Homeowners across the country often dream of creating a perfect garden. Whereas someone may dream of being the proud owner of a vegetable garden, another may fantasise about a neat rose garden.

Whatever kind garden you have in mind, you need the right tools to create the desired effect.

Particularly important for large gardens, the best and most effect method is to get down and dirty using your hands.

However, using the correct gardening tools will significantly speed up the creation process.

The following tools are some of the best to start you off on the road to a successful, speedy garden.

Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a complete beginner, the first thing you need is a really good pair of gardening gloves. They will protect your hands from the earth.

Digging with your bare hands is obviously an option, but gloves offer the protection needed against the soil and potentially harmful plants. This is particularly important when dealing with rosebushes because wearing gardening gloves will stop you from pricking yourself on rose thorns.

Additionally, it is not advisable to touch compost or fertilisers with your bare hands. There are also a lot of creatures lurking in your garden that you will have to come into contact with.

Gloves protect you from potentially unpleasant situations as well as preventing injury. If you want to continue gardening throughout the year we suggest you invest in some.

Digging forks are universal garden hand tools, useful for any size of garden. Although similar work can be carried out using trowels and hand forks, a digging fork will speed up your gardening noticeably and can be used on a much larger scale.

These gardening tools are fantastic for everything from turning earth to moving compost.

It is especially important to own a digging fork if you have a compost pile you must turn it regularly. Failure to do this will result in your compost pile becoming unusable very quickly.

In winter, every gardener should have some form of snow shovel which, incidentally, are available with either short or long handles.

In many cases, gardeners prefer short handled ones simply because they are more suitable to keep balance when gardening.

Although primarily used for shovelling snow in winter, they are useful during the rest of the year. To prevent pulling on complex interwoven roots out or damaging the bulbs, you can use snow shovels to move soil and lift plants safely.

Additionally, they can be used to smooth over the earth when creating a new planting zone.

After a while, in creating your gardening masterpiece using these garden hand tools, you will begin to find gardening less of a chore and more of a hobby.

And, as you become accustomed to what works for you in the garden, you will eventually want to invest in a variety of extra gardening tools.

Beware though if you buy everything at once you wont use half of them. Start with the basics before moving on to complicated garden tools. There are essentials and there are luxuries and over time you will discover the most appropriate for your specific garden.