Gardeners Reveal Their Favorite Tools That Aren't Actually Meant for the Garden

If you spend a lot of time in your garden, you understand the importance of using tools that enhance efficiency, whether they're designed for the garden or not. One gardener on Reddit shared their "favorite gardening tool that isn't made for the garden," prompting many others to flood the comments with the preferred unconventional tools that they rely on. 

Many Reddit users reported that their go-to tool for the garden is a painter's 5-in-1 tool due to its multifunctionality. Gardeners explained that they use it for weeding, digging, cutting, pruning, smashing, whacking, sifting, poking, shoveling, measuring, scratching, marking, and even hammering. "We call it the 'Everything tool' here," one person wrote.

Another common non-gardening tool favored by gardeners? Kitchen forks, spoons, and knives, which gardeners use for scooping soil, weeding, transplanting seedlings, mixing small batches of fertilizer, and loosening soil in tight spaces. (If you're considering using eating utensils in your garden, we recommend using thrift shop finds rather than potentially damaging your dining flatware.)

A unique tool that many gardeners might not have is an artist's palette knife. "Extremely helpful with seedlings, both removing from containers AND planting! Like a super mini trowel. The width on mine is ~ half an inch or 2 cm," one person wrote. They then added: "2nd fav: giant marshmallow roasting sticks. Cheap way to prop up plants." Another replied, suggesting to buy them at the end of the summer because they are always marked down to a great price.

"My personal favorite is a laminate flooring knife. It's great for cutting out weeds with precision or cutting back sections of grass," another Reddit user shared.

There are countless innovative ways to use everyday tools in the garden if you tap into your creativity and make the most of what you already have, adding them to your gardening toolkit.