The 6 tools that are really useful in the vegetable garden
Each tool linked to the move it serves, with prices recorded online in Belgium and France. And the purchases that can wait.
For a first vegetable garden, six tools are enough. You need a digging fork, a hoe, a rake, a trowel, a watering can with a rose and secateurs. At their simplest, they cost less than €85 in Belgium and less than €60 in France in November 2026. Each serves a precise move of the year. The rest can wait until you really need it.
The six tools and the move for each
The digging fork
It does the heavy work. It loosens the soil without turning it over, takes out the roots of perennial weeds and lifts potatoes and leeks. For perennials, the RHS, the British horticultural society, prefers the fork to the spade. You go under the plant and lift it without cutting its roots into pieces. Many perennials start again from a bit of root.
The hoe
It weeds without making you bend. The RHS advises running it regularly from spring, just under the surface, to cut young weeds below their crown. Do it in dry weather. The cut weeds dry out and die instead of rooting again.
The rake
It prepares the seedbed. Before sowing carrots, the RHS asks for soil that is weeded, loosened, cleared of stones and raked fine. The rake also serves to spread compost on the surface.
The trowel
This small spade plants your salads, tomatoes and strawberries. It also serves to harvest without pulling everything up. The RHS uses it to take a few potatoes from the base of a plant that keeps growing.
The watering can with a rose
Take a 10-litre watering can with a rose, the head pierced with small holes that breaks up the stream. Brussels Environment (Bruxelles Environnement) advises watering seedlings in fine droplets. A full stream unearths the seeds. Without the rose, the can serves for watering tomatoes and courgettes at the base.
The secateurs
They harvest cleanly. To pick courgettes, the RHS advises secateurs or a knife. The cut is clean and the plant is not damaged. Pick them often and small, at 10 to 12.5 cm. The plant then produces for longer.
What they cost
Prices were recorded online on 6 November 2026, all brands combined, on brico.be for Belgium and castorama.fr for France. The first value is the cheapest model found, the second a common model.
| Tool | Belgium (brico.be) | France (castorama.fr) |
|---|---|---|
| Digging fork | €30 to €53 | €16 to €38 |
| Hoe | €15 to €27 | €10 to €28 |
| Rake | €13 to €24 | €6 to €15 |
| Trowel | €5 to €16 | €9 to €16 |
| 10-litre watering can | €13 to €16 | €7 to €13 |
| Secateurs | €9 to €24 | €9 to €19 |
| The six, cheapest | €84.89 | €57.05 |
Purchases that can wait
The rotavator. You find them from €90 to more than €1,000. For a 10 m² bed, it is not necessary. Charles Dowding has compared beds since 2014. Over 10 years, his two strips never worked even produced a little better than the strip loosened with a fork. The debate is detailed in To dig or not to dig.
The set of seven tools. A box of seven hand tools sells for €34.99 on brico.be (Belgium). You pay for tools you will not all use. Buy one at a time, when the move comes up.
The electronic soil tester. We found no independent study on the accuracy of these garden probes. To know the pH of your soil, have a real analysis done. It costs €15.40 excluding VAT at the provincial station at Tinlot, in Wallonia (Belgium). It also measures phosphorus, potassium and humus. Sampling is explained in Feeding the vegetable garden soil.
The short list to give as a gift
For a gift to someone who is starting, take the tools that cost almost nothing and are useful right away.
- a sturdy trowel, around €15;
- a pair of secateurs, around €20;
- a hoe, between €15 and €30.
Add a packet of easy seeds, like those in the Vegetable seeds collection. The first bed, step by step, is in Starting a vegetable garden. The app calculates when to sow each packet according to the climate of the garden. Start here.
FAQ
Spade or digging fork?
For a vegetable garden, the digging fork. It loosens without turning over and lifts potatoes. The RHS prefers it to the spade for taking out perennial weeds without cutting their roots.
Do you need a rotavator to start?
No. A 10 m² bed is prepared with a digging fork and a rake. In Charles Dowding's trial, the beds never worked produce at least as much as the loosened bed.
When to run the hoe?
Regularly from spring, in dry weather, just under the surface (RHS). The small cut weeds dry out on the spot.
A watering can or a hose?
For 10 m², a 10-litre watering can is enough. It waters seedlings in a fine spray. The hose becomes useful when the vegetable garden grows.
Photo: Lucian Cornea, Pexels
Sources
- RHS (Royal Horticultural Society), How to weed a bed efficiently (binette juste sous la surface, par temps sec, fourche plutôt que bêche pour les vivaces, outils listés)
- RHS, Potatoes: grow your own (arrachage à la fourche, à 30 cm du pied, quelques tubercules au transplantoir)
- RHS, Carrots: grow your own (terre émiettée et ratissée fin avant le semis)
- RHS, Courgettes: grow your own (récolte au sécateur ou au couteau, à 10 à 12,5 cm)
- Bruxelles Environnement, Mon potager en ville, 30 min par semaine (arroser les semis en fines gouttelettes)
- Charles Dowding, Three-strip trial, Homeacres (bande ameublie à la fourche contre bandes sans travail du sol, récoltes sur 10 ans)
- Station provinciale d'analyses agricoles de la Province de Liège (Tinlot), fiche de renseignements jardin (analyse standard avec pH à 15,40 € HTVA, révision 2020)
- Brico (Belgique), résultats de recherche « fourche bêche », « binette », « râteau », « transplantoir », « arrosoir 10 l », « sécateur », « motobineuse », relevés le 06/11/2026
- Castorama (France), résultats de recherche « fourche à bêcher », « binette », « râteau », « transplantoir », « arrosoir », « sécateur », « motobineuse », relevés le 06/11/2026
He gardens in Belgium and tries out in his own vegetable patch what the app recommends. His articles always start from a source you can check and a step you can take this weekend.
