From Carol Klein’s hand-me-down hand fork to a glittering steel Hori Hori knife, professional gardeners swear by their favourite tools.
The Lancashire-born Klein, who often shares her garden at Glebe Cottage in Chittlehamholt near Umberleigh, north Devon, with TV viewers, inherited one of her favourite forks from her mother, who bought it from Woolworths more than 60 years ago.
Hand tools should be an essential part of any gardener’s kit. Faye Adams, a professional dancer turned gardens supervisor for the alpine and rock garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, southwest London, says there are four things every gardener at Kew carries on their tool belt: secateurs for pruning, snips for lighter tidying up, a Hori Hori knife, and a notebook and pen for