Dutch hoe

Weeds are the bane of any gardener. It doesn’t matter if you only have a veg garden, ornamental garden, wildlife or native plants wild garden. All need weeding at times. For the majority of gardens the Dutch hoe is the answer to your weeds. This is a simple design, basically it is a blade at the end of a long pole. The idea being that you run the blade through the soil separating the tops of the weeds from their roots. For most weeds, if done in dry weather, this will be enough to kill them. Given the simple design of a Dutch hoe it is easy to think that any Dutch hoe will do but there are some hoes that are much better than others and with the cheaper hoes, you will find they constantly bend or break. I will go into more detail about hoeing later but first lets take a look at these different hoes in the picture. This top two pictures show the various Dutch hoes (and similar) that I have. Although you cannot see in the top picture, they also have different length shafts as seen below. My favourite hoe happens to be the one with the longest shaft although the head is damaged and needs replacing. The reason that this is my favourite is largely down to the shaft. It is a comfortable fit in my hand, strong enough not to bend and long enough for me to stand upright while hoeing. Lets take a closer look at these. From the top picture I will work from left to right. First off then we have the small hoe. This is small because I cut it down to use in the greenhouse, the size makes hoeing under the benches easier. I was given this hoe by a neighbour. It is the sort of hoe I would have bought when I first started gardening and that I soon realised to be useless for all but the softest soils and smallest weeds. For the greenhouse this works because the weeds never get the chance to grow much and the surface soil is largely compost. I would not choose or recommend this type of hoe due to its head. If you look at the close up picture you can see that it has been been bent in the past. It is made of a light steel and pressed into shaped. What usually happens with this type of head is that you hit something hard like a stone or strong weed roots and then the head bends. It is is to straighten but then weaker. This then starts to happen more frequently until it either breaks or it bends too easily to use. This type of hoe would not last long in most gardening situations. This next hoe was my dads and is very useful for certain situations. The small head is great for getting in to tight spaces such as between onions or through some of the netting I use as pigeon protection. It feels very much like a wallpaper scraper, although the blade looks flimsy it does seem to be relatively strong. The main downside to this hoe is the shaft length, it is too short. When I get a suitable replacement for my preferred hoe, I will replace the head on it (which has worn thin due to extensive use and is now breaking) with the head of this hoe. The next hoe has a strong head. The design of the head is similar to that of the last three. These three images show the similarities of the three steel heads. A strong steel bar has been shaped then welded to the shaft attachment and a steel plate welded to the end for slicing through the soil. This is the type of head I would look for when choosing a hoe because it is likely to last a long time and stand up to the rigours of hard use. Both the remaining hoes have stainless steel heads. The one to the left is similar in design to the last three, though I feel the welding of the blade could be a week point, only time will tell. This was bought as a gift from Pam to replace my preferred hoe but sadly the shaft is too short and has a hole in the handle. Instead I use this on the veg beds at home where the soil is relatively soft. With both of these being stainless steel blades, I do not expect either of these to ever be as sharp as the steel hoes because stainless steel does not generally sharpen as well or remain sharp when used for garden tools. The hoe to the right I bought, having only one bar and sharpened on the thee sides, this design makes it ideal for narrow awkward spaces. I feel the head has been well formed and the shaft is probably the best shaft I have come across. It is tapered to be thicker where it is held but thinner to reduce the weight in other places, yet it feels good and sturdy and importantly no hole drilled into the handle. I feel this is a well designed hoe. The shaft, as you may of guessed from some of my earlier comments, is extremely important. It is not just a case of any shaft will do, if it is the wrong length you will not use it in a comfortable position and this will put a greater strain on your body meaning that you will tire more quickly. There are two things that determine the ideal length of your hoe. One is the angle of the head the other being how tall a person you are. Ideally you should not have to bend to far down to have the blade flat on the the ground. If you are bending too far you will start to get back ache through prolonged use. On the other hand, if the handle is too long, it will be difficult to put enough pressure through to the blade when you hoe firm soil or try to cut through some of the tougher weeds. When choosing a hoe have a feel of the shaft, holding the rounded end in the palm of your right hand (unless you are left handed) and check that this is smooth with no splinters or sharp edges that would cause your hand to blister during use. This includes checking that there are no holes drilled into the handle as many of the manufacturers seem to do now for some reason. I would never buy a hoe or trowel that has a hole in the handle because I know from experience that I will get a blister relatively quickly when using it. Using a hoe The first time that you hoe the ground it will be hard work, the soil will likely be firm and the weeds on the larger side. It is a good idea to do the first hoeing while the soil is damp (not wet) as this make the soil softer. This could be slow going. If you do find this difficult, it is much better to start by just hoeing what you have the time to do and feel comfortable doing rather than trying to tackle it all in one go. The next time you hoe, if it has been a week or more, go over this area again before starting to expand the area. What you have hoed previously should be loose and much easier to run the hoe through. Regular hoeing produces a fine tilth of soil on the surface that is free of weed seeds. This in effect acts as a mulch preventing the weeds seeds further down from germinating. When you first start to hoe you will be cutting the weed tops from their roots, the process of hoeing also loosens the surface centimetre or so of soil producing the perfect seedbed for the weeds. Provided you hoe before these weeds produce seeds and providing that you hoe regularly (at a minimum once every two weeks) any seeds in that surface will germinate and then be killed off, until eventually there are no more seeds ready to germinate in the surface. Once you reach this state you will find that you are regularly hoeing just bare soil to prevent the growth of weeds.