Whether it’s using a shovel to dig holes for trees or cleaning up your yard from debris with a leaf rake, at Merrifield Garden Center, we carry many different types of tools that work well for a variety of gardening purposes. Here are some of our tried and true tools for any given project in your yard.
The round point shovel is a tool with a long handle and a rounded point that is ideal for digging, cultivating and transporting materials. With its beveled edge and sharp point, it’s great for digging holes, excavating and moving material throughout your yard.
This small, metal hand shovel is a handheld tool that is great for planting small plants and digging out stubborn, unwanted weeds with deep tap roots, such as dandelions. Trowels allow you to dig deep into the soil to find the deepest roots of these weeds or unwanted plants and eliminate them so that they don’t come back year after year.
Pick mattocks are double-edged tools, one side a flat blade and the other a sharp-pointed blade. They are used for piercing and breaking up heavy clay soils and soils laden with rocks where shovels will not work as well. These handy tools help to break up the ground so that you can then use something like a round point shovel to excavate the area.
Hand pruners are handheld shears that are great for removing twigs, sticks and branches. You can also use them to prune roses or any other kind of shrub and to harvest or deadhead flowers. Hand pruners are a little heavier than shears and can cut through woodier stems and thicker material. We recommend sharpening your pruners every year before spring arrives if you are using them frequently. A sharp blade is key to a safe and effective cut.
Loppers are large pruners with wooden handles and sharp blades that must be handled with both hands. They are typically used for cutting larger branches up to 2” in diameter and can cut through thicker material than hand pruners. If your loppers are used frequently like your shears and pruners, sharpen them annually, pre-spring.
Pole pruners are extra long shears that give you an extended reach if you need to cut down a dying tree branch that is out of reach. With a length of about 14’ long and a head that will easily cut through a dying branch, pole pruners are extremely helpful in the garden if you need to cut something tall.
This sharp garden-scissor hand tool is great for pruning and shaping shrubs into any shape you please, such as spheres, cubes or pyramids. They’re also a great tool to use to clip flowers or herbs from the garden and remove dead material or trim ornamental grasses. With shears, sharp blades are key. If you frequently use your shears, we recommend sharpening them every year before spring.
Grass shears are the perfect tool to trim ornamental grasses or lawns. They have long, sharp blades with pointed ends that are used to cut the edge of a walkway or garden bed where grass is overgrowing. We carry handheld grass shears you can use while kneeling in the garden and long handled grass shears that you can use when standing up.
Half moon edgers are handy tools with semi-circular blades and long handles. We recommend using it to edge your lawn while standing. To create a neat, clean edge in between your landscape beds and lawn, we recommend pushing the half-moon edger into the ground and tamping it down with your foot. Pick it up, move it along the bed border and continue with this movement until your beds are cleanly edged.
Rotary edgers are spinning versions of half moon edgers. They have blades that turn and spin as you walk and break up the grass to create edges to your lawn or walkways. Oftentimes, our mowers can’t effectively trim the edges between a walkway or a yard, so we can use tools like rotary edgers to cleanly create edges between the two areas.
Handheld grass seed spreaders are great for seeding small areas of your lawn as you come across bare patches. They contain a hopper that you fill with either our Merrifield Tuff Play, Merrifield Sunny, or Merrifield Shady seed blends. As you walk, use the hand crank and move around the area that you wish to seed. Follow the bag instructions for the application rate and spreader setting for your seed.
Walk behind spreaders resemble lawn mowers and are the larger versions of handheld spreaders. You can push them throughout your lawn to seed larger areas than those you could fill with the handheld tool. Simply fill the spreader with one of our signature seed blends and walk behind it, directing the seeds in a fan wherever you wish to seed your lawn. A slower pace as you walk will create a denser distribution of seed. Follow the bag instructions for the application rate and spreader setting for your seed.
We carry leaf tarps to help with your yard cleanup as the leaves fall and accumulate in your yard. Simply rake your leaves into a pile, roll out your leaf tarp, transfer the leaves to the tarp, grab the ends and fold them over, and drag your leaves out of your lawn and to another location to be bagged and left on your sidewalk.
A bulb planter is a metal, tapered cylindrical tool that helps you make easy holes for planting bulbs. At Merrifield Garden Center, we carry a standing bulb planter and a handheld planter, each creating the perfect 2½” diameter hole to place your bulb into. Standing bulb planters are helpful when planting a large amount of bulbs and are also less strenuous for gardeners with mobility or back problems. They are tall and have a place to step down, pushing the tubular metal tool into the ground by tamping it down with your foot. A handheld bulb planter is a more cost effective option and will be great for gardeners who don’t mind bending over to use the tool. Simply push the tool into the ground to make the hole where you will place your bulb.
The King of Spades tool has a long handle with a rectangular-shaped edge. It can be used for many different gardening purposes, such as cutting edges, transplanting trees and shrubs and digging and lifting sod. This tool is very durable, heavy and nearly indestructible. King of Spades tools are typically beloved by contractors as this heavy-duty tool is considered commercial grade, heavy and sturdy enough to last for years to come.
The leaf rake has long tines that angle out to reach a large surface area in your garden, cleaning up and leveling your property. Most notably used to collect fallen leaves in our area, you can also use a leaf rake to clean up helicopters, twigs or bits of spent flowers from shrubs and flowering trees. It’s also a great tool to spread and level mulch throughout garden beds, or rake up bare patches in your lawn before overseeding.
The bow rake is a heavy duty tool with short, rigid metal tines that run perpendicular to a straight, leveling handle. It’s most commonly used to scratch up the surface of the soil when laying seed. This helps seeds make better contact with the soil. You can also use the bow rake to remove dead grass before filling in bare patches, spread mulch or compost, remove rocks or debris, level the soil, mix concrete or spread and level gravel.
