No Need For Garden Shears: The Quicker Tool For Harvesting Plants That Fits On Your Finger

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Sometimes reaching for a pair of garden shears feels like overkill. You know the times; whether you're harvesting a handful of delicate herbs or deadheading a few flowers, stopping to grab a big tool can become quite tedious, not to mention unnecessary. That's when having a thumb harvesting knife in your gardening tool kit is a great idea. These thumb sleeves come with a blade attached, which leaves the rest of your hand free to either hold the plant or collect what you cut. There are a few available on Amazon, including the Zgyfjch thucmb knife, and it's a great compact setup for smaller gardening jobs, basically allowing you to pinch instead of cut.

The mechanism is particularly simple — rather than squeezing handles like you would with pruners, you position your thumb against the stem and either pinch or make a slicing motion to cut through it. The thumb knife is mostly suited for soft growth; for anything woody, pruners and shears are still the better choice. That said, a thumb tool can be handy if you're moving through a denser patch of soft-stemmed plants, like a tomato crop, and working as you go. Another possible use for a thumb knife like this is to remove weeds more quickly from gravel driveways, especially individual soft weeds that can just be sliced at the base.

Really, it's an advantage that comes down to convenience — a thumb knife stays on your finger, or inside a pocket, as you move from plant to plant so there's no need to stop and reach for something, or to carry a heavier tool with you. For that reason, it's also great for anyone who suffers with hand pain or arthritis. Some models also come with a cover for your index finger, too (pictured above), whilst others are more simply designed for the thumb, so gardening gloves are a must-have when using them.

While this tool isn't a replacement for all the cutting equipment in your shed, it can provide a little shortcut for smaller jobs. Further, it's a miniature tool worth having around the house as well. For example, in the kitchen, it can be used to trim herbs, cut the stems from peppers, and even scrape the skin off of ginger. Its usefulness comes from it being so small that you can keep it with you until one of these quick cuts comes up, rather than having to stop to run and fetch the tool you need.