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Years ago, gardening tools were built to last and it was not uncommon for a good spade, to cost a week’s wages. As they were an expensive commodity, these gardening tools had to be made to withstand the test of time and were often passed down through generations. You find many of them still being used today.

These days, when you walk into any retailer that sells gardening tools you are met with racks of different items all proclaiming they are the ‘gardeners best friend’ or ‘what every garden needs’, researching on the internet is even more confusing, with pages of gardening tools results filling your screen claiming to be the tool that you must have.

Before you start looking at the hi-tech gadgetry available on the high street and online, you need to ensure that you have the basics. A good foundation of gardening tools will stand you in good stead for the future and give you a good base to build up an array of tools in the future. Below is a list of the top 10 gardening tools that every garden shed should be keeping safe.

Gloves

We all know that many garden pests and weeds have thorns, stings or chemicals that irritate the skin so the first item in our gardening tools list is a good pair of gloves. Not only will they protect from nasty prickly pests they can help prevent blisters and stop your skin drying out.

Spade

There is no way you could do anything of note in a garden without a spade – it will help when turning soil in flower beds and veggie patches, dig holes for fence posts or larger trees and shrubs, and prove invaluable when clearing piles of rubbish.

Some of the earliest forms of gardening for ornamental purposes have been recorded in ancient Egypt where people of high status used walled gardens as a place to relax in the shade of trees and show-off their wealth. These gardens were also used to pay homage to their Gods and also to grow vines for grapes used to produce wine. The Egyptians are credited with cultivating many of the plant species we see around us today, they enjoyed experimenting with different types of tree and are known to have grown sycamore, date palms, nut trees and pomegranate. Although it wasn’t only trees they planted, the Egyptians also experimented with roses, poppies, daisies and cornflowers. Other beautiful, ornamental and decorative gardens in history can be attributed to Romans and Assyrians. The latter responsible for creating large hunting parks and expansive gardens, often irrigated by canals.

It wasn’t until the late 13th century that gardening for decoration really took hold in Europe, until then, gardens were seen as very much a means of producing food. These ornamental gardens would have been protected from animals by walls and other fencing. The Europeans had soon added lawns, trellises of roses and raised flower beds to their gardening repertoire and fruit trees also developed. Monasteries were often seen as a place where gardening was being pioneered as they were places where monks grew herbs and vegetables for food and medicinal purposes.

Throughout the centuries after that, gardening grew and grew, different plants were cultivated and became popular at different intervals. Some century’s, such as the 17th, also brought different gardening styles and decoration like symmetry, uses of decorative hedges and water features.