Shop North Coast Gardening
There are an enormous number of gardening books and tools in the world, and even for the professional gardener, sorting out which are the best can pose a challenge.
Over the years, I’ve gotten to try the tools that clients, my nursery friends, and other landscapers swear by, and this list is the result. My employees and I have compared pruners during marathon pruning days, seen which tools hurt our wrists after hours of weeding, and generally abused and overused every one of these to see which ones really hold up over time.
I’ve listed the best sources for each of these products, as well as links to my reviews of each. Some of these products are best purchased through Amazon, while others are available through my OpenSky Shop. Anything you buy from my OpenSky Shop has a full 365-day any-reason return-shipping-paid return policy.
Let me save you from the strain of pruning with an inferior lopper, or the annoyance of a tool that just doesn’t perform – check out this list of my top picks, and if you want to tell me about your favorites, use the contact form at the bottom of the page to drop me a line!
Gardening tools:
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Stainless Steel Hori-Hori/ Soil Knife: The ultimate weeding tool. Slices through soil and roots like they’re nothing!
Check out my Hori-hori/ soil knife review here, and learn the Stab, Wiggle and Drop technique for planting. Buy the Stainless Hori-Hori: |
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Fiskars Big Grip Soil Knife: This is the cheapest soil knife available and works well for the price.
Check out this video where I compare and contrast my two favorite soil knives. Buy the Fiskars Big Grip Soil Knife: |
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GroundHog Garden Rake: the ergonomic rake for moving soil or smoothing mulch, or for raking up thick, matted layers of leaves.
See my initial review of the GroundHog Rake here, and watch it in action in this video review. Buy the GroundHog Garden Rake: |
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Fiskars Powergear Hedging Shears: Perfect for cutting back perennials, sword ferns, pruning grasses, and pruning heaths and heathers.
Check out my video review here. Buy the Fiskars Powergear Hedging Shears: |
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Fiskars Pruning Stik: Lightweight pruning stick for getting small branches and vines. I use it to prune out-of-control Cecile Brunner roses and at apple-tree pruning time.Video review (with dog) here.
Buy the Fiskars Pruning Stik: |
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Bahco Pruning Shears: Quite simply the best hand pruners available, at a middle-of-the-road price. You can check out my full review of Bahco, Felco, and Corona Pruning Shears here. Buy the Bahco Pruners: |
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Felco Pruning Shear Holster: To keep those pruners by my side and NOT in my compost bucket!!
Buy the Felco Pruning Shear Holster: |
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Speedy Sharp Sharpener: To quickly keep your pruners and other tools sharp.
Check out my Speedy Sharp video here. Buy the Speedy Sharp: |
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Cobrahead Weeding Tool: I love how natural it feels to use in my raised vegetable beds. Not the best for large weeds, but you can’t beat it for loosening soil and getting out small weeds in a finished garden bed. I also love it for getting out the weeds in sidewalk cracks.
Read my full review here, and see my chicken Ethel’s take on the Cobrahead! Buy the Cobrahead: |
Humboldt County Featured Products:
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Fellini Baby Gear: Local, fair-trade, organic cotton baby clothing that’s well-made and super-cute.
Here’s my interview with Catherine, the owner of Fellini Baby. Buy Fellini Baby clothes: |
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One of a Kind Threads: Organic laundry detergent, household cleaner, relaxing bath salts, and sudsing organic sugar scrub. I’m pretty dashed fussy about anything that touches my skin, but these products are natural, smell great, and don’t give my sensitive skin a freakout.
Buy One of a Kind Threads’ cleaners and body products: |
Gloves and Protective Gear:
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Atlas Touch Nitrile Gloves: Thin gloves that are great for planting annuals or other work where you need great tactile feedback. Washable. I’m a size small.
Here’s my review of the gloves and other protective gear I use. Buy the Atlas Touch Glove: |
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Flex Tuff Gloves: The gloves I use everyday – washable and durable. I’m a size small. The Atlas Fit Glove is the non-generic version of the glove I use, and fits identically. The Atlas ThermaFit is the same glove, only warmer for winter gardening.
Check out my rundown of the protective gear I use here. Buy the Atlas Fit Glove: |
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Kneelons Kneepads: Washable velcro kneepads that actually stay on! These are hard to find, but worth the trouble. The competing brand, Knee Benz, does not measure up.
My review of different kneepads is here. Buy Kneelons: |
Accessories:
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TubTrugs Flexible Bucket: This is great for pruning and weeding into along the way so you don’t end up with a mess to clean up later, and it’s also flexible enough that it makes a great pouring spout for fertilizing and watering in your plants.
Read my review of the TubTrug and more gardening buckets and bags. Buy the TubTrug Flexible Bucket: |
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Kangaroo Gardening Container: This collapsible tub makes it easy to drag your green waste around your garden, then load into the car and empty out. It crushes down to a few inches thick to store easily in your garage.
Read my review of the Kangaroo and other gardening buckets and bags. Buy the Kangaroo Container: |
Organic Sprays and Pest Control:
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Sluggo Organic Snail Bait: The traditional snail bait is about the nastiest garden chemical out there, but this bait made of food-grade iron phosphate works great.
Read more about organic snail and slug killing tactics here. Buy Sluggo Organic Snail Bait: |
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Nature’s Avenger Organic Weed Killer: This organic herbicide uses citric acid to burn the waxy coating off weed leaves. Read more about organic weed control here.
Buy Nature’s Avenger Organic Weed Killer: |
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Weed Pharm Organic Weed Killer: Made from concentrated vinegar (20% acetic acid, the active ingredient in vinegar), this weed killer has multiple uses, from injecting weeds in lawn to general organic weed control.
Buy Weed Pharm Organic Weed Killer: |
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The Scarecrow Deer-Frightener: Surprises the heck out of those pesky deer and keeps them out of your rosebed. Careful not to get blasted yourself!!
Full Scarecrow review here. Buy the Scarecrow Sprinkler: |
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