20 Under $20: Best Summer Garden Tools and Accessories - Gardenista
It’s June so of course you want to be outdoors: It’s a chemical thing. And take one of these 20 best summer garden accessories and tools with you–they’ve all earned the Gardenista seal of approval for being useful, and affordable: A forked tip turns this digging tool into a ruthlessly efficient weeder as well. Made from New York State slate, a set of four Garden Markers comes with a white chinagraph pencil (soap and water will remove the names of last season’s plants); $18.95 from Kaufmann Mercantile. A pair of steel Wee Snips garden scissors from Nutscene are 4 inches long, with a small blade to cut delicate stems and vines; $12 from Ancient Industries. Photograph via This is Paper. As seedlings grow, Peat Pallets will expand to accommodate their roots. From Joseph Bentley, a three-prong Cultivator does double duty as a fork and a rake. Next to a trowel, a cultivator is the most useful tool in the bag, and this one has polished stainless steel prongs and an oak handle; $12.30 from Amazon. “This is the Platonic ideal of buckets,” says British interior designer Ben Pentreath, who also happens to be an accomplished gardener. Photograph via Father Rabbit. From the domestic science impresarios at Redecker (perhaps you already own one or more of the company’s specialty brushes), a galvanized pail with a wooden handle and a ribbed belt comes in two sizes; a Large Bucket is £12.50 (about $19) from Pentreath & Hall. I don’t think of it as “having a twine problem.” I just happen to like garden twine. A pair of Goatskin Leather Performance Gloves made of polyester and Spandex have leather palms and finger pads to protect gardeners against thorns and other garden hazards. Gardenias are notoriously finicky, but the heavenly scent of their flowers is unrivaled. Brew a cup of fertilizer tea for your plants. “Brew” it in a watering can to feed roses, houseplants, and patio flowers; $13 for an assorted three-pack from Food 52. From Elho, a lightweight Urban Loft Balcony Planter has a built-in water tank to keep plants irrigated and comes with hooks to make it easy to hang over a rail; 14.95€ from Vtwonen. A set of three metal Herb Pots come with a drainage tray and are available in four colors, including gray (shown), raspberry, duck egg blue, and galvanized. For a small garden, an expanding 25-foot, expand-and-shrink X-Hose is $19.95 (longer lengths also are available). Antwerp-based design company Xala’s plastic watering cans come in three sizes; a round Bowli Watering Can holds 2.5 liters of water and is $20 from Neo-Utility. For more about the line, made of non-toxic HDPE, high-density polyethylene plastic, see Belgian Basics With a Fairytale Twist. A set of eight Seed Saving Envelopes has pre-printed spaces for record keeping so you can label contents as organic, heirloom, hybrid, open-pollinated, hand-pollinated, and/or perennial; $4.95 from Seattle Seed Company. Made in Spain, a leakproof rubber Garden Trug has a 10.5-gallon capacity and is impervious to punishment. Chalkboard plant pots made of terra cotta with a matte black finish come in three sizes–in diameters of 4, 6, and 8 inches–and all are under $20. Keep a sharp edge on digging knives, spades, loppers, and other garden tools; a Hard Arkansas Pocket Stone (available in two sizes) deserves a spot in a tool bag. Prices range from $6.99 to $9.99 depending on size at Sharpening Supplies. I use these 4.5-inch mini shears to cut herbs to cook dinner and to deadhead the first brown flowers on the clusters that cover the rose bushes. Scrub off the garden’s dirt and calluses with a pumice-infused bar of Worker’s Soap; made in the Adirondacks, it has a strong scent of tobacco, cedar, and patchouli that makes you feel like you really accomplished something today.