Permaculture originated in Japan, along with some amazing farm implements. I have a Japanese sickle that I can never remember the name of and began calling it a Hibachi because I couldn’t remember any other Japanese word! (Not proud of this.) Well, fast forward, and all my farm interns call it that too. At least we all know what we are meaning. Hori Hori is a bit easier to remember and I have wanted one for a long time!

A Hori Hori might look like a menacing knife one might take to a pirate duel or street fight, but it is actually a brilliantly designed gardening tool. One side is serrated to cut strong roots and small branches. One side is sharp and smooth to use as a sickle to slice weeds or harvest vegetables. The tip is so that it can be pushed down into the soil to capture tap roots or check the water levels. The tip can also create furrows for planting seeds. As if that were not enough, one could use the Hori Hori to slice open bags of soil or compost, slide around the inside of pots to transplant or cut around starts to move. One can also plant bulbs with it or check soil types.

Our friend, Rod, bought me and Doug our own Hori Horis for Christmas. (Rod not realizing that Doug doesn’t usually help me with weeding and harvesting and may have inadvertently made him more useful in the garden! The garden is typically my domain.) Rod is an artist and engraved the sheaths with our names. The carriers fit on a belt loop. It makes me all the more excited to get back into the garden (after conveniently forgetting about flies, grasshoppers, and my archenemy, the squash bugs).

Last year, with my gardens becoming quite prolific, I abandoned them. I had had enough of bugs and heat and weeds and watering. I didn’t have any more helpers coming and I was tired. I swore off gardening and let the ducks and chickens into it to destroy the squash bugs as I stood by and laughed maniacally. It wasn’t three weeks later before I was planning this year’s garden. That is what we gardeners do. We live for soil and dirt and seeds and the hope of harvest. The right tools make it just a bit easier and more fun.