Discover different garden tools
You’ll need
- Scrap paper
- Pens or pencils
- Plant pots
- Tree, plant or wildlife ID cards (optional)
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
- Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
Planning this activity
- On small pieces of paper, write out different gardening tasks and tools individually. You may need more than one copy for each tool, as they may be used in different tasks. We’ve included some suggestions on this page.
- Set up a row of plant pots and put a task in each plant pot.
- Hide the names of tools around your meeting place.
Use the right tool
- Gather everyone together and ask everyone why we use tools in gardening. Does anyone know what sort of tools there are and how they help us? Has anyone used any tools before?
- Ask everyone to get into teams. Each team should take a plant pot with a task in it. Together, they should search for the tools they need for their gardening task.
- When a team has found all the tools they need, gather everyone back together.
- Ask each team to write down the name of each tool on a separate piece of paper.
- Explain that you’ll read out the description and they have to hold up the name of the tool that it matches. You could talk about each tool and how to keep safe when using it. The descriptions are:
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- Gardening gloves: These essential for gardening; not only to keep our hands clean, but to help us avoid cuts and grazes when using tools or working with spiky plants.
- Hand trowels: These are must-have tools. Almost like a very small shovel, you can use them to dig, turn the earth, or pull up stubborn weeds. You can also use them to transfer soil into pots when planting seedlings and bulbs.
- Secateurs: These are used for cutting and trimming thin branches and stems, and also to harvest small fruits and vegetables. Just like scissors, an adult should teach everyone how to use them safely and supervise throughout.
- Hand forks: These are used to turn, lift and loosen hard dirt and soil. It’s especially useful when weeding your garden as it helps to loosen weeds.
- Spades: These are used to dig deep holes, remove large weeds, move compost and cut through roots when digging.
- Watering cans: We use these to water our flowers and plants. They can get very heavy when filled with water, so only fill with as much water as you’re comfortable carrying.
Improving a local green space
- Now everyone’s identified the different tools and what they’re used for, it’s time to think about the green spaces in your local community and what could be done maintain or improve the area.
- Ask everyone to think of an area and see what they can think could be improved. Everyone should remember to think about the things that shouldn’t be touched too, such as good plants or existing wildlife habitats that they shouldn’t disturb. Things like fallen trees, logs and leaves on the floor are all also very good for habitats.
- In their groups, everyone should think about some different tasks they could do to maintain the area and encourage more plants or wildlife to thrive. It could involve cutting back plants, or making sure that they stay as they are.
- Why not take it one step further and plan a community gardening project?
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Gardening tasks |
Tools needed |
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Dig a hole and plant a tree in it |
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Prune a hedge |
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Plant some seeds |
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Weed the garden |
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Harvest fruits and vegetables |
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Water the garden |
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Reflection
This activity was about developing practical skills. Why might it be useful to know which tool to use for a task in the garden? How can tools help people to complete gardening tasks? Why is it important to understand that tools can be dangerous? People could talk about why they need to handle tools safely, and what handling them safely means.
This activity was also about valuing the outdoors. Ask everyone to think about the different plants or habitats they found.
- Did the group find the kinds of plants and wildlife they were expecting to see?
- Did anyone see anything they’d never seen before?
- Did everyone remember to follow the countryside code during the activity too?
It was important that everyone made sure that they didn’t do any harm to the area. Did everyone do something to help during the visit? Maybe they picked up some litter or were careful not to step on any plants. Humans can have a big impact on different habitats, so it’s important to pay attention to our actions when we’re out too.
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Outdoor activities
You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
- Animals and insects
Be aware of the risks before interacting with animals. Be aware of anyone with allergies, and make alternative arrangements for them.
- Gardening and nature
Everyone must wash their hands after the activity has finished. Wear gloves if needed. Explain how to safely use equipment and set clear boundaries so everyone knows what’s allowed.
- Challenge the group to keep an especially close eye out for any invasive or non-native plants that they can find.
- If you know what species people are likely to find, why not challenge groups to find a list of animals and plants? You could also encourage people to identify what they find in a more detailed way, for example, looking into differences between species.
Make sure the woodland or area you visit is accessible for everyone. Forests with well-maintained footpaths or purpose-built roads may be more accessible than wild land.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
