15 Garden Essentials For A Beginner That You Can Get From Costco

If you're just starting out in the garden, then there's really no way of knowing if you'll stick with it. We all go through phases of wanting to try our hand at new things, and while some of them become lifelong hobbies, others turn out to be far from how we'd like to spend our spare time. With that in mind, the last thing you want to do as a beginner gardener is fork out on unnecessary tools and equipment.

Instead, you should focus your attention on sourcing must-have gardening tools for beginners, supporting you in the likes of weeding, digging, and mowing the lawn. While you could almost certainly find such tools at your local gardening store, you may find it's much cheaper to equip yourself from the aisles of your local Costco.

Costco has plenty of garden items worth buying for beginners. Most strike that beautiful balance between quality and sensible pricing, and many come backed by a raft of five-star reviews. From chainsaws and protective leather gloves to weed killers, landscape fabric, and heavy-duty dump carts, if you're ready to try your hand at gardening and want to know which tools from Costco are most likely to make your life easier, then this guide is most certainly for you.

No gardener should be without a hardy pair of loppers and hand pruners. Loppers are essential tools for pruning trees and hard-to-reach shrubs and bushes. As for hand pruners, they can perform an array of tasks around your garden, from deadheading your flowers in the height of summer to trimming back your bushes in order to protect them from the winter frost.

With this in mind, this Fiskars Lopper & Hand Pruner Garden Trimming Set is a great addition to the cart of anybody starting to dabble in the horticultural arts. To date, they've received some encouraging reviews. In fact, they're rated 4.5 out of five stars overall, based on more than 460 ratings. As one user put it, "These are the best garden tools. Well made, and [makes] the perfect cut."

Whether you have flower beds to weed, turf to lay, or tools to carry, you're unlikely to regret adding a barrow or dump cart to your arsenal. Yes, you might think you can get away with moving things one by one. However, when taking cuttings to the waste heap or carrying tools to the bottom of the garden, you'll find that a dump cart makes life infinitely easier.

Now, there are various types of wheelbarrows that you can choose from, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. But for the majority of heavy-duty hauling, it's fair to say that a stable, four-wheeled cart is the most practical. With that in mind, this Heavy Duty Poly Yard Dump Cart from Gorilla is potentially an excellent Costco buy for beginners.

To date, it's been reviewed by more than 220 users, including over 190 who've given it top marks. Reviews praise its size and payload, with one user claiming that it is "a game changer if you have a large landscaped area to maintain."

As beautiful as our gardens can be to look at, they're not always the friendliest to work with. They can be thorny and scratchy, not to mention dirty, and while you might think that you can manage without them, gloves are a must-have when weeding and maintaining your garden.

If you've yet to score yourself a pair, then these Men's Leather Work Gloves from Wells Lamont are a decent choice over at Costco. They're designed to keep your hands comfortable while working on an array of home and garden projects, and since they come in packs of six pairs, they should keep you well protected for more than a single season.

Customers who've bought them, for the most part, love them. Over 5,600 users have reviewed the gloves, and of those, more than 4,800 have given them top marks. Why? As one user said, "Great quality at an extremely low price. Fit is perfect. At this price, you tend to think there is something wrong." Fortunately, that does not seem to be the case, with the vast majority of shoppers impressed with their purchase.

Featuring no fewer than five handy tools, beginner gardeners can get a surprising amount of work done with this single Garden Digging Set from Corona. It includes a rake, a hoe, a large scoop, a transplanter, and a hand-cultivator — and at the time of publishing, it retails for less than $60. 

Importantly, it's highly rated by those who've bought and used it. As per reviews, each tool feels thoughtfully designed. Anti-blister grips make life easier on hands that aren't yet used to the toils of gardening, while a mix of long- and short-handled tools makes it easy to perform an array of tasks, from raking large beds of soil to preparing small sections for planting and sowing.

Over 80% of reviewers have awarded the Corona Garden Digging Set full marks. While the reasons vary, it boils down to a simple blend of quality and value for money. "These tools will probably outlive me!" said one user, while another described them as a "great set of tools at a good price."

If you want a crisp, professional-looking lawn, it's important to have the right tools. Yes, you need a decent lawn mower, and a string trimmer will help you to manage any errant strands that are transgressing the borders of your garden. But it can also pay to have a dedicated lawn edger, like this 80V Brushless Edger from Greenworks.

