Beating the Weeds: My New Favourite Tool

Keeping on top of weeds has never been my strong point. However, in trying to keep them down my best friend has been my hoe. The difficulty with this though is that it can be difficult to get into small spaces and there have been a number of times when I have accidentally chopped off the tops the plants that I am trying to grow. I have been looking for something smaller that would do a similar job for ages - a hand hoe of sorts so I could get into those crowded areas with less chance of killing off what I am actually trying to grow. Finally, I came across this at my local garden centre:

 

It is an onion hoe - why it has this name I have no idea as it no more use for onions than it does for anything else. This is a Spear and Jackson one, but there are a number of different brands available. It was only cheap and I have to say it is the best thing I have bought in ages and is exactly what I have been looking for. I am not going to suggest that my veg plot is weed free, but I am more on top of weeds than I have been at this point in previous years, not entirely down to the purchase of the onion hoe, but it has certainly helped.

It works on a similar principle to a standard hoe, except of course that it is much smaller and its design means that you pull it towards you as you work. I think this makes it easier to control and less likely that you will chop down the things you actually want to grow.

I wouldn't say that I look forward to weeding, but feels much less onerous now and the onion hoe bridges the gap between hoeing with a standard hoe and trying to dig up weeds between plants.

Onion hoes are available on Amazon here in the UK or here in the US.

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