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Cutting Garden Tools (From a Working Flower Farmer)
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items After more than a decade of growing and designing, this is the working kit I've landed on. Tools that hold up to daily use, cut cleanly enough to extend vase life, and feel right in the hand for long days. Skip the gimmicks, these are the ones worth ...
From field to design table. Japanese-made, precise, and light enough for long design sessions without hand fatigue. They cut delicate stems cleanly (sweet peas, cosmos, nigella) without crushing the vascular system. I've used mine daily for years.
Chikamasa B-500SRF Curved Scissors Orange
What I use in the field. Heavier than the Chikamasas and built for woody stems: dahlias, roses, hydrangea, branch material. Sharp out of the box, and they hold an edge longer than any bypass pruners I've tried.
ARS shears
What I reach for when I'm cutting woody material off the farm: pruning shrubs, shaping branches for installations, clearing overgrowth. Every part is replaceable, which is why a single pair lasts decades. The industry standard, earned!
Felco F6 Pruners
What I use for everything I'd otherwise need three tools for. Digging bulbs, dividing perennials, cutting sod, planting plugs, measuring depth with the etched blade. Serrated on one edge, straight on the other. Mine lives in a sheath on my belt.
Hori Hori
What I use instead of plastic cells for starts. Blocks air-prune roots naturally, so seedlings transplant with almost no shock. One upfront purchase replaces years of plastic trays.
Soil Blocker
What I mix into every seed-starting blend and top-dress beds with throughout the season. Gentle, slow-release, and full of microbial life that potting mix alone doesn't have. A little goes a long way.
Worm Castings
What I use when I do reach for trays. Heavy-duty, BPA-free, and they've lasted me multiple seasons without cracking, the standard 1020s from big box stores last one. Worth the upfront cost.
Bootstrap Farmer Reusable Seed Starting Trays
What I wear for most field work. Breathable enough that my hands don't sweat through them, thin enough that I can still feel stems and soil, inexpensive enough that I'm not precious about replacing them. Atlas 370s are the ones I keep buying.
Nitrile Work Gloves
What keeps every blade on this list working. A dull tool crushes stems instead of cutting them, and crushed stems don't take up water. Five minutes of sharpening once a month saves hundreds of stems.
Felco Sharpener
What I wear for pre-dawn summer harvests, when flowers need to come out of the field before the sun hits them. Hands-free, rechargeable, bright enough to see color accurately.
Headlamp
What I use to move everything: harvested stems, compost, soil, tools, water. A wheelbarrow tips; a four-wheel cart doesn't. Mine has a dump feature for unloading compost and a flat bed for hauling buckets of flowers in from the field. The Gorilla Car...
Gorilla Cart
What I wear for everything from harvest to design. Pockets for snips, twine, phone, so I'm not constantly walking back to the shed for the one thing I forgot. Canvas holds up to wet stems and dirt without staining permanently. A good apron is the dif...
Canvas Apron
What I use to bundle stems in the field, tie bouquets, label rows, and stake plants when I'm out of anything sturdier. Jute is biodegradable and looks good in photos; sisal is stronger for heavier work. Buy a bigger spool than you think you need — yo...
Jute Twine