough soil.
Sharp Edge
Not razor sharp but you want the trowel to be able to easily cut through the soil. This will lessen wear and tear on the trowel and make it loads easier to work with.
No. 5 |
This is your budget option. It is really good value for money, durable and reliable. I would probably recommend this to someone who gardens in short bursts. By that I mean I think this garden trowel is a good option for something like planting a border. However I think if you use it for a sustained period you’ll start to see wear and tear. But again it’s really good value!!! Did I mention that!
For these reasons this is No. 5 on Gardenwilds gardening Garden Trowels.
No. 4 |
This is a strong and durable trowel with a sturdy wooden handle. The edges are sharp for ease when digging. One thing that I really like about this garden trowel is the serrated edge for opening compost bags, which is really handy! There is also a gauge for measuring depths, which is really useful if you're planting bulbs.
The metal end is for hammering in stakes, personally I don’t really see much use for this but maybe it’s meant for someone with better hand eye coordination.
For these reasons this is No. 4 on Gardenwilds gardening Garden Trowels.
No. 3 |
This is a light weight model garden trowel, compact but still really durable. Its blade is made of carbon-steel which makes it very strong and not likely to bend. The beech wood handle is comfortable and reliable.
This is a really good quality tool. The only drawback for me is that it’s a little on the small side but I think that is more of a personal preference than anything else.
For these reasons this is No. 3 on Gardenwilds gardening Garden Trowels
No. 2 |
This trowel is endorsed by the RHS and is a really good general use garden trowel for working in densely packed borders. It has the depth marking on it which makes it ideal for planting bulbs. The stainless steel head is remarkably strong. We have only been using this trowel for a couple of months and already it’s becoming a firm favourite for planting work.
For these reasons this is No. 2 on Gardenwilds gardening Garden Trowels
No. 1 |
We love this trowel! We use this garden trowel regularly and it always holds up. Actually we’ve lost this trowel out in the elements a number of times and when it turns up it’s always been good as new.
The pointed tip and the bevelled edges make really easy work of tough soil. It’s got a carbon steel head that makes it very strong. It is also, for the quality that you're getting, really reasonably priced!
For these reasons this is No. 1 on Gardenwilds gardening Garden Trowels
