8 products every beginner gardener can use - from a vegetable starter kit to a weeding tool

If you purchase all of the basic gardening tools you need individually, you'll be looking at a steep bill. The UKOKE 12-Piece Garden Tool Set offers a comprehensive selection of gardening tools at an impressively affordable price.

The kit contains a cast aluminum alloy trowel, cultivator, hand rake, weeder, and transplanter, along with carbon steel pruning shears and a stainless steel pair of hand snips for trimming flowers. The hand tools feature an ergonomic design with a soft grip handle which helps to prevent slipping and hand fatigue.

Additional tools include gloves, a kneeling pad, a spray bottle, and a waterproof garden apron. Everything fits into the included tote bag. These aren't top-of-the-line garden tools, but in terms of the overall assortment included and performance, they're worth the investment, especially if you're just getting into gardening. For heavy-duty use or use in hard, clay soil, you'll want to upgrade to heavier tools, but this set will get the hobby gardener started.

The Atlas Gardening Gloves outperform other gloves on multiple fronts from overall durability to the natural feel.

I love these gloves because while they offer excellent protection against thorns and scrapes, I can still feel thin branches through them for increased dexterity and control. They're breathable, so they don't get hot and uncomfortable during the summer, but the nitrile coating is strong. Unlike thicker leather gloves, these naturally curve and bend with your hands, and I can comfortably wear them for multiple hours at a time.

It's evident that careful design and thought went into creating these gloves. There are no seams in the fabric and they're even machine washable. I particularly like the longer cuff, which offers you a little extra coverage without adding too much heat.

If you anticipate doing a lot of gardening and needing multiple pairs of gloves, you can save some money by purchasing the Atlas Gardening Gloves in a four-pack on Amazon for $16.77.

You may feel just great digging around in the dirt for hours — until you stand up. Then your knees and back will let you know they don't agree with all of the work you just did.

The Vertex Garden Rocker is designed to help keep you comfortable when you're weeding or planting, reducing the strain that gardening puts on your knees and back. The rocker features a contoured seat with a foam cushion that swivels and twists, giving you the support you need without restricting your movement. You can also adjust the height to find the position that's most comfortable for you.

Weighing just three pounds, this seat is pretty versatile, so you can also use it when painting, crafting, and more.

There's nothing that makes me hate gardening more quickly than dealing with weed overgrowth.

The Fiskars 39" 4-Claw Weeder is an ingenious solution to the back-breaking, hand-straining work of weeding. With this tool, there's no bending or stooping over, and no struggling with stubborn root systems. Just center the head of the tool over a weed, step down on the foot platform, and the tool will grab the weed — root system and all.

I find this tool particularly helpful because of my chronic hand pain. Rather than resenting weeds, there's something surprisingly satisfying about stomping down on the pedal and easily pulling them out of the ground.

While the tool isn't large enough to pull up some of the weeds with stalks over ¼ inch that I have growing in my yard, it does an impressive job of keeping up with the smaller weeds.

Starting seeds outside can be a challenge, especially with unpredictable weather that may bring fluctuating temperatures or too much rain.

The KORAM Vegetable Starter Kit gives your vegetables a much better chance at success. This kit includes everything you need to start your vegetables inside, including seed starter trays, step-by-step instructions, and a humidity lid. You can use the seed starter trays indoors or out, and they're ideal for sunny windowsills or patios alike. The seed starting soil pellets are easy to use and makes minimal mess — a big advantage if you're gardening indoors.

This vegetable kit includes 10 organic seeds for popular produce like eggplants, bell peppers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, beets, broccoli, kale, cucumber, buttercrunch lettuce, and arugula. Seeds take between 10 and 20 days to germinate, and once you see them thriving, you can transplant them into pots or right into your garden so they'll have plenty of room to continue growing.

While the humidity lid does a great job of capturing moisture, be aware that the lid fits loosely and can be accidentally bumped or knocked off by young kids or pets, so you may want to secure it with a bit of tape.

If you're feeling a little uncertain about your gardening adventure, the "Beginner's Illustrated Guide to Gardening" can help reassure you and guide you every step of the way.

This comprehensive book is written specifically for beginners without any jargon that makes more advanced gardening books difficult to navigate. Vivid, full-color photos clearly illustrate tools, tips, and techniques, preparing you to step into the garden on your own.

This 192-page book is written by a horticulturist and covers everything you need to start your own garden from scratch. Whether you're growing perennials, shrubs, or vegetables, you'll find the book useful and easy to follow.

While the book doesn't go into extreme detail on raising different plants (it's a beginner's book, after all), it does give you the foundation to be able to experiment with different types of gardening, find out what you enjoy, and then research that topic further to become a true expert.

This soil testing kit gives you actual numerical readouts so you can monitor moisture, light, and pH to keep your plants growing and healthy.

When you're just getting into gardening, you won't yet have a "feel" for when soil is too moist or too dry for your plants, or how much sunlight is needed, and this tool takes the guesswork out of those elements.

The 3-in-1 tester is battery-free, and with the simple switch of a button, you can set it to measure moisture, light, and soil pH. The screen is a little small (you may need your glasses) and the probe needs at least 10 centimeters of soil depth to get an accurate reading, but this is still a useful tool for potted plants, gardens, and more.

Gardening can be harsh on your hands, but washing away dirt can be a tough task too.

Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Hand Soap strikes an ideal balance between gentle cleansing and conditioning. I'm particularly sensitive to scented and harsh soaps, but this one features natural botanical ingredients and I love the garden-like scent that I'm left with.

This soap is made with a blend of alfalfa, carrot root, sage, rosemary, and chicory, so as you clean away the dirt, you're still left with a refreshing scent straight from the garden. The 16.9 fluid ounce size is long-lasting and the formula does a thorough job without being harsh on your hands.