Since we are starting our late summer plant divisions, I figured this was a good time to talk about the best tools for digging, dividing and planting. Of course you need a selection of tools: shovel, spade, garden fork, sharp knife, pruners. But, in my opinion, the most important tool is the Hori Hori.
The Hori Hori is one of the best and most useful tools in my gardener’s ‘belt’. It is a Japanese tool one might commonly call a digging knife, and if you are in the Marines you would call it your best friend for hand to hand combat. The good ones are made of stainless steel or carbon steel with a wooden handle, are very heavy, and have a serrated edge on one side and a mostly sharp edge on the other. They are also concave on one side that helps in scooping.
This is a serious tool that can do so many wonderful things. It is great for digging and planting annuals, perennials and bulbs. When dividing perennials it is great for digging up and using the blade to break the roots into sections. It will easily loosen soil, cut roots, weed, open bags, help in cultivating soil, and threaten speeders going down your street too fast. All parts of the knife are used when digging, dividing and transplanting plants. With a little care for the handle and blade, it will last forever.
There are many other types of digging knives on the market, but most lack the gravitas of a proper Hori Hori. You may have bent a trowel or other tool in the past, but that won’t be the problem here as it is solid and unbreakable. You may want to have a lighter trowel for easy work in soft soil, but this tool will work through any soil. I have pretty big hands and strong wrists and don’t have a problem with this blade, but some of you might prefer the lighter stainless steel version. It is a little longer and thinner and a few ounces lighter.
About fifteen years ago when I was running a garden design and maintenance business, we provided these as gifts to our new gardeners and used these tools in our client’s gardens. One day I had Jury Duty in the Republic of Cambridge and had forgotten that I had a new Hori Hori in my work bag (probably the exact same as this one from Hida Tool). I unwittingly took it with me to Jury Duty as I was planning to catch up on paperwork. Upon entering the courthouse and passing through security, I noticed that several officers had started to move in my direction, and a rather large police officer confronted me. He asked if I had any weapons in my bag (which was a messenger-type briefcase), and I said I was a horticulturist and it was just a bunch of papers, having forgotten said new tool in the bag.
He reached into my bag and pulled out what, in this context, looked like a 15″ knife that would be used to cause mayhem. I laughed and said that it was my Hori Hori, a gardening tool used to dig in the ground. As you might expect, he and his fellow armed officers were not amused by my light-hearted answer to the question. I was pulled aside as they tried to determine if I was dangerous or just the idiot gardener I professed to be.
The officer said that he would not allow me to take the knife in, and, in fact, he would not give it back to me as he classified it as an illegal weapon. Since they bought my story that I was said idiot gardener, they let me in to perform my civil duty and was released by the end of the day about one pound lighter without my Hori Hori.
Whether it is legal or not it is a terror in the garden and one of my favorite tools, and for these cooler, late summer days it is critical in performing seasonal plant work and bulb planting.
Barking Dog Gardens - Gardening in New England 