For beginners, it eliminates the frustration of pull cords and fuel mixing. It's also lightweight, and thanks to its in-built guidewheel and adjustable handle, ensures that even those new to landscaping achieve perfectly-straight "curb-appeal" edges around their lawn.

So far, more than 360 users have tried and tested the product. More than 75% gave it five stars. As for why, it really boils down to quality and ease of use. One user, who has had great experiences with other Greenworks tools, said that they decided to give the brand's edger a punt. "This thing does the trick! Effortlessly digs a nice little trench between the lawn and concrete, putting my former edger to shame."

What inspired you to try your hand at gardening? Was it the prospect of growing your own vegetables? Or putting your household food waste to better use by composting it and using it to cultivate a beautiful yard? If either of those is your reason, then this Keyhole Composting Garden Bed by Vita might be of interest.

It builds both ideas into one — a central composting well allows you to deposit various household compost ingredients, and because the well is effectively attached to the growing beds on either side, it directly feeds the soil within them. What's more, since the organic matter in the compost well naturally retains moisture, it also demands up to 70% less water than traditional beds and gardens.

Overall, the bed is rated 4.6 stars, and nearly 75% of its reviews have awarded it full marks. As one user said, "Wish I could post a pic of my tomatoes. All I can say is that I'm a novice gardener and my garden club was jealous."

If you're new to gardening and wondering why you should invest in an expandable garden hose, there are two key reasons. The first is that traditional hoses — especially those long enough to stretch the length of longer gardens — can be a real pain to store. The second is that they can easily twist, resulting in kinks that not only prevent water from coming out, but which can also lead to holes and tears. The self-expanding Copper Bullet Pocket Hose from Telebrands is designed to remedy these problems. It expands when you need it and contracts when you don't, and, as its name suggests, it's infinitely easier to store between uses than a regular hose of the same size.

The majority of customers who've used it cite just how useful it's been in their gardens. In fact, out of over 1,600 reviews, over 70% have awarded it five stars. "Never thought I would feel compelled to leave a review for a hose," said one, "but this is a good product. I really like how the hose takes up so little space when it's not in use, which makes it super easy to stow away in a small bowl or pot."

If you'd prefer to stick to a traditional hose, the Quantum Tech Metal Hose Reel Bundle from FITT is an excellent, beginner-friendly choice. It comes with a robust metal reel and a 100-foot hose that is designed to remain flexible in all kinds of weather. When you need to water your lawn and flower beds, the hose easily pulls away from the reel. And when it's time to put it back, it's a simple case of reeling it in, which makes it nice and easy to keep tidy and out of harm's way.

The bundle hasn't received a huge number of reviews to date, but a significant portion of those who have purchased the hose have awarded it full marks. "An extremely high-quality hose," said one user. Another, who said that the hose "really is good," added, "Not sure why it has anything less than 5 stars."

If you're coming into the world of gardening completely green and without any tools whatsoever, then you'll likely want to make your budget stretch as far as possible. That's the whole point of the Greenworks 80V 21-inch Mower, 800CFM Blower, 17-inch Trimmer Combo Kit. It serves the needs of almost every home with a lawn. A cordless mower cuts the bulk of the grass, a trimmer handles any awkward edges where the mower can't quite reach, and a powerful blower helps clear the lawn of debris once the job's done.

In other words, it combines three of the most essential tools for maintaining healthy, green grass, and, according to reviews, each element performs admirably. "The mower did a great job on my lawn, which was pretty overgrown," said one user. "The trimmer is more than powerful enough to get through some tough weeds and well-balanced when using the included harness. The blower was great, too, pushing wet leaves and pine needles with ease."

Miracle-Gro Shake 'n Feed All Purpose Plant Food is an excellent choice for beginners. It eliminates the complex task of measuring and mixing your own fertilizers, and thanks to the "shake and feed" design of its bottle, it allows you to distribute the food evenly throughout your flower beds.

Now, we're not saying that it will actually help you to work miracles. As with any tool, your success with this particular product lies in how you use it. But its concentration of nutrients — including nitrogen, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, and manganese — will certainly help to give your plants a boost when they need it.

