For just about every outdoor task, an electric or electronic gadget exists. From crushing ice to blowing leaves or dirt from the sidewalk, the gadget-happy person can find utopia. However, most homeowners fall short of knowing what gadgets to get to make their gardening easy. Some homeowners would rather go about their gardening like an Ethiopian subsistence farmer than take the little bit of time it requires to acquire highly useful tools that are suited for the right job. For instance, would you use a motorized tiller to turn over soil before planting a vegetable garden or to maintain home landscaping and flowerbeds? Most gardeners find less expensive motorized tillers more suitable for the latter than for vegetable gardening.

The typical homeowner uses manual labor to operate a shovel, rake and hoe in the day-to-day maintenance of the yard, trees, bushes and flowers. There are a variety of shovels that can be used in the yard. The preferred type for yard work has a curved and rounded blade with a point at the tip for penetrating the soil. The blade has a curled top edge for use when foot power is needed to drive the shovel into the hard ground. This type of garden shovel comes with either a long (about four-foot) tapered handle or a short handle with a hand grip at the top. Either handle type will work well in the garden and its length is simply a matter of personal preference.

The gardener usually needs at least two kinds of rakes. A gardening or bow rake that is used for leveling the dirt after turning over the ground with a shovel has a long tapered handle and a sturdy set of metal tines that smooth the dirt and capture rocks that occur in the garden. Of course, a leaf rake comes to life in the fall after the leaves have fallen. The leaf rake has long finger-like tines that are made from a lightweight and flexible metal or plastic. Since leaf raking uses the arms in a sweeping motion from front to side, it can be amazingly stressful on the back muscles, especially for people who already have back problems. Consider buying one of the newer strange-looking zigzag ergonomic leaf rakes. They do indeed eliminate stress on the back.

A good hoe can be a gardener's best friend when it comes time for weeding. A hoe also sports a long handle and a hooked metal blade. A quality hoe will have a relatively sharp bottom edge for penetrating the soil. A swift motion with the hoe will quickly and easily remove weeds from the garden and loosened weeds can then be raked away, eliminating the backbreaking chore of weeding by hand.

Speaking of hands, a pair of cotton or lightweight leather gardening gloves go a long way toward preserving the hands from dirt, "grass stains" from pulling weeds, and any thorns that are on the weeds. In the realm of small items, a nice sturdy trowel is needed for planting individual plants from flats or trays purchased from the local nursery. If the local soil has a lot of clay, be sure to purchase a quality trowel that fits the contour of your hand nicely. A pair of hand pruning shears for clipping dead flowers from the plants to encourage a second blooming of flowering plants nicely rounds out the minimum set of tools needed for the home garden.