Best Prime Day Deals For a Thriving Kitchen Garden

In this day and age, a thriving vegetable garden has become a status symbol. Doyennes of domesticity like Martha, Ina, and Oprah regularly display their tremendous bounties on social media, and countless influencers make their livelihoods sharing their beautifully planted beds and impeccably ripe tomatoes for their envious digital audience.

Despite the implications of all that, you don’t actually have to be a titan of media to grow vegetables. The amazing thing about gardening is that, so long as you have some space to work with (even a balcony or windowsill!), you can have a delightful kitchen garden of your own.

Our favorite gardening sales

As one of Bon Appétit’s resident gardening enthusiasts, I’ve rounded up a few deals I’ve found for Prime Day that are useful for horticultural newbies and seasoned green thumbs alike. If you haven’t already checked out our other Prime Day deal coverage, may I point you toward our collection of all the best kitchen deals story, as well as discounts on some of our editor’s favorite cookbooks.

Also just a reminder, Prime Day deals are only available to Prime members (womp), but you can sign up here.

Essential tools

A do-everything gardening tool

I’ve relied on a hori hori as my primary gardening tool since I was a teen. It functions as a knife, a trowel, and a measuring device. You can use it to dig holes, plant seedlings, prune branches, divide sod, the list goes on, but that’s probably enough to keep you busy for at least a weekend or two.

A must for thick and rocky soil

A lot of people might have a spade on hand, but I think that a sturdy garden fork is a lot more useful. Yes, it’s great at gathering leaves and other fall detritus, but it’s also really great for loosening up dense, impacted soil. In environments with rocky or clay-filled soil, this is an essential tool for prepping garden beds for vegetables.

A flexible kink-free hose

I’ve been driven to the edge of sanity by bad garden hoses before. Traditional hoses will kink and coil, and can be really disruptive to an activity that should feel stress free. The Flexzilla hose is floppy and flexible, which makes it easy to wind and resistant to kinks.

A composter (that won’t attract rats)

Everybody should compost if they have the space. Not only is it good for the environment, it’s free fertilizer for your garden. A compost tumbler is a good idea for anybody who wants to compost but can’t utilize a traditional open heap composting method due to the presence of pets or pests. Fill this thing up with kitchen scraps, place it somewhere sunny, and give it the occasional spin, and you can have fresh fertilizer in a matter of weeks.

Vegetable garden equipment

Sturdy raised beds for less-than-perfect garden set-ups

Raised beds are a great solution for gardeners who want to have more control over the soil quality in their garden. They improve drainage, and can also keep plants prone to taking over (mint! Beware the mint!) nice and contained. Vego has several different sizes for sale for Prime Day.

Plant food that will make your vegetables huge

Tomato and Vegetable Plant Food

First time vegetable gardeners often make the mistake of not properly fertilizing their plants. You need the right mixture to encourage a plant to produce robust, healthy fruits. This type of fertilizer provides nutrients that encourage plants to focus their growth on their flowers and fruits rather than their foliage, encouraging a greater bounty by the end of the season.

Scaffolding for big a** tomatoes

The thing about big, juicy, beautiful tomatoes is that they’re really heavy. Big cultivars need external support in the form of something like a tomato cage, otherwise, the mature fruits can cause the plant to bend and even break.

Personal Protection

An ugly hat that will protect you skin

It may be ugly, but a good sun hat is a must for anybody toiling away outside in a garden all day. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re digging and weeding and watering, which is why sun protection is all the more important for gardening enthusiasts.

Spray sunscreen that instantly blends in

Coola SPF50 Organic Sunscreen

This spray sunscreen recommended by GQ editors goes on clear, is waterproof for up to 80 minutes, and doesn’t leave any white cast on your skin, so you won’t look like a ghostly freak out there in your yard. It’s a good brand to cop while it’s still on sale.