🌱 The Japanese Garden Tool You Need Now
How to buy a hori hori knife, the hardest working tool in the shed.
Welcome to Perennial Goods, where we talk about things that are actually worth buying for your garden (or, for those who like looking at pretty flowers better than planting them, your flora-adjacent lifestyle).
In 2024 when I decided I wanted my own herb garden, I had absolutely no intention of planting said herb garden myself. One Saturday morning, I went to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market and picked up some basil, rosemary, thyme and oregano transplants from Logan Williams of Logan’s Garden (my longtime Silver Lake neighbor who, along with his legendary dad Jimmy, is one of the most knowledgeable and sought-after edible garden experts in town). Afterward, I drove straight to the nursery to source terra cotta pots and get my aromatics planted.
“We’re really busy today so you’d have to come pick them up next week,” the cashier said. I couldn’t hide my disappointment. “You could just plant them yourself.” She couldn’t hide her judgement.
I don’t remember what I said next, but I imagine in standard L.A. Westside fashion I asked very nicely if there was anything at all she could possibly do to fit me in that same day (I obviously hadn’t yet cultivated the patience of a gardener). Thankfully for the education I didn’t yet know I wanted, the answer was no.
Instead, she pointed me to the organic soil I’d need for the job.
“I probably need a shovel or something,” I said.
“Uh, probably,” she answered, judgement returning. So I grabbed whatever “shovel” was displayed closest to the register (I’ve since learned that in most circles, a small gardening shovel is actually called a trowel).
And so is the origin story of my very first gardening tool.
Like so many of my belongings, that trowel got trashed after the Palisades Fire covered it in ash. So now that I’m in Ojai and building a new, more robust garden, I’m asking real gardeners which hardworking pieces will help me accomplish that. And which tools are better left to social media creators more interested in capturing a certain country vibe that photographs well.
Enter, the hori hori knife — a Japanese-style knife/shovel hybrid that nearly every gardener I spoke to says is a must-have for any kit.
“Many gardeners find out that once they begin using a hori hori, it becomes a go to tool for them,” says Seth Pauley, the owner of Oregon-based Red Pig Garden Tools. Pauley’s company is the longest-running blacksmith working in hand-forged garden tools in the U.S. He and his team make approximately 10,000 rakes, weeders and hori hori knives each year in their Portland-area workshop by hand.
Meiners Oaks Community Garden founder Barrie Cohen agrees.
“I just think that they’re really incredible,” she says of the humble hori hori, which roughly translates to “dig dig” in Japanese — where the tool originated centuries ago to harvest mountainside bonsai trees, among other crops. “They’re super versatile.”
“Versatile” is a term also used by UC Certified Master Gardener Gary Bednorz, who leads Tool School workshops in Southern California and has been gardening since 1966. He emailed me from a fishing trip to say that a hori hori is “Essential for every gardener. Multifaceted is an understatement: seeding, transplanting, weeding are just some of the many uses.” He calls the hori hori one of his “core four.”
Bradley recently bought me a hori hori from UK-based brand Niwaki and I immediately found that my ability to destroy unwanted common milkweed and mint (which I know I should be spraying vinegar on, instead, but here we are) increased ten fold. It also allowed me to quickly make little soil pockets for the borage seeds I planted in the tea herb section of our raised spiral bed. I’m fully sold.
I’m not alone, with Pauley seeing an increased demand for the jack-of-all-trades knife. “Unfortunately, in the market at large there’s a wide range in quality, with many versions of a hori hori out there in what I would call the made for Amazon model: mass produced, low quality, most of the cost put into the marketing and packaging rather than a quality blade.”
So just how does an aspiring green thumb avoid ending up with a hori hori that is hori horrible (sorry, I had to)?
Below, our three experts weigh in on what to look for when buying a hori hori of your own, what actually makes one worth the money, and how to not let it rust and go to shit. Garden tools can and should be future heirlooms, after all.
Tool of Many Uses
Ok so what do you actually do with a hori hori — like, specifically?
