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Maintaining your yard takes time, precision, and tools. Don’t mess around with unhelpful gear that’ll just take up space. Here’s our list of useful, non-wasteful tools to keep you your garden fresh, tidy, and eco-friendly.
For a healthy yard: Worm Factory 360 Black
For a healthy yard
Turns Food Scraps Into Nutrient-Rich Compost
The Worm Factory 360 is a shallow redworm composter that uses four stacked trays to turn your food scraps into microbe and nutrient-rich compost for your garden. This product can be used indoors, so there’s no excuse for sending your scraps to the landfill.
How it works: The trays hold thousands of worms that burrow through the compost, creating tunnels that help bring oxygen to the pile, creating what the product babble calls a “thermo siphon air flow.” This speeds up the composting process and seriously reduces odor. The trays have gridded bottoms that let the worms move upward once new food scraps are added to bins on top. This condensed footprint means you can even use the composter indoors.
Toss in items like fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and dry leaves, letting the worms wriggle through recycling waste and leaving nutrient-heavy compost. Once the bottom tray is done being composted, remove it, and place it back on top with new scraps. The Worm Factory 360 also has a spigot on the bottom that helps drain any moisture or liquid.
This kit comes with basic accessories and instructions, but worms are sold separately.
Never slip: DEX FIT Nitrile Work Gloves
Never slip
Seven Color Options
These lightweight, nylon gloves have a water-based rubber grip that helps prevent tools from slipping. They are breathable, machine-washable, and let you use your smartphone. This pack comes with 12 pairs.
Easy to store: Aterod 75 feet Expandable Garden Hose
Easy to store
Highly Portable
This hose has a durable latex core and flexible polyester encasing that can expand up to 75 feet. The nozzle has a non-slip handle and features nine spray varietals like shower, mist, cone, and flat. The hose also comes with a carrying case for easy storage and to keep your backyard looking tidy.
Low-tech: Great States 16-Inch 5-Blade Push Reel Lawn Mower
Low-tech
Clean And Quiet
This reel mower, in particular, has got 10-inch wheels to make it easy to maneuver, plus a 16-inch wide cutting expanse and a mechanism that lets you adjust the trimming height between .5 and 2.5 inches. Plus it is powder-coated to prevent rust. The blades are also heat-treated, which helps increase in toughness and wear-resistance.
Extra peace of mind: Gardaner Plant Covers
Extra peace of mind
Lightweight
These 8-foot-by-24-foot plant covers are designed to protect plants from harsh weather conditions like extreme heat or cold, but can also be used to keep animals away. The year-round cover is made of an anti-UV, breathable, weather-resistant fabric that can easily be cut into smaller pieces for smaller patches of plants. You’ll be able to protect plants from harsh weather while still allowing both air and moisture to get through.
Starter kit: Scuddles Garden Tools Set
Starter kit
You've Got To Start Somewhere
This stainless-steel, rust-proof set comes in a cotton and polyester carrying tote and features eight rubber-handled tools like a pruner, a trowel, and a weeder. This set isn’t for the large-scale gardener, but if you’re weeding smaller swaths of soil, or need to move plants around, these tools will have you covered.
Easy-to-maneuver: WORX Aerocart 8-in-1 Wheelbarrow / Yard Cart / Dolly
Easy-to-maneuver
Most Versatile
The Worx Aerocart is an eight-in-one wheelbarrow and dolly that can hold up to 200 pounds on its steel frame. It has “flat-free” oversized tires that never need to be inflated, plus fold-out arms for transporting lighter items. It’s also designed to prevent back strain and make a heavier load feel much lighter. The cart includes accessories like a flower pot strap and a mesh rock mover.