Literally meaning “dig dig”, the Hori Hori knife can do far more than its name suggests. Made in Japan, the knife was inspired by Japanese farmers and foragers who traditionally used it to forage for mountain vegetables, such as bamboo shoots and mushrooms. Now it has made its way into the hands of gardeners worldwide and earned something of a cult following.

What sets the Hori Hori apart from a trowel, weeder or pruning knife is that it quietly replaces all three, and then some. One day you’re switching between multiple tools, the next you’ve spent hours in the garden without putting it down. Experienced gardeners tend to find that once it earns a place in their tool belt, it almost never leaves.

If you’re a Hori Hori novice, you might not know that a family of Hori Hori knives exist to suit a range of garden conditions and budgets. Most share an ergonomic wooden handle, but the blade varies –– carbon or stainless steel, straight or serrated edge, full-sized or compact.

Niwaki’s classic style features a carbon blade with one sharp edge, a pointed tip and a slightly concave face which is ideal for planting, squeezing into tight spaces in borders or scraping out pots. The Niwaki S-Type hori hori has a serrated edge and is more suited to ripping, tearing and cutting, while the mini S-type handles specialised tasks in compact spaces. For those looking to upgrade, Niwaki’s Hori Hori Pro steps things up with a SK carbon blade that’s tough and – almost – indestructible.

Every Hori Hori can tackle a wide range of gardening jobs without switching tools, but you’d tire of reading them all.

So, here are the top 10.

Autumn is a busy time in the garden if you like to have a show of flowers in the spring as it’s bulb planting season. Gardeners are notorious for over-ordering bulbs, but a few ‘add to baskets’ too many could lead to a very long afternoon on your knees. You’ll be grateful for a tool that can make planting bulbs easier.

Unlike a bulb planter, which pulls up a perfect core that needs replacing afterwards, the Hori Hori lets you widen, angle, and adjust the hole precisely as you go. The tapered concave blade acts as a slim scoop and doesn’t disturb the soil as much as a trowel, handy if you’re adding bulbs in and around existing planting. Use the flat edge of the knife to backfill and press down the soil once the bulb is in.

After a few years, perennial plants can get big and congested. Dividing them keeps them healthy and flowering well, and the best time to do this is either in the spring or in the autumn. You might need some extra assistance from a fork or a spade if you’re lifting established plants in a border, but once they’re out of the ground, the Hori Hori can tease roots apart without causing any unnecessary damage.

You can give the new plants away to friends or replant them elsewhere in the garden –– it’s a great way to make friends and save money!

When it comes to sowing seeds directly into the ground, the pointed tip of the Hori Hori draws a neat, shallow trench with almost no effort. It’s far more controlled than the edge of a rake or a bamboo cane. Once your seeds are in, you can use the flat side of the blade to cover them with soil and lightly firm down.

From transplanting seedlings to planting plugs or bigger plants, the Hori Hori’s unique features can make the task at hand feel easier. The Mini S-type or the tip of a larger blade will lift seedlings out of trays perfectly, allowing you to transplant them into prepared small pots. For bigger plants, you might need a spade or trowel to dig a decent hole, but the flat side of the blade will press soil down around the plant with precision.

The gardening job that never ends. Whether you’re trying to pick out weeds from your borders or need to dig out deep tap root dandelions from your lawn, a Hori Hori has the strength and precision to remove weeds cleanly. The precision of the knife is the highlight here –– it prevents disturbing soil unnecessarily and doesn’t cause damage to the plants around the weed. If you’re mostly gardening containers, the Mini S-type will be your go-to, as the compact blade can scoot around tight spaces more easily.

Every gardener has a secret stash of containers full of spent compost. The classic Hori Hori or Hori Hori Pro can make quick work of clearing these. And, unlike a trowel, the soil doesn’t get caught up in the tool itself. If you’re using the S-type, lead with the straight edge rather than the serrated one. Swipe the knife around the inside edge of the pot with the concave dip soil-side, and its contents will slide right out.

Cleating patio weeds is a job that is easy to ignore, until suddenly it isn’t. The Mini S-Type is great for this. Its slim profile can slide between slabs easily and the serrated edge helps with sawing through any tough roots.

Although not the tool for pruning and cutting back woody stems, the Hori Hori is useful for scraping off ivy from walls. Slide the knife under the ivy’s fine root-like holdfasts and then gently twist the knife to pull them off. Once the ivy has died and dried up, you can scrape it off. With bindweed, the knife can easily hack away winding stems but remember to pick up every small piece and put them in your garden waste, not the compost heap, as bindweed can easily re-root itself. Just watch the edge of the blade doesn’t scrape against buildings.

We’ve all wrestled with a stubborn compost bag. Keep your Hori Hori on your belt and you can do the job with one clean slice: no scissor hunt required! And while we’re on the subject, snipping string or twine without stopping to find scissors mid-job is one of those small things that makes a surprisingly big difference to a day in the garden. Simply wrap the string once around the blade, hold both ends taut, and pull the knife away from you in one clean motion.

Alys Hurn is a freelance writer based in Bristol, with a keen interest in the natural world. She has a RHS Level 2 qualification in Horticulture, and has written extensively about gardens, plants and nature-inspired design.