By Debra Knapke

Teresa’s favorite tool is my second favorite.  The tool that goes with me everywhere in the garden is my trusty, multi-purpose perennial knife.  It plants bulbs, busts up soil, renews the edge on a garden and weeds with a vengeance.  My first one had a wood handle, but I found that a brown tool in a garden equals a lost tool in the garden.  All new perennial knives sport an orange plastic handle, and two of my three wood-handled knives now are wrapped with colored duct tape.  In total, I have six perennial knives; three wood, three orange.  You are probably wondering why?  Our children had to have their own perennial knives.  And, when I lost a knife in the garden, I ordered a replacement.  Then the lost knives reappeared.

There are only five well-loved and well-used knives in the picture.  Time to go hunting.