Hand trowels for different jobs in the garden
Just when you thought a trowel was a trowel, a trip to the garden center might prove you wrong. Who knew there were so many variations on the basic design? Each of the hand trowels above has a reason for its shape and a job it will do best.
Choose a comfortable handle
No matter what style you choose, a good hand trowel’s handle should be smooth and fit to your palm. You may have to try a few out to see how they feel — one may have cushioning or a curve in the handle that doesn’t work with the size and shape of your hand. Look for adaptive tools available with features to accommodate different needs. Telescoping handles can help folks who have trouble bending low. And curving ergonomic handles can give gardeners better leverage or ease discomfort for those with arthritis in their hands.
As you build your garden toolbox, you might decide to tailor your choices of hand trowels to the tasks you do most often. Let me show you how different types of trowels can make gardening less work.
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Different types of garden trowels
Basic garden trowel
A basic garden trowel is wide toward the handle, tapering to a point that may or may not be sharpened but will dig into soil easily. The blade has a curved shape, allowing you to scoop soil. The Corona CT 3314 Premium Stainless Steel ComfortGEL Garden Trowel is etched with measurements to make it easy to tell how deep you’ve dug a planting hole, and you can lay it on the ground to measure spacing between plants. It also has a sharpened edge near the neck that opens bags easily.
A garden trowel works for almost any task. If you have only one hand tool in your shed, it should be a basic garden trowel. But spend a bit of money and get a good one made of carbon steel or stainless steel — cheaply made garden trowels can bend easily where the tang, or neck, meets the handle.
Best used for:
- Transplanting
- Digging up small plants or weeds
- Planting containers
- Turning soil in a small garden bed
Garden trowels we recommend:
- Corona CT 3314 Premium Stainless Steel ComfortGEL Garden Trowel
- Garden Shovel with Ergonomic Walnut Handle
- Garden Guru Heavy-Duty Garden Trowel
Potting trowel
With its wide, flared blade and sharp, pointed tip, this hand trowel can easily dig a hole to plant larger annuals or perennials from 4- or 6-in. pots. But it is especially handy for potting up containers, doing dual duty as soil scoop and transplanter. Finding a potting trowel with a sharpened edge makes cutting through roots easy when replacing failing plants in a container, while the almost-heart-shaped blade is big enough to hold a delicate root ball intact when transplanting.
Best used for:
- Digging larger holes
- Planting containers
- Taking apart containers at the end of the season
Potting trowels we recommend:
Soil knife
Though the slightly curved blade is too narrow to scoop soil effectively, a soil knife’s serrated edge is great for slicing through perennial crowns to divide them. Some will have sharp pointed tips, but others, like this multi-purpose garden knife, feature a sharpened notch at the end of the blade that efficiently grabs and pops up taproots of weeds. A hook on the side by the handle (in the inset photo) is useful to shear off a stray branch, slice bags open or cut off roots growing out the bottom of a pot.
Best used for:
- Weeding
- Digging narrow, deep holes for transplanting small plants or bulbs
- Dividing small-rooted perennials
Soil knives we recommend:
- AM Leonard Soil Knife with Sheath
- Hori Hori Garden Knife, Garden Tools with Sheath
- Ames Planter 7-in-1 Hand Tool
Bulb trowel & weeder
You might not know what to do with this odd-shaped trowel, but it comes in handy. The thin, serrated blade and slight “V” shape can tackle tough weeds with long taproots, cutting efficiently through mulch, tangled roots, and even gravelly soil in rock gardens. Its narrow profile helps you target only one weed, with less damage to surrounding plants.
Though it doesn’t hold a lot of soil, a narrow bulb trowel makes it easy to fill in small crevices between plants with potting mix when planting containers. The Radius™ Ergonomic Hand Weeder has an easy-on-the-wrist curved handle that you can flip around and use to tamp down the potting mix.
Best used for:
- Transplanting and weeding in small spaces
- Adding soil in tight spots
Bulb trowels & weeders we recommend:
- Radius Ergonomic Hand Weeder
- Kbenison One-Piece Aluminum Gardening Weed Tool
- Garden Guru Hand Weeder Trowel with Ergonomic Handle
Soil scoop
The deep bowl shape of a soil scoop makes its purpose obvious: filling containers with potting mix. Look for a soil scoop that has a pointed tip and partially serrated edges that can break up packed, root-filled potting mix in containers so they are easy to empty at the end of the season, too. Stirring in compost, fertilizer or other amendments, and even planting, are a breeze with this tool.
Best used for:
- Filling and emptying containers
- Planting in soft soil mix
