Skip Hand-Pulling: Remove Weeds In Half The Time With An Easy-To-Use Garden Tool

It often seems like the less you want a plant in your garden, the more stubborn it is. Weeds that grow fast can easily outcompete your beloved flowers and veggies if you don't stay on top of controlling them. Hand-pulling them can be a long, tedious process, especially when you're dealing with a large planting bed. If you want an easier way to tackle routine weeds, a stirrup hoe can cover more ground quickly and cut your weeding time significantly.

A stirrup hoe, as the name suggests, is shaped a bit like a horseback riding stirrup and has a sharp blade. By pushing the tool back and forth, you can slice through weeds at or just beneath the soil surface without stopping to pull each one individually. Because you're working only near the surface, you don't have to worry as much about disturbing deeper soil layers and bringing up buried weed seeds. It's especially useful for quickly clearing small- to medium-sized growth and seedlings. Its push-pull motion lets you work continuously across an area or target individual weeds, making it a handy choice for routine maintenance in garden beds and between rows of established plants.

A stirrup hoe is a snap to use. Just push and pull the tool back and forth right below the soil surface to cut through the weeds. They work especially well for dealing with unwanted plants in mulched areas and open beds where you have room to move the blade. 

If you're prone to back problems, a long-handled model will allow you to work from a more upright position. You can also find stirrup attachments for wheel hoes, which are perhaps even less physically demanding and faster tools for removing weeds. Most stirrup hoes should fit easily between rows of crops, so you'll be able to use them for weeding even when your garden is in full bloom. Just take care not to nick the stems and roots of young plants.

The main area where stirrup hoes tend to fall flat is when dealing with persistent weeds with deep roots or rhizomes. Since the hoe only cuts them at the crown, they can just regrow from their roots. For these types of weeds, you'll likely need to either repeatedly dig up as much of the root as possible or consider using an herbicide.