More than 900 Costco buyers have rated the product, and of those, an overwhelming majority gave it full marks. "Worked for me!" said one customer. "My vegetables and ornamentals look much healthier after using this fertilizer. They are greener and fuller after 2 months' use." Another, who describes it as a great product, said, "If used as directed, this fertilizer will give you beautiful pots and gardens."

As you delve ever deeper into the glorious world of gardening, your collection of tools is almost guaranteed to grow. As it does, you need your storage to adapt and grow with you, and that's exactly what this Modular Slatwall 13-piece Accessory Set from TRINITY is designed to do. It's beginner-friendly, requiring (according to TRINITY) just 30 minutes of your time to install on average. Once it's up, it can hold up to 1,200 lbs of equipment.

Of the users who've reviewed it to date, over 75% have awarded it full marks. Most agree that it's sturdy, sleek to look at, and easy to install. "This was a game changer," said one five-star reviewer. Another, who titled their review "Costco does it again," said, "These shelves are excellent! You get a lot for your money... they are robust and quite versatile. Very happy with my purchase."

This Organic Multi-Purpose Fertilizer from Geocharged is a superb introductory choice for beginner gardeners who'd prefer to eliminate the guesswork from fertilizing. It's chock-full of chicken manure (a superb source of vital nutrients), which makes it an excellent food source for your soil. It's also enriched with biochar — a stable form of charcoal that's widely used in soil amendments to improve water retention and nutrient uptake. Crucially, it's incredibly easy to use, and while there are various types of fertilizers that you could use to feed your garden, as a beginner, it's almost certainly best to keep things simple.

Unfortunately, there aren't too many reviews to go on at the time of publishing this article. But out of those, over 75% have given the fertilizer five stars, and two have awarded it four. Only one has given the product a single star, and that's solely because they received the wrong number of bags. Another user, who described it as their go-to choice for fertilizer, said, "I will [choose] this over any other. I can see a huge difference in my gardens!"

Weeding is one of the cold, hard facts of gardening that beginners simply have to come to terms with. It can be enough to make you tear your hair out, and whoever came up with the phrase that "nothing's certain but death and taxes" clearly never spent a weekend up to their elbows in a flowerbed. But there's no reason to let it put you off altogether. While you're unlikely to ever permanently rid your yard of weeds, products like Dalen Pro-Shield Landscaping Fabric can significantly slow them down, effectively choking out unwanted weeds by starving them of sunlight.

To date, over 1,000 users have reviewed this fabric. Of those, more than 700 have given it full marks. "Best weed mat I can find," said one user, adding, "Great price, very durable, doesn't keep all the weeds out, but it really helps." Another, who said that it's available at Costco for a great price compared to their local garden stores, said it made it "easy to cover the area that needs weed control."

Mulching is an essential task in most gardens. It insulates your plants against the cold, helps to conserve moisture in the soil, and it's a very effective way to control weeds. But it's also time-consuming, not to mention back-breaking work, and for beginners, knowing how much (or how little) mulch to apply can quickly become confusing. This Expanding Coconut Coir from MegaMulch aims to remove the guesswork (just buy a block, spread it, and soak it), and it's much easier to lift and move around your yard than most other organic mulch types.

To date, more than 2,000 users have rated the mulch, and of those, over 1,400 gave it top marks. As one user said, "Coconut mulch is such an excellent ground covering. It looks good and lasts a couple of years before it needs to be refreshed. This particular brand is really nice. It's clean and pretty, hydrates and breaks up easily in the wheelbarrow with lots of water and a garden claw. Please, please, please keep offering this mulch!"

Roundup is consistently rated as one of the best weed killers for flower beds and lawns. For beginners, it provides a reliable means of neutralizing various weeds and problem grasses. In doing so, it significantly reduces the time you need to spend on pulling weeds, freeing you up to focus on improving your garden management techniques, like mulching.

While there are just 45 reviews on Costco for Roundup's Dual Action Weed and Grass Killer as of writing, it's rated highly — and widely — elsewhere, including more than 1,000 five-star reviews on Amazon. As for those on Costco, 66% awarded the product five stars. "Boy did this to the [job]," said one happy customer. Another, whose review describes it as a "Great weed and grass killer," said, "Roundup works! I've tried other weed and grass killers, but always come back to Roundup."