Garden Tools and Chores Word Search

About this puzzle

Rather than plants, this puzzle is about the work of gardening: the hand tools kept in a shed, the materials spread on beds and the regular jobs that keep a garden healthy. It is a practical vocabulary list for anyone starting a first garden, a school garden club or a community plot. The two-word entry WATERING CAN appears in the grid without its space, as WATERINGCAN.

The default layout is Medium on a 13×13 grid. Easy, Medium and Hard each use their own checked layout of the same words, and every one can be printed in standard or large print on US Letter or A4.

Word notes

Trowel

A small hand shovel for planting and transplanting.

Hoe

A long-handled tool with a flat blade for loosening soil and slicing off weeds just below the surface.

Wheelbarrow

A one-wheeled cart; resting the load over the wheel lets one person move heavy loads of soil or compost.

Compost

Decomposed plant scraps and garden waste that return nutrients to the soil.

Mulch

A layer of material such as wood chips or straw spread over soil to hold moisture.

Trellis

A frame that climbing plants grow up.

Pruning

Cutting back branches or stems to shape a plant, remove damaged growth or encourage flowers and fruit.

Try this after the puzzle

Give each solver a "garden job card": after finding the words, they write the order in which they would use five of them on a real afternoon — for example gloves, weeding, compost, mulch and watering can. For a school garden, turn the word list into a labelled checklist for the tool shed.

All 14 words

Trowel · Rake · Hoe · Wheelbarrow · Shears · Watering Can · Compost · Mulch · Seedling · Trellis · Weeding · Pruning · Gloves · Hose