14 Absolute Best Gardening Supplies You Can Buy At Dollar Tree

Are you thinking of starting your own fruit or vegetable garden? Once you've taken some time to brush up on the absolute best gardening tips for beginners, and you're ready to start planting, you won't be able to start without gathering all of the necessary supplies. While you can always shop at a local nursery, home improvement store, or online, you may be surprised to learn that Dollar Tree also offers several gardening essentials. Starting your shopping at Dollar Tree may be a good idea if you're looking to keep your costs down. With most items costing just $1.25 (and some costing a few dollars more), growing a vegetable garden on a budget becomes a much more feasible proposition.

I wanted to assess the selection of gardening essentials at Dollar Tree in person, so I headed to one of the locations near me. When deciding which products to feature in this list, I focused on those that would be most helpful when growing a vegetable garden, including the various tools, planters, and seeds you would need to get started. While you can also find several garden decorations at Dollar Tree, I didn't include any of those in this roundup, since they wouldn't help with the actual growing process. You can find a more detailed description of my methodology at the end of this piece. In the meantime, start learning about which gardening supplies you'll want to add to your shopping basket on your next trip to Dollar Tree.

Whether you're pulling weeds from your garden or getting rid of tomato worms by hand-picking them from your plants, you'll want to wear a pair of gardening gloves. Gloves are an essential gardening supply because of the critical role they play in protecting your hands. Not only can they offer physical protection from the sharp thorns or prickly spikes that some plants have, but they can also protect you against the many bacteria and fungi that are lurking in your soil. While these bacteria often play an important role in keeping your plants healthy, some of them can be detrimental to your health. You could get tetanus if contaminated soil gets into a cut in the skin, a bacterial infection from E. coli, salmonella, or listeria, or suffer from various other problems.

While you can find heavier-duty pairs from other online retailers, they'll cost a lot more than you'll pay at the Dollar Tree. When you shop, you'll find coated gloves in a range of color options, including dark blue, gray, and light blue (though the color options might vary based on location). Consider picking up a spare pair to keep as a backup or to use when completing different types of tasks.

Can you ever have too many pots? There are so many instances where you'll be glad to have one of these affordable plastic pots from Dollar Tree on hand. You might use them to sow seeds, make a mini indoor herb garden, or to grow plants that you want to be able to bring indoors easily if the temperatures drop too low. Plastic pots can also come in handy if you need to transplant something and move it to a new location or want to give one of your plants to a friend or family member to add to their garden.

Beyond these more traditional uses, you may also be glad that you picked up a few additional pots from Dollar Tree if you need somewhere to keep some extra gardening supplies or want to limit potentially invasive plants from being able to take over your entire garden. The Dollar Tree I visited had three different color options — terracotta, cream, and green — that can also allow you to coordinate with your specific design visions and preferences.

You can find a few gardening hand tools at Dollar Tree. One of these tools is a hand cultivator. If you're not an avid gardener, you might not be familiar with what a hand cultivator is or why you might want to add one to your gardening tool collection. At first glance, the tool might look a bit odd. It features three tines, but instead of being straight like they are on a fork, the tines curve in towards the end. However, while it might look weird, this design is what makes this such a useful tool to have.

The curved and sharp tines are perfect for a range of tasks. You can use them to loosen compacted soil to improve airflow around the roots of those fast-growing veggies that you're trying to grow. You can also use a cultivator to loosen and remove weeds from a garden to keep them from taking over and threatening your plants. Between how much you can accomplish with this simple hand tool and the fact that you can pick it up for a great price at the Dollar Tree, make sure you add it to your next shopping list.

A garden hand rake is another tool that you'll likely find well worth the low price tag at Dollar Tree. The hand rakes that you'll find available have about nine solid metal tines, which you'll find to be helpful for a range of tasks. You might use the rake for tilling the soil before planting or clearing debris out of the garden to improve its overall appearance. It could even come in handy when you need to clear out weeds in the garden.

With the more compact size of these rakes, they're often a better pick to use in your garden than a full-size version. You'll be able to navigate around the fruit and vegetable plants you're growing more easily to avoid inadvertently causing any damage.

If you're looking for a budget-friendly trowel to help you tend to your garden, then look no further than Dollar Tree. Trowels are basically small shovels. So, as you can probably guess (if you didn't already know), you use them for digging. Because of their size, they're ideal for tasks such as planting flowers, transplanting the vegetables that you started indoors, and even digging deeper to make sure you remove the entire root of a stubborn weed.

The Dollar Tree I went to actually had two different trowel sizes — one with a slightly narrower head than the other. Depending on the type of tasks you need to complete, you might find one a better fit for your needs than the other. Or, you might decide to get both so that you're prepared for whatever comes up. Both trowels feature measurement markings in inches and centimeters to help you accurately judge how deeply you've dug into the soil.

Part of being a successful gardener is knowing how and when to prune your plants. Since the pruning needs of different plants vary so much, you'll need a variety of tools to make sure you're able to give everything in your garden the care that it needs. One special type of pruner you should have — and can pick up at Dollar Tree — is a needle point pruner.

Unlike some other types of gardening shears, this pruning tool is designed with absolute precision in mind. These pruners feature a much narrower tip to help you reach into tighter spaces and ensure that you'll be able to prune off only what you're aiming for. With the variety of pruning tools that you'll need, the expense of purchasing them all can really add up. Being able to snag a pair of needle point pruners from the Dollar Tree can help you keep those costs down.

