Top pick
Resistant to punctures and moisture, these gloves have snug, adjustable wrist straps and mesh backing that allow them to fit a range of hand sizes while preventing debris from entering at the wrist.
Whether you’re protecting yourself from thorns, giving yourself a better grip on stubborn roots, or preventing dirt under your fingernails, gloves are a true garden must-have.
Each material has pros and cons, but the Husky Large Grain Cowhide Water Resistant Leather Performance Work Gloves are our top pick because they’re thick enough to resist punctures yet thin enough for you to retain some feel.
They’re also relatively water-resistant and easy to clean, and the Velcro wrist straps help keep debris from spilling inside.
This single-piece, stainless steel trowel slices through dirt like a soil knife, but it scoops a better-than-average amount of dirt.
A simple and sturdy trowel, or hand shovel, is another true essential for any kind of work in the dirt. This versatile tool helps with planting, weeding, breaking up soil, and more.
We love the Wilcox 14″ Digging Trowel, a razor-sharp garden workhorse that can scoop as well as it slices. It’s available in a few different lengths, but we prefer the largest version at 14 inches, because you can dig deep without reaching for a bulky shovel.
Top pick
Thoughtfully engineered, built tough, and priced right, this is the best do-it-all shovel you’ll ever buy.
Your next digging tool should be a round-point shovel (also called a pony, an all-purpose shovel, or a spade). Everyone that we’ve spoken to who moves earth as a job or a hobby, without exception, recommends this style because it’s good for almost any shoveling job, such as plunging into rocky soil, uprooting shrubs, or moving piles of mulch.
A transfer shovel can move more volume than a round-point shovel, and a fork makes quicker work of most mulch and compost, so you might eventually want to add one or both of those to your arsenal. But start with the round-point shovel.
The Bully Tools 82515 shovel was a runaway winner in our testing, thanks to its wide step, fiberglass handle, and incredibly heavy-duty construction.
We like this low-effort weeding tool, though many others like it are also available.
Cultivating a garden means keeping weeds in check, and a stirrup hoe (aka a scuffle hoe, hula hoe, or action hoe, among many other names) turns that grinding, near-daily chore into something more manageable.
With a simple push-pull action, the slightly wiggly blade slices weeds at ground level without disturbing the soil too much and without all the effort of a hand weeder or cultivator. The Craftsman 54-inch Wood-Handle Action Hoe is a staff-favorite.
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