Sumo Gardener
Shares

The 7 Best Tools for Harvesting and Gathering

Excited for springtime? Here's a breakdown of the 7 best tools for harvesting and gathering that you need in your shed today. 

Gardening can reduce anxiety, discomfort, mental fatigue, and pain. Not only that — it allows you to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor. Technically, you don't need much to have a garden. 

The bare minimum includes seeds, healthy soil, sunshine, and water. If you go the extra mile and tend the soil, remove weeds, and plant companions near each other, you'll get a more robust crop.

Keep reading to find out the 7 best tools for harvesting and gathering for gardens of every size.

The 7 Best Tools for Harvesting and Gathering

1. Gardening Gloves

Best Tools for Harvesting and Gathering

There's something special about having your hands in raw dirt. However, there are many times that you'll want a pair of reliable gloves for protection.

This includes harvesting from thorny plants and for days when you'll do a lot of digging.

By wearing a pair of properly fitting, breathable gloves, you can keep your hands blister and cut-free so that you can spend more time comfortably in the garden.

2. Tools for Clearing

Garden Tools for Clearing

Oftentimes, harvesting and gathering are easier when you get weeds and overgrowth out of the way. Pruning saws will allow you to cut down woody stems to reach produce, and keep the plant happy and healthy.

For smaller plants, you can use pruning and trimming shears to harvest vegetables with thicker stems, such as leafy greens and squash. If you have a decent-sized garden, you may want to invest in a stool for when you're clearing and harvesting. 

They come in various styles and sizes but all share the same purpose: to protect your knees and body while you're clearing and harvesting.

3. Gardening Tools for Digging

Garden Tools for Digging

Getting root vegetables out of the ground is no joke. It takes more than simply tugging at the greens that are above ground to get them loose.

So, you'll want to have a hand spade and trowel available to assist the job. You can use normal-sized spades and shovels as well, but having a hand-held option allows you to displace less dirt and be more precise with where you're digging.

4. Garden Cutting Tools

Garden Cutting Tools

Call them what you'd like, so long as you have them. Gardening scissors or secateurs are a basic and essential tool for every gardener.

They're versatile, from opening seed packets to cutting herbs to lightly trimming back small plants. Invest in a couple of high-quality, garden-specific pairs so that you always have them around.

You can use gardening scissors to keep your produce pristine. Rather than pulling produce off of the plant, you can softly snip it off to keep everything intact.

Alongside scissors, having a sharp garden knife is handy. You can use this to cut mushrooms, broccoli, and various greens.

Some of them are designed with the dual purpose of being a digger as well, allowing you to loosen shallow soil and cut roots when necessary.

5. Specialty Harvesting Tools

Specialty Harvesting Tools

Depending on what produce you're growing, you may want to invest in a few specialty tools to make the job easier. Some are versatile, like a potato fork.

Aside from digging out potatoes, you can use this fork to loosen up the soil throughout your garden for aeration and weed control. Others, however, are job-specific.

Fruit harvesters fall into this category, like the long tree fruit harvesters or the short, hand-held berry pickers. Think about your garden and decide which plants will take the longest to harvest.

From there, you can decide if it's worth it to invest in specialty equipment to get the job done easier and faster.

6. Gathering Bag or Basket

Garden Containers

While you'll collect your bounty, you'll need somewhere to put it. Kitchen bowls are sufficient enough but have a few drawbacks.

First, you'll be bringing your nice dishware into the garden, where anything can happen. On top of that, kitchen bowls are often too small for harvesting the abundance.

Instead, you should look towards investing in a gathering bag and basket. Bags are nice because they can be folded up and stored easily when not in use. However, they aren't ideal for produce that is tender, such as tomatoes.

Baskets, or even strainers, are great because they allow loose dirt to fall out in the garden instead of in your home. They are great options for produce that is a little more fragile, too.

If you're harvesting a lot of produce, you may want to get a garden cart or use a wheelbarrow so that you can do it all at one time. Then, you can move your harvest from the cart into their proper places in your home.

It's also handy to have cloth storage bags for your produce to keep it fresh longer. Do a little research as to the best way to store your particular foods and invest in necessary jars and cloth bags as needed.

7. Hand Scrub and Salve

While these things aren't technically "tools", hand scrub and salve make the list of important things to have when harvesting.

Gloves, dirt, and water can dry out your hands significantly. To prevent this, pick up some gardening hand scrub to wash up after your hard work. Then, you can use salve to add back the moisture that you lost throughout the day.

This will keep your hands from cracking and becoming painful.

If you use the right tools and use them properly, you will keep the plants and yourself safe. Then, you can garden for years to come and keep some of your plants for multiple seasons.

Get The Best Tools for Harvesting and Gathering

By using the best tools for harvesting and gathering, you can successfully collect the produce of your hard work. While there are plenty of tools aside from these to pick up, this will get you started off on the right foot.

Keep reading our blog for more gardening tips and tricks.

About the Author Ann Katelyn

I'm Ann Katelyn, Creator and Chief Author of Sumo Gardener. Since I was a child I've always been fascinated with plants and gardens, and as an adult this has developed into my most loved hobby. I have dedicated most of my life to gardening and started Sumo Gardener as a way to express my knowledge about gardening with the hope of helping other people's gardens thrive.

follow me on:

Add your first comment to this post