From trowels to timber sheds – your essential toolkit for gardening this spring

Most gardens are looking like they need a bit of tender loving care after the winter months and spring is the ideal time to get on top of all the jobs before the growing season really gets going.

To tackle all those jobs effectively, you need to make sure you have the tools for the job. There’s a wide and wonderful range of gardening tools on the market these days, from curiously shaped trowels to gadgets galore.

But a basic range is enough to cover most gardening jobs and will form your essential tool-kit.

– Lawnmower. If you have a lawn, there is really no other practical way to keep your grass in trim. But lawnmowers come in all shapes and sizes so the first thing to consider what type – a ride-on is best if you have a large area while push mowers are eco-friendly and good for small patches. Rotary mowers are very popular and are available in electric, battery-powered or petrol models. There’s even robotic varieties for the tech savvy and time starved! You should also consider the height of the handles for comfort and the length of the cables and the distance from a power source.

– Secateurs. A good quality pair of secateurs will get your through most pruning jobs – an essential task in the spring! – from thicker branches to smaller twigs. They’re also very handing for getting into smaller spaces.

– Wheelbarrow. If you’re going to be shifting soil, compost, manure or waste around the garden, a wheelbarrow is a must to take the pain out of heavy work. It will also come in handy for maneourving trays of bedding plants around or mixing compost. Bear in mind that wider handles will give more balance and longer handles will be better for leverage.

– Trowel. For weeding, planting, mixing compost, sowing or harvesting a basic good quality trowel is a key piece of equipment. There’s lots of speciality trowels out there but a standard old-fashioned trowel will see you through most jobs.

– Gardening gloves. A basic cloth pair will at least keep your hands cleaner and save on scrubbing nails at the end of the day – a tougher leather pair will help protect against thorns and spikes.

– Other equipment you might want to consider, depending on what’s growing in your garden, includes loppers, a saw, a hand fork, a long-handled fork, a hedge trimmer, ladders, a hoe and a rake.

– Garden shed. Now you’ve got your tool kit, you need to look after them to ensure they last and you get your money’s worth. Keep them clean and sharp, and store them in a dry, well-ventilated place – ideally a garden shed. If you are lucky enough to have room for a shed – and they come in all different sizes including very petite! – they are well worth the investment as another key gardening essential. Timber sheds are by far the most popular – and from a garden tools point of view the ideal choice in terms of being able to fit shelves, hooks and racks to suit your range of equipment in an organised way and keep it off the floor where it can get damp and rust. Wood’s natural insulating properties mean it doesn’t have the extreme temperatures variations of metal which is also better for your tools.

Timber sheds do require maintenance, for example treating the wood regularly to keep it protected from the weather, but in return for a bit of care, you get a durable and sturdy product. Quality of the product matters too – tongue and groove will be longer lasting though more expensive than overlapping timbers. And from corner sheds to Dutch-barn style, there is a huge amount of variety to suit different gardens and budgets – to get an idea of the range of structures available, have a look at garden sheds from leading producer Dunster House.