Damn straight you're not going to be making delicate slicing cuts here, it's all about the chops!
Garden tools are generally made of lower hardness, thicker stock steel that is rarely heat treated in the same manner as a knife.
There are a couple of items and brands that go to these levels although it's not always an ideal situation when it comes to the garden.
Although sharpening on these tools is usually done in a very commercial and fast fashion, there are better ways to sharpen garden tools than the factory grind. Quality sharpening significantly increases durability and it's a payoff that really works well in the garden.
A lot of tools have either a standard wedge bevel or a half hollow which is ok for properly hardened steels on a tool that isn't cutting hard items however it can quickly fall down when cutting across the fibres of wood.
Have a look at something like a set of Fiskars shears and long handled secateurs for example after a bit of heavy use there's more chips than usable edge a lot of the time.
So should you only buy cheap garden tools?
Absolutely not, you should spend the money on good quality items with thorough research done before hand as any item you purchase. This will allow you to use them with a minimal amount of sharpening and maintenance required.
Keeping the items correctly tensioned (where applicable), cleaning off sap and coating them with a rust preventative and lubricant is something that always should be done and a lot easier if you do it every time you're done for the day.
Rust eats edges and that means a lot more material has to be removed when it comes time to sharpen a new bevel in.
So always be savvy with your research and keep them sharp with regular maintenance and they will serve you a lifetime.
