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Here are just a few of the hand tools you will find at Ashtead Park Garden Centre depending on the season and availability

Pick the right tool for the right job, and you'll find things magically become easier. Specialist garden tools&nbsp;have been designed for every gardening task, and if you invest in the tool that's made for the activity you&nbsp;have planned, work becomes a pleasure.
Here are just some of the specialist gardening tools you can find in our garden centre:
Bulb planter: slice through the ground to remove a perfect cone of earth for planting your spring bulbs
Dibber: use the tip for making indentations in compost for seeds, or go deeper for transplanting seedlings
Edging knife: neaten up the tricky bits between flower border and lawn with an easy-to-use half moon edger
Draw hoe: pull up earth around potatoes to protect from frost and encourage lots of tasty tubers
Garden line: sowing in a straight line is a doddle when you mark out your drill with a simple garden line
Pruning knife: sharp, efficient, and small enough to slip into your back pocket: essential kit at cuttings time
Shears: specialist topiary shears clip tight corners, while general-purpose types keep hedges in good shape.
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information about which gardening tools to choose.

Special tools for the specialist gardener

There's a huge range of gardening tools nowadays – you'll find most of them on display in our garden centre.&nbsp;Though they're all great to have, there are some you'll use every time you go in the garden. All these are&nbsp;available in our garden centre in %locations%.
Digging spade: makes heavy-duty soil turning jobs easy. Lightweight, easy-clean stainless steel blades are&nbsp;best.
Garden fork: great for digging stony soils, mixing in a layer of compost, or weeding larger areas.
Hand trowel: essential for transplanting seedlings and planting bulbs: blades marked with measurements&nbsp;make judging planting distances easy
Weeding fork: careful weeding among established plants needs an easy-to-manoeuvre hand fork.
Secateurs: back-pocket essentials for all gardeners at pruning time, but also for dead-heading and taking&nbsp;cuttings
Watering can: from one-litre seedling cans to 10-litre behemoths, a watering can makes sure plants never&nbsp;go short
Wheelbarrow: the garden workhorse, whether you're pruning roses, barrowing muck or clearing a patch of&nbsp;weeds
Dutch hoe: hoe off weed seedlings once a week and you'll always have a pristine plot
Rake: use for raking spring seedbeds, levelling soil in summer, or gathering autumn leaves to make leaf&nbsp;mould soil conditioner.
Please ask the staff in our garden centre for more information about choosing the tools which are right for&nbsp;you.

Must-have gardening tools

We're all different shapes and sizes as gardeners, so you wouldn't expect to feel comfortable using the same&nbsp;tools as your taller-than-average neighbour.
That's why it's important to choose tools that fit. It makes your gardening life more comfortable, and it's better&nbsp;for your health. If you work stooped over a fork that's too short, or struggle with a rake that's too tall, it's a&nbsp;recipe for a bad back and muscle problems. You should be able to work standing as straight and upright as&nbsp;possible, without straining your arms or shoulders.
Fortunately in our garden centre we have tools in a wide range of lengths and weights, so you can choose&nbsp;the one that suits you best.
Lift the tool as you would in the garden: is it the right weight, and not too heavy (or too light)? Grip the&nbsp;handle, too, to test it's a comfortable width.
Then stand it next to you. For an average height the length of handle is around 72cm, but we have longer&nbsp;and shorter in our garden centre.
We also have tools for gardeners with particular needs: left-handed secateurs, for example, or long-handled&nbsp;trowels for those who find it difficult to bend down.
Please ask the staff in our garden centre in %locations%&nbsp;for more information about how to make sure you choose tools&nbsp;which are right for you.

Choosing tools that fit

The centrepiece of every well-kept garden, an emerald green lawn sets off your plants to perfection and&nbsp;gives you a beautiful, soft space to sit and soak up the atmosphere.
Keeping your lawn in tip-top condition is easy when you've got the right tools, and luckily we've got just what&nbsp;you need right here in our garden centre. Here are a few essentials to get you started:
Lawnmower: the number one requirement for trim lawns, choose a mower to fit your garden. Push mowers&nbsp;are practical and environmentally friendly for tiny lawns: electric or petrol make short work of anything larger.
Half-moon edger: straightforward and comfortable to use, the half-moon blade slices those hairy, overgrown&nbsp;edges into a crisp, pleasing finish
Wire rake: rake up autumn leaves to make leafmould, then give your lawn (and yourself!) a workout by&nbsp;scarifying – raking out the old thatch to let the grass breathe
Garden fork: perfect for aerating lawns, punching drainage holes through the surface to let water flow away&nbsp;from the surface and down to the roots where it's needed.
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information about which tools to choose and how to use&nbsp;them.

