This Ergonomic Weeding Tool is Under $30 and a Complete Game Changer for Effortless Weeding in Your Garden – I’m in Love
If you hate weeding as much as I do, this simple tool could change how you feel and how your garden looks.
I adore my pollinator garden, but boy do I hate weeding it. In my front yard, I removed all the grass and have slowly been planting native plants and perennials that benefit pollinators. After a few years of hard work, it is filling in nicely but there are still some bare areas that I have to weed.
Weeding by hand is always an option, but just thinking about that makes me not want to step foot in the garden. I am a very relaxed gardener and really prefer for my garden beds to take care of themselves. That being said, there are still patches that need to be managed. If you’re like me, this is when I change your life by introducing you to the best weeding tool on the market: the stirrup hoe.
A stirrup hoe, or action hoe, is a quick and efficient weeding tool. Action hoes, like this one from Craftsman, can be found at Lowe's or your local garden center. (You might even find one in a garage sale or the thrift store!) The long handle means you don’t have to bend over and give yourself an aching back or hurt your knees to do the job. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of this wonderful stand-up weeding tool.
Benefits of Using a Stirrup Hoe
I have seen stirrup hoes in hardware stores my whole life but never really paid any attention to them. Like with many other handy tools, unless you see someone use one or talk about it, you might just completely overlook it.
As a child of the ‘90s, I grew up being bombarded with advertisements for all the latest and greatest chemical weed killers. A stirrup hoe might as well have been an artifact in a farm museum! I was quickly disabused of that notion when I saw how fast and efficient weed control could be with the help of a stirrup hoe.
Stirrup hoes, also called action hoes, scuffle hoes or loop hoes, work by cutting out weeds at the root, below the top layer of soil. A long handle, like on this 54-inch Craftsman stirrup hoe from Lowe’s, means you can stand up to do all your weeding. The steel loop is sturdy and long-lasting, and the cushioned grip keeps your hand from fatiguing.
Picking ergonomic gardening tools is a great way to prevent injury in the garden and means less time on your hands and knees hand weeding.
How to Use a Stirrup Hoe
Stirrup hoes are made up of a long handle and a metal loop at the business end. Push and pull the loop along your weedy garden bed and it removes weeds from the soil as easily as shaving hair from a leg. These standup weeders are an amazing gardening tool to add to your collection, and they make weeding kind of fun!
Stirrup hoes work best on smaller weeds covering large areas of soil. Weeds are always easier to pull when they are young and in their early stage of growth. Unfortunately, stirrup hoes don’t work on weeds with a taproot like dandelions, but a standup weeder like Grampa’s Weeder from Amazon is an editors’ favorite for dealing with those.
I can’t wait to get started on my weeding now. I am even going to use my new stirrup hoe to remove little black-eyed Susan sprouts that have self-seeded, so I have space for another native plant or two. Happy weeding!
