Evie, I haven't purchased anything but soaker hoses with pop-on, pop-off connectors this season, but I sure swear by those. It makes watering a breeze and I'm so delighted not to have to screw and unscrew every time I switch from the hoses and sprinklers.

But in the overall garden picture, my two most significant tools under $50 are the Felco secateurs (of course), and a hori hori, the perfect weeding/planting/slug and snail decimating tool ever!

Looking forward to everybody's best tool! Great list.

Sue

This is the best garden hand tool I have ever used. So versatile. With just a little twitch, chop, pull or push, much happens in my garden and it happens very fast.

Here is a link that might be useful: hand plow

A Katate Sankaku. The edges can be honed to a razor sharp edge. Slices through the roots of those pesky weeds effortless.

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Those tools all look really useful!

My DH got me a little hand rake for Christmas--the handle is about 18" and the rake part itself is only about 6" wide, but it has been absolutely perfect for clearing out leaves and mulch from around the base of the roses. The Santa Ana winds blow leaves hard here and they tend to get jammed in between the canes at the base.

A half-moon shovel to cut the edges of the flower beds. Wonderful, cuts sod like a butter. I bought one shorter one for $9 at Sears, and another with longer handle for my DH for $19 at Lowes. (I like mine better :)
Marina

Cactus Joe, may I ask you where did you get your Katate Sankaku from?
TIA,
Marina

That Katate Sankaku would slice through my dripper line like butter. Not allowed. The hori hori has done its share of damage.

My best buy was a retractable diamond blade sharpener. Keeps my tools sharp, although I don't keep them as sharp as I used to because I don't want to dismember myself.

Here is a link that might be useful: $7 diamond sharpener

Hula Hoe. Takes out spurge and works in rose food at the same time. Only about $16.00.

From the Smith and Hawken website last week, sale pages, the stainless steel shovel and spade are what I've been looking for ....for years. And I'd considered paying considerably more.

My cheapest and best is the Martha Stewart weeder (question mark shaped) from K-Mart bought on Rose Forum recommendations years ago. DH laughed when I bought a Martha Stewart (!) tool with Marth Stewart paint colored handle. Then he used it. Then we bought two more. One for him and one as a spare.
He's repainted all the handles with fluorescent paint so they can't be misplaced. (The paint could be a tool purchase of sorts....to keep things found.)

Marina, I bought mind at a local home show - cost me $10 Canadian. But a number of other gardening shops are starting to carry it. My favourite landscape supplier sells it too. Although it is Japanese in origin, the one I got was actually made in China.

Oh, I like to keep my soaker hoses and drippers where I can see them!

I got an 18" tweezer a couple of years ago and that thing is so handy for getting stuff out from between the canes at the bud union where my chubby fingers can't get in. I also use it to hold particularly thorny stems when I'm dead heading. I think it was $10.

I'm with you Joe, all my soaker hoses are on top of the soil. I know it's not quite as efficient but I haven't sliced a single hose since doing this. Before I did this I spent more time mending than watering.