This post contains affiliate links for your convenience which means if you purchase something I recommend I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
Being that we’re smack dab in the middle of gardening season I thought it was the perfect time for another post. Earlier in the year, I did a blog post on gardening tips for beginners and today I wanted to do a follow-up on that with some of my gear recommendations. Especially because with the pandemic I know so many people are gardening for the first time this year. Everyone has their own advice, but today I’m sharing some of my favorite tools and tips that have worked the best for us to make the grow season much easier!
Raised Garden Boxes
If you’re loving gardening this year, something I highly recommend investing in for the next season is garden boxes. I love raised beds for a few reasons. The first being it makes them a little higher off the ground so they help save your back (dang I feel old saying that..) And two, it can be so helpful to cut back on weeding! Our first 2 seasons at our community garden we were in tall garden boxes, and while there was certainly maintenance in cutting plants back, we didn't spend too much time weeding. Then this year, we upgraded to a larger plot in the ground and holy moly have we spent a lot of time weeding.
Here’s how I know it helps too, Evan got us a set of garden boxes from Costco and we planted about half of our crops in those and then our larger plants that needed more room right in the ground. Let me tell you…. the weeding in the boxes has been minimal comparatively! So much so I want to add a few more next year because weeding can be so time-consuming! If you’re looking at this blog out of season the exact boxes we bought may be out of stock there but you can find the same ones on Amazon for a little more here directly from the company. I also included some other options below that could be good depending on your situation below.
Creating Garden Markers that Last
If you know me… you know I like to keep things colorful. So I created garden markers so we could keep track of things and also have the most colorful plot 😜. Here’s the thing though, if you’re going to make them you want to make sure they’re going to last! Between the beating of the sun and getting wet during watering, they need to last through the elements! If you’re looking for ones that are ready to go I recommend these or if you want to go the DIY route like me then I recommend you to seal them with a product like this. I first made ours during our first season and they lasted 2 full seasons (some going on their third). Some of ours would have even lasted longer but we forgot to pull a few during the Fall and Winter last year — which I recommend doing! Here are some other fun DIY options I recommend if you’re into that too!
Double-up Tomato Cages
This tip is key! Guys, tomato plants can get HEAVY! I highlight recommend doubling up the tomato cages at the beginning of the year to give them more stability. It’s also key, as they are growing that you pull the branches up and through. If you don’t do that, they will continue to grow out and then they don’t get as much support from the cages they can. Our favorite cages to use are these ones. They also have two different sizes so we try and get the more narrow one and put them inside a wider one so there are different layers of support.
Wood Trellis
When it comes to growing snap peas, beans, and cucumbers we’re all about using trellises, specifically wood trellises. You’ll see a lot of different options out there but frankly, a lot are crap. Especially the netting ones. We tried those our first year and I would not recommend them… Our favorites are these which give you enough height and most importantly stability. For extra support, I also recommend staking them in the middle on one side with a metal fence post (I share my rec below with the plant support). Especially if you’re growing cucumbers or other vining plants that get heavier!
Garden ties
These little ties are KEY! As things start growing, these are an awesome way to guide your plants on where to grow and connect them to support poles. Here are the plants I use these the most for:
raspberries
tomatoes
snap peas and beans
These are great because they’re just like garbage ties and are easy to use and just give plants a little more support in connecting where you want.
Plant Support Stakes
You’re definitely going to want to have some of these guys for your grow season. We have a variety of them but these ones are my favorite. The key here too is get ones that are tall enough and maybe even taller than you thought you’d need. You’ll lose some of the height in the dirt to get stability so I recommend going with at least the 5-6ft tall ones. I’d also recommend having a few heavier duty ones on hand like these metal fence posts. These are great for giving trellises extra support like I mentioned and then we also use on our raspberries which can get heavy and pretty big and out of control throughout the grow season.
Good quality clippers
Don’t skimp on these! You don’t need the most expensive ones but don’t go for the cheapest either, because they’re not going to get the job done. Throughout the grow season, you’ll be doing a lot of trimming and harvesting and having sharp clippers will make your life so much easier! These are the ones I recommend that I’ve had the last few years that were quite the upgrade from others I bought. Costco also sells a 3-pack of different trimming tools at the beginning of each gardening season I’d recommend too. If you haven’t noticed, we’re big Costco shoppers over here!
Kneeler
Add another thing I feel old for recommending… a kneeler! This is key though! Especially if your garden is right in the ground. Weeds are going to happen and your knees will say thank you for having one!
I hope you found this post helpful and if you want to save it for next year be sure to pin it on Pinterest! Below is also a round-up of a bunch of the recommendations I shared too! Happy gardening!
