Our Guide to Hand Tools

Here are some of our favorite gardening hand tools and how to use them!

Hand Hoe:

The hand hoe is good for smaller weeds with shallower root systems. The shape of the blade allows it to pull more of the weed’s root system out of the ground, with the tip making it easy to remove weeds in the crack in your sidewalk or driveway. The hand hoe helps provide leverage, making weeding much easier! It can also be used in other gardening tasks around your yard, such as loosening soil around plants, removing grass, scratching in fertilizer, and a variety of other tasks.

Hand Hoe Gardening Tool

Hori Hori Knife (also known as simply a Hori Hori):

The hori hori knife has a variety of uses in the garden, including removing weeds, planting and transplanting plants, dividing plants, and cutting into sod and roots. As far as weeding, the hori is great for the deeper root systems. They are typically sharp on both sides of the knife, with one side being serrated. The serrated side is great for cutting roots and breaking up soil.  Many come with one of the flat sides marked for measuring, which can be used for planting plants and bulbs. The hori is by far the most amazing garden tool we have discovered in the history of our business. It’s the best thing we have for weeding by the root and we do A LOT of weeding by the root!

Hori

Hand Pruners:

These pruners are great for dead-heading plants, pruning smaller shrubs, thinning cuts in shrubs, cutting flowers, deadheading annuals, shrubs and perennials, cleaning out dead material in annuals and much more. To care for your tools and keep them lasting longer, make sure they are cleaned after each use and that the blades remain sharp. You can use a small sharpening stone to keep the blade on your pruners sharp. Some gardeners keep their tools in sand to keep them clean and dry. Never use your pruners in the dirt- they will dull very quickly.

Felco F-2 Pruners

Stirrup Hoe

Stirrup Hoe

This is another of our valuable tools for weed removal. The stirrup hoe is the best for a large area of small weeds. Scrape the hoe across the soil and it cuts the weeds off below ground level! This is for an area with a bunch of teeny weeds that would take too long to hand weed one by one!

Don’t forget to make sure your tools are cleaned after each use and properly stored to prevent rust and help make the tools last as long as possible! Some gardeners place the smaller hand tools in a container filled with sand to keep them clean and dry.

Check out our Pinterest board for more tools that are useful in the garden!