Look after your lawn

Pruning is one of the most enjoyable jobs in the garden, whether you're sorting out tangled climbing roses,&nbsp;thinning blackcurrants or removing damaged tree branches.
Using the right tools for each cut helps you work more efficiently and the plant stays healthy - ragged cuts&nbsp;invite infection to set in.
We have a wide range of pruning tools to choose from in our garden centre. Here's what you need to get&nbsp;started:
Secateurs: used for branches up to 2cm diameter. Bypass secateur blades cut like scissors and are handy&nbsp;in tight corners; anvil secateurs are useful for hard, woody stems.
Loppers: for thicker branches, up to 5cm across. They're like giant secateurs, some with extendable&nbsp;handles and ratchet actions for extra cutting power.
Pruning saws: for medium-sized branches. Folding saws have hinged blades which pack away into the&nbsp;handle; larger fixed-handle blades eat through major jobs.
Bow saws: for large tree work. Lightweight 'D' shaped saws with a hacksaw-type blade for tricky corners.
Overhead pruners: when a branch is out of reach, this telescopic handle with both a lopper blade and&nbsp;pruning saw on the end is perfect.
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information about choosing pruning tools for the job you&nbsp;need them for.

Cutting edge tools

Tools are a gardener's best friend – and top of the list come your trusty hand tools, pressed into daily service&nbsp;for everything from pruning to digging to sowing to weeding.
In our garden centre you'll find the basic kit for starting out: border spades and forks to turn your soil, hand&nbsp;tools for close-up weeding and secateurs for pruning, trimming and dead-heading.
For trickier jobs there's a huge variety of more specialist tools in our garden centre. We have hoes to suit&nbsp;every purpose, whether it's earthing up potatoes or more delicate weeding; and our range of rakes make&nbsp;short work of levelling seedbeds, collecting autumn leaves or clearing up debris.
Pruning tools are an essential part of a gardener's armoury: in our garden centre you'll find loppers for&nbsp;thicker branches or if you're really getting stuck in, pruning saws and bowsaws for the big jobs. Plus we have&nbsp;specialist weeding tools for winkling weeds out of the toughest corners; garden knives for everything from&nbsp;cutting string to taking cuttings; and everything you could need by way of dibbers, brooms and bulb planters.
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about the range of hand tools we&nbsp;have in stock.

Your tools are your best friends in the garden. They'll stand by you through thick and thin: they're the first things you reach for at times of trouble, and your companions through your greatest triumphs.
Well-made, good-quality tools like those you'll find in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre can last you a lifetime if you take good care of them. So make it a part of your annual routine to spend an hour or two at the end of the season getting them in good shape before storing them away for the winter. Here's how:
<ul>
<li>Give them a clean: let your stainless steel spades and forks dry for a few days so the mud is easier to brush off with a stiff-bristled hand brush. Get every last bit off including the mud wedged in to the neck of the tool head.</li>
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Repair any breakages: bent fork tines can be straightened with a piece of hollow metal piping: just slot it over the end of the tine and pull. Replacement wooden handles are available in our garden centre, and you'll also find spare watering can roses to replace the one you lost, and new blades for pruning saws.
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<li>Oil non-steel tools to prevent them rusting in damp weather. This can be as easy as wiping them over with a rag soaked in paraffin, or alternatively fill a bucket with sand and mix in some oil; then dig your tools into the sand to clean and oil them at the same time.</li>
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Hang everything up out of the way so they won't fall over into a hopeless tangle which you'll have to sort out before you can use them.. Hang spades, hoes, forks and rakes blade-upwards, on double nails banged into the wall, and add some single nails to hold hand trowels, forks, and shears.
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<li>Get powered tools serviced at a reputable garden machine company once a year, to change the oil, sharpen blades and generally give them the once over before they're back in regular use again.</li>
</ul>
Please ask the staff in our garden centre in %locations%&nbsp;for more information and advice about looking after your garden tools.

Looking after garden tools

Gardeners demand a lot of pruning tools, especially in winter when there are roses, clematis, apple trees and fruit bushes to do. There are other cutting tools in regular use, too: hedging and topiary shears, and blades you might not think of as blades like hoes and border spades, both of which need sharp edges to cut&nbsp; through the earth.
Keeping your tools razor-sharp is key to efficient working. Blunt tools take more effort to use, and worse, they can tear at branches rather than cutting them cleanly, causing snags and ragged edges that invite rots and other infections to set in. Hoes and spades, too, are far more effective if they're sharp enough to cut through obstacles rather than bludgeoning them with brute force.
You'll find all you need to keep your tools honed to perfection in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre, from sharpening stones to specialist sharpening tools for curved blades such as secateurs. To use them well and get your tools cutting cleanly, follow our top tips:
<ul>
<li>Work out which side has the flat cutting surface: for bypass secateurs, this is the curving blade that scissors past the 'anvil' one. This is the edge you need to keep sharp. 
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<li>Work at an angle of about 30° to the blade and run the sharpening stone along the angled side – if you look at the blade sideways on you'll find out which that is. Work from hinge to tip, always moving the stone away from you to avoid hurting yourself. Keep doing this for a few minutes and you'll find you have a rough edge forming on the underside as tiny shards of metal shear off. 
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<li>Use a circular motion to gently remove this burr from the other side of the blade, though working flat to the blade this time as you don't want to take the edge off again. 
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<li>Consider a professional tool-sharpening service for larger-bladed items like hedging shears or petrol-driven hedge trimmers. These only need doing around once a year and it's easier to get the professionals in.</li>
</ul>
Please ask the staff in our garden centre in %locations%&nbsp;for more information and advice about sharpening gardening tools.

Hand Tools at Ashtead Park

A selection of Hand Tools at Ashtead Park

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Hand Tools at Ashtead Park

A selection of Hand Tools at Ashtead Park

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