Department
Tools
The hori-hori knife, a good pair of bypass pruners, a clean spade, the wheelbarrow that lasts a decade.
The Kneeler, the Mat, and the Question of the Knees
A close look at the unglamorous tools that keep a gardener's lower joints in working order across a thirty-year garden life, and the small case for the right pad under the knee.
A Japanese Saw for the Home Gardener
A Silky Gomboy 240, carried in a leather scabbard through a season of fruit pruning, brush clearance, and one small carpentry job, and the case for the pull-stroke in the garden.
The Watering Can as Design Object
Three cans, a Haws long-reach in galvanised steel, a Bosmere copper, and a French Sèvres-style plastic, weighed and used through a summer in a small Massachusetts greenhouse.
The Wooden Handle, and Why It Still Wins
On ash, hickory, beech, and the small case for wood over fibreglass and steel in the hand-tools that the home gardener actually uses every week.
A Wheelbarrow Tested Over a Decade
A single Chillington Plantation wheelbarrow, bought new in 2016, weighed annually, and finally retired in March 2026 after carrying an estimated 318 tonnes of soil, compost, and grit.
A Clean Spade, and Why It Matters
On the small ritual of scraping, oiling, and sharpening a digging spade between uses, and what a clean tool teaches the gardener who carries it.
A Good Pair of Bypass Pruners, Three Brands Over a Season
Felco, Niwaki, and ARS, carried in rotation through a working Devon garden from April to October, and what the cuts looked like at the end of it.
The Hori-Hori Knife as a Year-Round Companion
A single Japanese soil knife, carried in a leather sheath from March to December, replaces a small drawer of implements and earns its keep in ways its owner did not expect.