Hand trowels

Used for a wide variety of tasks, the hand trowel is an essential tool. Kay Maguire puts 12 through their paces to reveal our best buys

The humble trowel has to be the most versatile tool in the garden. Often a gardener’s first piece of kit, it’s perfect for planting, in both borders and containers, but it is also just the thing for weeding, getting bulbs in at the right depth, scooping compost, marking out seed drills and working in tight spaces.

The familiar rounded blade, or head, is available in carbon, stainless steel or plastic,

July 2020 and its short handle is usually made from wood, metal or plastic. This go-to hand tool is often tweaked to suit specific jobs. Heads can be flatter, thinner or deeper according to their use, and there are narrow trowels for working on rockeries, pointed heads for difficult ground, and deep-scooped trowels for potting on and transplanting.

Specialist brands and even supermarkets make their own, but with so many to choose from, which is the best? We put 12 trowels through their paces, planting and weeding in various spots in the garden, and used the following criteria to calculate our scores. Equal weight was attributed to each.

Head and handle We assessed the shape, depth and sharpness of the head, the materials the head and handle were made from, as well as their durability.

Comfort We looked at how the trowel felt in the hand, how easy it was to use and considered any special design features.

Performance This included strength and durability, as well as the variety of jobs it was suited to and how well it performed.

Value for money All the above points were considered, as well as quality, warranty and the recommended retail price.