As always, John showered me with all sorts of Christmas goodies. This post is The Useful—as opposed to the fun and the beautiful.

These aren’t torture devices; they’re Japanese gardening tools. The top is a special scythe for ripping out old roots from planting beds. The next is a gorgeous hand-forged gardening hatchet with matching leather case and belt loop.

The next one down doesn’t show well in this picture. It’s a serrated spatula with a twisted handle that’s designed to pop plants out of pots for repotting. Come Spring I’ll be doing lots of repotting and I’m anxious to give this one a whirl.

The bottom one is a folding saw for hacking off small limbs and brush. John took pity on me with this one: I’ve been pruning out excess growth from all the bushes in the front garden. I wasn’t making fast progress last fall and I expect the saw will speed things along.