Two Of My Favorite Tools

This is a photo of two of the tools I use much this time of year--a butcher knife and Don's Daylily Divider.  I use the knife for weeding.  I find it so much easier to penetrate the soil to get to the root of the weed using a knife than a trowel, which I used for many years.  I often find knives that work well at thrift shops for less than a dollar--a much better price than typical garden tools and much more effective.  If you haven't already, try it and see.

I have only had the daylily divider a few seasons, but it is the best thing I have ever seen for dividing perennials--not just daylilies.  I use it on my hostas, on pampas grass, on daylilies--anything that grows in a clump that needs to be separated.  You can see Don--the inventor--dividing a clump of daylilies on this YouTube video.  

It is absolutely amazing how the tool pulls the roots apart almost effortlessly without damaging them!  If I am dividing something that I really don't want to dig up completely, I dig on the side of the plant from which I want to separate a clump and insert the divider at the place I have determined would make a good division.  Spread the handles and the clump separates leaving most of the plant intact and still in the ground.  An ingenious invention!! Wish I had thought of it.  
    
The last I heard, Don makes these tools individually by hand so since they are not mass produced they are a little on the expensive side.  I think the price is about $45, but in my opinion it is absolutely worth every penny if you have a large garden, as I do, with plants that need perpetual dividing.  It saves so much time and results in lots more divisions because all roots remain intact, unlike the way I used to divide by cutting through sections with a knife--or in the case of grasses--a saw!