Horticulturist Paul Alder offers his top tips for choosing which tools to buy, where to store them, and getting the most from your garden’s soil.

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From buying the right tools to storing them safely, managing your garden can be a minefield. Paul Alder, award-winning horticulturist and founder of Vistafolia is here to offer his top tips.

Paul, from Surrey, has over 25 years of experience as a horticulturist with his landscaping company even being awarded prizes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. As a former landscape gardener and artificial living wall provider Paul has helped thousands of people get the most out of their garden.

Here he shares his advice on which garden tools are worth investing in if you’re just starting out, and where you should store them. He also shares his top tips for enriching your garden soil if plants are struggling to flourish.

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If you don't have any gardening tools you can still enjoy gardening by using objects that you may already have in your home. Gardening can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be, horticulturist Paul says.

Paul says: "You can start gardening for fairly cheap. Depending on the type of gardening that you want to do the tools will vary slightly."

The horticulturist advises that those starting out begin by investing in this shopping list of basic items: "A trowel, gardening gloves, a hand cultivator, a shovel, a rake, a watering can, and a garden fork".

To make the job easier Paul recommends purchasing "knee pads, scissors, soil monitors and garden hoses". However, he says that these items "aren't essential when starting.”

If you're a total novice Paul recommends beginning a very small project such as potting plants inside or sowing seeds indoors before planting them outside. He also recommends turning to the wealth of gardening resources on Youtube or gardening books for inspiration and help. He says: "Whatever you choose, consume as much as possible and put it into practice."

If you have a family or pets it’s essential that you store gardening tools safely. There are around 4,400 accidents involving secateurs and pruners in the UK each year, 3,600 involving spades, and 6,500 involving lawnmowers, the The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents reports .

Paul says: "The garden shed is by far the best option when it comes to storing gardening tools. But often having a shed isn't enough, you will still need to organise your tools to cut down on clutter."

To create a low-cost organised tool station within your shed Paul recommends hanging pallets. He says: "You can use pallets as a cheap alternative to shelves if you are on a budget as they are easy to hang on the interior walls of your shed and with a few hooks or nails you can organise your tools effectively."

Having healthy soil is vital for healthy plants. There are many ways of improving the health of your soil such as digging up your soil if it is compacted.

Compacted soil will not allow water or nutrients in and your plants won't be able to get to the nutrients they need and will die. Paul advises trying these solutions first.

He says: "Loosening your soil, removing weeds and adding organic matter to your soil is one of the easiest methods of improving your soil in the garden." However, if that doesn’t work Paul suggests testing your soil for deficiencies.

Paul adds: “You can also test your soil to see if any nutrients are missing from it. You can buy soil testing kits online or in your local gardening store that can tell you what nutrients are missing and you can then add these to help your plants thrive."