These are some of my prized hand tools which I would not be without.

From left to right:

1. My Japeto Hori Hori knife. Once you start to use this tool you will wonder how you gardened without it. I wear it in a sheath on my gardening belt, so it is never far from my hand. When you need to get out a weed with a long tap root, divide plants, plant bulbs or clear out and plant up pots, reach for it and its job done. This knife isn’t sharp but has a serrated side to the blade for cutting. The steel of the blade run all the way up the handle which makes is very strong when digging.

2. A Niwaki weeding hoe: this is unbelievably good at weeding and soil cultivation in dry conditions, it slices through the soil allowing you to pick out the weeds easily.I have added a long handled razor hoe to my collection which saves my back and allows me to cover more ground when weeding larger areas.

3. My hand hoe from Niwaki; this is good at cultivating compacted soil and dealing with unwanted roots, it’s sharp edge will get through most obstacles. 

4. My Tobisho Barracuda Clippers from Niwaki. These are good for clipping and shaping shrubs and general cutting back.

5. My Moss weeder, as used in Japan when weeding moss gardens. I use this when tending the ground cover in the Japanese garden at Capel Manor, very effective and leaves the moss undisturbed.

6. The herbaceous sickle from Niwaki has become the go to tool for cutting back at the end of the season. I was also given a shorter bladed sickle purchased in Japan on a recent visit which is also extremely effective. The shorter blade adds strength.

7. An Okatsune sickle. For clearing and general cutting back: a word of warning the blade is very sharp and can inflict serious damage if you are not careful. You should use a controlled pulling action when cutting and avoid swinging the blade.

8. (top) My Okatsune Snips No. 304. These are good for more delicate pruning such as roses.

9. (bottom) My Okatsune Secateurs No. 103. With my Hori Hori knife these are always ready to hand on my gardening belt and are essential to me.  You can buy more expensive secateurs but I would not be without these, they are strong and forgiving, the workhorse of the secateur world.

10. (top) My Bonsai Branch Cutters.  I use these for my Acer pruning, they give a clean straight cut with as small a wound as possible.

11. (bottom) Finally, my Okatsune folding saw. This is a good hand saw which cuts on the pull stroke for those branches which are too thick for the loppers.

You may have noticed a Japanese theme to this selection of prized tools, I use these every day and they are a joy and the best you can get.

The insulating tape on some of the handles is my attempt to prevent me losing them in amongst the collected cuttings…. A couple of these are replacements for tools lost forever in clients’ garden recycling bins!!