Thatch rakes have sharp, steel teeth on both sides, resembling a bow rake except it is double edged. One side of the rake has curved tines and the other has straight-edged tines. Thatch rakes can be used to scratch up and scarify a location where you want to remove vegetation from your yard to add new seed on top. This tool can also be used to loosen soil and lay sod.
Handforks are three-pronged metal hand tools. They are perfect for gardening activities, such as prepping planting holes, transplanting plants, aerating the soil, mixing amendments into the soil, removing weeds and levelling edges. The small size of this tool gives you more control in the garden while kneeling and tending to certain areas in your yard where you would want to attack weeds and mix amendments into the soil.
Cultivators are hand tools that resemble hand forks, but have three thinner prongs that are narrower than hand forks. They are used for mixing amendments such as fertilizer, manure or compost into soils and attacking pesky, unwanted weeds. Simply kneel down and scrape the surface of your soil with your cultivator, breaking it up and prepping it for planting.
Dibbles are hand tools with a singular, pointed end, resembling the shape of a carrot. These are used to efficiently create planting holes for things like seeds, seedlings and bulbs. While kneeling, use the dibble to poke directly into the soil where you would like to make a hole for planting.
Hand plows have curved necks and a pointed, heart or triangular-shaped blade. You can use a hand plow if you are weeding, digging, planting or transplanting in the garden. Its sharp blade is wonderful for getting down deep into the soil to attack weeds with deep root systems. You can also use it to loosen the soil. Kneel down, push the blade directly into the soil, then pull it back, repeating this maneuver to break up and turn the soil.
A Hand hoe is a smaller version of a standing hoe and is great for cultivating soil, digging planting trenches, preparing beds for planting and weeding areas in your yard. Use a sweeping motion with your hoe while tending to your soil, chopping the tops off of weeds and preparing the area for planting.
Weed poppers have a rod with a sharp, forked end that is wonderful for attacking weeds that are taking over tighter areas such as sidewalk cracks or around stepping stones in the garden. Poke the tool’s sharp edge into the ground where you see a weed, twist the handle and pull up. This will dig up the weed and its roots with ease. For easy weeding, we recommend using your weed popper after rain when the ground is still moist. It will allow the weed and root to come out intact.
Also known as a Hori-Hori knife, this serrated tool has a singular blade and a comfortable handle. Gardening knives are great for weeding, dividing plants, cutting roots and transplanting. Use this tool anywhere in the garden where you want to chop unwanted plant material, including weeds.
A trake is a combination between a trowel and a rake. One end of the tool is a shallow shovel for digging and the other side is a three-pronged miniature rake. It is a very handy 2-in-1 device that will work wonderfully for any planting, digging, cultivating and weeding task in the garden. The trowel side can be used to dig holes and the rake will help cultivate, loosen and turn the soil while raking up any unwanted leaves or stray plant material.
Watering cans are handy tools to use while watering indoors and out. We carry both metal and plastic cans that are attractive as well as durable and cost effective. Fill your container with water and slowly pour it over your plant’s root system.
Watering wands are long handles that attach to any garden hose with a nozzle on the end that deposits the water. Using a watering wand is also a comfortable and efficient way to water.
Watering wands are our preferred method of watering as you can easily direct the water right where you want it to go–over the base of the plant and the surrounding soil. You can also easily control the water pressure and the water pattern. We recommend always setting the wand on a shower setting at a low to medium output so you don’t disturb the soil and mulch you have in place in the garden. Watering wands are also great tools to use to spray debris off surfaces like a walkway, patio or deck. Simply set the water pattern to fan, and the pressure to high.
We carry the Dramm Rain Wand–an industry standard–in a variety of different attractive colors from blue to green and purple. We also carry other brands at varying price points. Orbit’s X-Stream watering tool, for example, has an extendable reach handle and a swivel head. Simply attach your wand to your hose tightly and turn the water on, allowing the wand to water your landscape with ease.
Sprinklers can be an effective watering tool if you’re watering a large group of plants or an area of your lawn. We sell a few different types of sprinklers to fit your needs. Here are a few of our favorites:
We carry 25, 50 and 100 ft. hoses from a variety of different brands. Simply attach your hose to your water spout and the other ends to a watering wand or an attachable hose nozzle and guide the water to your plants and lawn. A few of our most popular hose brands are:
Hose nozzles are watering tool attachments that you screw onto your hose. A few of our most popular hose nozzles are:
We recommend always using different sprayers for different applications: one for water, one for fertilizing and one for pesticides. Use a permanent marker or label to clearly mark your sprayers so you don’t accidentally use them for another product. We carry many different sprayer designs. You can even select a fun decorative sprayer for your houseplant watering needs to avoid cross contamination.
When applying pesticides and fertilizers using a sprayer, always follow the application instructions and add the required amount of water if dilution is required for the product you are applying.
A hose-end sprayer is a plant spraying tool that you can attach to your hose. Simply fill the canister with the pesticide or fertilizer of your choice and attach the other end to your hose. This easily allows you to dilute the chemical with water from the hose and spray the mixture over your garden plants or lawns.
A pressurized sprayer is a spraying tool that has a tank and a pump. The tank will hold any chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers. The pump is used to create pressure within the tank. Push down the handle or lever, compressing the air within the tank. Then, pull the trigger and allow the spray to emerge as a mist over your plants.
We carry smaller handheld sprayers to spot treat specific areas of your garden. Fill the sprayer with your chosen pesticide or fertilizer, dilute it with water and then spray by squeezing the trigger on specific plants or areas of your landscape.
We carry plastic handheld misters that are wonderful for use when misting houseplants. Fill the sprayer with water and pull the trigger to mist your tropical houseplants that thrive in humid environments.
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