If you want to hang any of the fruits or vegetables you're growing on your deck or front porch, then you'll need some planter pot chairs to keep them suspended properly. This is another item you can buy at Dollar Tree without breaking the bank. Each pack includes a hook that connects to three chains to help you hang one planter. The chains have a 21.5-inch length, so the planter you hang will be a little less than 2 feet from the hook it is on.

As you're thinking about which vegetables or fruits to plant in your hanging planters, keep in mind that some won't be the best candidates. You should stay away from anything that is overly heavy, such as melons, or plants that need to be able to spread out their roots in order to really thrive. However, there are still plenty of produce items that are well-suited for growing in a hanging planter, including tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, cucumbers, and peas

Whether you're growing an outdoor veggie garden or an indoor herb garden, hanging a wall thermometer close to your plants is a good idea. Being able to quickly glance and determine the current temperature can help you stay on top of the needs of the plants that you're growing. For example, if outdoor temperatures are really high, you can make sure that you give your crops some extra water. On the other hand, if the outdoor temperature looks like it is going to dip below freezing, you can either cover your fruits and vegetables to bring those that are in pots or planters in for the night.

Dollar Tree sells this wall thermometer that is both functional and attractive. Beyond simply displaying the temperature (in degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit), it also features a beautiful design with purple, white, and orange flowers and a "welcome" message at the top.

More and more people have begun growing their own food. Some enjoy the satisfaction of successfully growing delicious fruits and vegetables that they're able to use to nourish themselves and their family members. Others like being in control over which chemicals are — and aren't — added to what they are going to put in their bodies. And, still others appreciate being able to save money over purchasing certain items from the grocery store.

If you're looking to start growing your own fruits and vegetables, Dollar Tree might be able to help you get started. You'll find lots of seed packets for sale, including numerous produce options. A few of the options I found at the Dollar Tree I visited include cauliflower seeds, winter squash seeds, and radish seeds. Just make sure you do your research to learn the best time of year to plant each of these seeds. For example, cauliflower seeds should be started indoors about four weeks before the anticipated last spring frost, while radishes can be planted in both the spring (about four weeks before the final frost) or the fall (about six weeks before the first frost is called for).

Whether you're planning an indoor fruit and vegetable garden or are looking for some ideas that will help increase the aesthetic appeal of your outdoor space, you might want to consider using a few decorative metal planters. I found two attractive options at the Dollar Tree I shopped at — one shinier metal one that says, "Flowers & Garden," and a duller metal option that reads, "Wish Upon a Starfish."

With their beautiful finish and cute sayings, these will let you grow your garden in style. They can also make a nice conversation piece and direct visitors to admire your layout and what you're growing in them.

Whether you're trying to grow herbs in the shade or tomatoes in full sun, you want to be comfortable when you're planting, weeding, or harvesting. When you shop at Dollar Tree, you won't have to spend a lot to protect your knees with these affordable kneeling pads. Measuring just over 15.5 inches long by nearly 7 inches wide, they're on the smaller side, but still large enough to provide some cushioning as you work.

After trying one of these out in the garden, you might decide that you want to pick up a second one to use in the house when you're scrubbing the floors, picking up the toys the kids left scattered about, and more.

There are several mistakes people make with their vegetable garden. One of these is leaving your plants susceptible to overly cold temperatures. If the temperature dips too low, it can threaten your plants, potentially reducing — or even eliminating — the fruits or vegetables that they'll produce. To avoid leaving your plants vulnerable, consider picking up a few of these plant cloches from Dollar Tree on your next visit.

The clear, plastic domes are designed to cover plants and protect them from the elements. If there is an unexpected and late frost warning, and your plants are already in the ground, give them a little extra boost to make it through by covering them in one of these cloches. In addition to offering protection from colder temperatures, cloches can also be used to keep insects and other critters from munching on your crops or to create a barrier to shield plants on an overly windy day.

If your gardening tools aren't organized, it can lead to all sorts of problems. For one, you might not be able to find the specific tool you need for a certain task if everything is in one jumbled pile. Plus, if you leave your tools on the floor, they're more likely to get wet, which can increase the chances that rust will cover them.

Eliminate both of these potential headaches with one or more sets of these garden tool hangers from Dollar Tree. Simply mount it to a wall, and then you'll be able to slide the handles for your rakes, shovels, trowels, and other tools into one of the slots. This will not only make it easier to find what you're looking for, but you should also find that it is quicker and easier to return the tools that you're done with after working in the garden.

Take a look at these stackable three-tier planters that you can buy from Dollar Tree. Each planter offers three sections, allowing you to plant different types of produce in each slot. They're made from plastic and are available in blue, terra-cotta, and taupe (though the selection can vary based on location.

While you could easily use these individually, they're actually designed to be stacked together. When you line the planters up properly, you can stack a few together. Because of their design, which features the three sections coming out from the center in a bit of an odd shape, all three sections will be accessible, letting you easily water or admire the results of your green thumb.

When choosing the various Dollar Tree products to include in this roundup, I thought about what would be helpful when growing fruits and vegetables in a home garden. I considered products that could be used at any stage in the growing process — from sowing the seeds to harvesting the fruits (or vegetables) or your labors. I also tried, to the best of my abilities, to assess the overall quality of each item and whether it could bring value to one's gardening efforts, especially given the relatively low purchase price.