A garden trowel is a small device with the blade part made from stainless steel and having a wooden handle to make it easy to grip and work with. Most also come with a garden fork and should not be confused with plastering or bricklaying tools which have different uses. Gardening trowels are like mini spades to move small amounts of earth for either weeding or planting bedding plants before the summer or winter season.
Almost all trowels come in the same format with a spade type blade made from stainless
steel and the wooden handle. Almost all the major manufacturers make these such as wolf, spear and jackson and
wilkinson sword and can be found in all good garden centres in the UK and are competitively
priced with some starting at just £5 which in all fairness should be good enough for
most gardeners.
People pay more if their soil is hard like clay and need a tool where the steel won't bend or the handle rot or break off.
Some manufacturers also make them with longer handles for help for people that don't want to bend their back or get down onto the ground to undertake the gardening work and these hand trowels can be used for years and years because they are small and easy to use and generally well made.
Your garden trowel is easy to maintain and easy to clean. Just wash the blade and handle in hot soapy water after you have used it to get rid of any excess soil and then dry it with a cloth. Because most are made from stainless steel (check against cheaper imitations when you are looking at buying your trowel as some are made from cheaper steel and these could rust in the longer term).
Try not to leave any garden tools outside in the rain as this will damage them and although garden trowels are inexpensive it would be a shame to have to through them away because you haven't stored them in a dry place in the winter months.