Japanese trowel, all-round weeder, bulb-planter extraordinaire, and general subterranean rummager. The carbon steel blade runs right into the handle, so it’s tough and strong. Brilliant for planting bulbs, weeding and all sorts of garden stuff - but whatever you do, don’t take it as carry on luggage and remember: strong as it is, it’s not indestructible.
Comes with protective canvas sheath.
Although considerably stronger than a regular trowel, the mighty hori hori is not completely invincible. Don’t stick it in to heavy soil and yank back hard…it’s much more efficient used in an in-out action.
Most of our sharp tools are made from carbon steel - this means they may, through regular use, stain (and eventually rust) and gradually lose their edge.
Cleaning:
1997. Jake goes to Japan as a wannabe sculptor, to investigate the cultural phenomenon of the cherry blossom season, hanami. There he discovers the gardens, and the trees, and vows to learn more.
Back home in England, he trains as a TEFL teacher, meets Keiko, and drags her back to Japan. Year one is spent teaching, year two working at a traditional plant nursey in a rural part of Osaka, learning all about tree training, pruning and rootballing.
Back home again, Jake gets work at Architectural Plants in Sussex, where he is shocked to find people using FOUR LEGGED LADDERS (Can you imagine?) Brother-in-law Haruyasu is enrolled to ship over a couple of tripod ladders (still going strong today) which together with the robust secateurs and topiary clippers Jake insists on using, cause quite a stir.
And so begins the business.
What everyone starts to appreciate is that although these things are all Japanese, they work just as well in western gardens, and on a whole range of plants. Tripod ladders, it turns out, are just as useful for hedge trimming as they are for pine pruning; and of course topiary clippers work just as well on box topiary as they do on azalea karikomi.
You don’t need to grow bonsai to enjoy these tools.
