Gardening is an essential skill. You need to know how to grow your own food. If times get hard, you can supplement your grocery bill by growing your own vegetables. You can grow your own vegetables for a fraction of the price of buying them at the grocery store. You also get the satisfaction of knowing you grew something. (It’s the best feeling ever!)

Gardening is also a skill you want to master when the times get really bad. Seeds are cheap (stock up!) and provide so much food for the small investment. However, you do need to have some items on hand to help you garden. You would think all you need is seeds, dirt, sunshine, and water. I am here to tell you that you will need additional items to make gardening easier and more productive. While growing your own vegetables is inexpensive, good gardening tools are an investment that will last you years when you take care of them.

Every gardener’s list looks different depending on how they like to garden. Some garden in the ground, use raised beds, or plant in containers. All those methods work. There is no wrong method. I planted straight into the ground for years. When I moved, I switched to raised-bed gardening. I have planted in both containers and buckets while I was doing both kinds of gardening.

You need to find the one that works best for you. You may have limited space or have an apartment in which container gardening may make more sense for you. You may have a house with a yard, but lots of shade. You may have a homestead with lots of room. You may not be able to bend down on the ground and work the soil, so raised beds may be your answer. Whatever you choose, you will be gardening!

No matter what gardening you choose, you will need good hoses. Cheap hoses will crack, get holes, become stiff, and be hard to move around the yard with you. It’s worth your time and money to invest in good hoses right off the bat. Good hoses should be flexible, kink-resistant, weather-proof, and heavy-duty. You will also want a good hose nozzle sprayer to help water your plants.

A watering can is handy for watering containers. I also use mine for places the hose can’t reach. Some houses do not have outdoor water spigots and you will definitely need a watering can. (Also, look into having an outdoor water spigot. It’s worth the trouble!)

You will want gardening gloves to protect your hands while gardening. I like gloves with a good rubber, non-slip grip to pull weeds easier, but also breathable and thin enough that my hands do not get hot in the summer and I can feel the seeds and plants.

Garden hand tools are important for working the soil, planting, and weeding. I like using hand tools no matter what kind of gardening I am doing. If you are gardening in the ground, you will also want a good garden hoe, a triangular hoe, and a weed cultivator rake (four tine).

A good garden tote helps keep all your tools together in one place, carry them where you need them, and bring the produce back to the house. While a bucket works just fine, I like something more like a box to carry stuff back to the house.

A good pair of garden scissors and a pair of pruning shears help keep the plants trimmed back, remove suckers, and remove dead foliage. Again, investing in a good pair will last you years with proper care and consistent sharpening.

After battling rabbits and grasshoppers in the first year of gardening at our new house, we keep some must-have things in our arsenal for dealing with any and all critters:
* Chicken wire fencing and zip ties- easy to install and take down
* Fence stakes – push into the ground to use and pull out when done
* Neem oil – keeps the insects down to a minimum
* Diatomaceous Earth – sprinkle around plants to keep slugs, ants, and grasshoppers from climbing
* Sevin Dust – because sometimes you have to bring out the big guns for the insects
* Garden Netting – keeps the grasshoppers off your plants while still letting them get sunshine
* Marigolds, Basil, or both – keep the rabbits and deer away from your plants. They do not like the smell.
You may not need all of these, but you will want to know your options for keeping critters and insects out of your garden. In this article, I wrote about the fence we put around our first garden to keep the deer and rabbits out.

I find that a kneeling pad is a must. At some point in your life, you realize your knees are important and you need them to move. Kneeling on a pad while gardening helps your knees tremendously and lets you move more easily after getting up.

Plant labels might be necessary if you are forgetful or have a lot of things planted. I like plastic plant labels that I can reuse. You can use wood plant labels, but I find that they fall apart more easily and are hard to write on.

If you plant tomatoes, you will need a sturdy tomato cage or a trellis system to keep them off the ground. If you plant cucumbers, pole beans, peas, or any other vine that spreads out, you will want a trellis or fencing for them to climb, even in raised beds. You could also do this with squash, but they will need a cattle panel or something very sturdy to take over. With all of these, twine or small zip ties are handy for keeping the vines attached to the fencing or trellis.

In addition to gardening supplies, I keep some books for reference:
Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening
The Complete Gardener: A Practical, Imaginative Guide to Every Aspect of Gardening
Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long
The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times

As usual, this is more than 10 things you need to garden. These are things I find necessary to garden, and I have learned the hard way why they are important. I have been gardening for twenty years and I am still learning new things every year.

Thanks for reading,
Erica

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