“I use my hori hori for planting both seeds and transplants,” Bednorz says. “For seeds, I use the tip to furrow holes or rows. I pour tiny seeds on the the blade, then carefully sprinkle into the soil. Also, this versatile tool is superb for removing unwanted plants and weeds.”
Cohen’s hori hori has etched-in measurements on one side. “Let’s say you’re planting a seed and it says to plant it two inches in,” she marvels. Her hori hori can help with that. She also likes that her version is serrated. “So you can cut through things.”
Pauley, too, uses his hori hori “regularly.”
“We keep one in each of our cars as a combined emergency tool and ready to go gardening tool. I use it for everything from transplanting to planting bulbs to rough trimming and cutting. I find it particularly useful when working in beds of flowers, like irises or lilies, that spread via rhizomes or dense bulbs because it’s an effective tool for separating and thinning them.”
Materials Matter
The most crucial part of a hori hori is its blade.
“Many gardeners are turned off by the hori hori when their first experience is with a poor quality one. These typically bend under the first heavy use just below the handle at the top of the blade,” says Pauley.
Bednorz suggests looking for a full-tang knife. “This means the metal of the blade continues all the way through the handle to the butt (the end of the handle), ensuring a single, continuous piece of steel.”
According to Pauley, the quality of the steel, thickness and depth of that tang are all indicators worth noticing. “Specifically, the thicker the steel and the deeper/longer the tang, the better.”
Bednorz likes stainless steel, which Pauley agrees with, adding that he also likes carbon steel over a chromed steel blade, which is typically thinner, making the probability of bends and breaks higher.
“[A hori hori] can come at many price points and a high price is not necessarily an indicator of quality,” Pauley warns. “In many cases, a high price with a highly refined handle and nice packaging is more an indication of a tool that has higher costs embedded in the presentation rather than in the quality of the blade.”
Investment Tips
Cohen thinks that if you’re going to invest in a “fancy” tool, the hori hori is it.
“If you’re doing a lot of gardening, ‘investing’ is a good word to describe buying a high quality tool,” Pauley advises. “You’ll save money over time by paying for a sturdy tool meant for work, rather than one meant to look great in the package.”
Well-made gardening tools can last decades with proper care, which ultimately offers savings versus what you’d spend replacing a less expensive but lesser quality tool every few years.
Which brings us to…
Don’t Let Your Hori Hori Become a Horror Show
Think of a good garden tool like a high quality piece of carbon steel or cast iron cookware. Without proper care and upkeep, your fancy pans that distribute heat just so will eventually end up in the donation pile.
“Care of any garden tool is essential to make it last a long time,” says Pauley, noting that good quality tools often require some level of care. “A stainless steel blade mainly needs to be wiped off when not in use to last, whereas a carbon steel blade needs to be wiped off, ideally dried and occasionally treated with an oil, wax, or other coating to prevent the build up of rust.”
Bednorz echos this very important call for dilligance.
“Clean after every use,” he says. “Simply wipe off any dirt and debris. A wet cloth or disinfectant wipe would do the trick. Using a little alcohol (70%+) also helps. Dry [it] then put in [its] sheath.”
Many hori hori knives also come with protective sheaths, something Cohen particularly loves about the tool.
“I still lose all my tools even when there’s a sheath,” she says. “But I love accessories.”
Gardening is my life, pretty much. I have never found a use for the hori hori that sits abandoned in my greenhouse.
My most useful newish tool is a border spade with steps. It cuts through soil like a knife through butter. Creates a clean hole that is the perfect size to drop in a plant.
Don’t destroy common milkweed! The butterflies need it!
Borage will grow if you just scatter seed. But if you want to be pre use about it, simply like the rather large seeds into the dirt with your finger.
The hori hori tool is cute. I think it’s unnecessary.
For removal of larger weeds, a mattock is the thing.
I recently got my hori hori and totally forgot about it. Gardening in the heat of Texas is not for the faint :-( . Now I know what to actually use it for. Thanks Erin!