This likely could have been solved by using a hand weeder tool, but I don’t believe it would have saved me any time since I would have still needed to manually remove each weed individually. My native soil is very compact and tough to dig into by hand, so weeding left my fingers crampy and fatigued as I tried to dig deeply into the soil to extract the roots. I was able to weed the garden bed with the stirrup hoe in half the time of pulling weeds by hand.īut the stirrup hoe wasn’t just faster! It also made me less tired and more confident in the destruction of the weeds. I aimed for roughly 90% to 95% weed removal from each side. The garden bed was split in two equal parts: one half to be weeded by the hoe and the other by hand. So I orchestrated a test to compare the speed of weeding with the stirrup hoe against pulling the weeds manually. After biblical levels of rain this spring, weeds were close to conquering my new garden bed. I recently planted a new Monarch Waystation, a 10-by-20-feet garden consisting of a variety of early-to-late-season blooming flowers meant to support Monarch butterflies through various stages of their life cycle, from birth to their late-summer migration south. I felt compelled to put together my own (vaguely scientific) experiment to prove this new method is far superior to what I've tried in the past. Once I used the stirrup hoe for a variety of weed-related needs, I realized the once-tedious task could actually be… fun? And even better, I could weed significantly faster than with previous methods I’ve tried.īecause I work at Wirecutter, I couldn’t just let my own anecdotal evidence speak for itself. And the ease of use allows me to weed an immense amount of surface area containing small-to-medium-sized weeds at one time (large weeds require hand weeding or a different tool altogether). The tool can be leveraged for a variety of soil conditions, from my own dense clay soil to the more lightweight soil in my raised vegetable garden beds. The stirrup hoe is so much better than the hand weeders and cultivators I’ve used in the past because I can weed from a standing position that reduces the strain on my body. For the next few years, I converted much of the charred hellscape that was my 0.27-acre turf lot into a biodiverse, pollinator-friendly paradise designed to shelter and feed butterflies, bees, and birds native to my region of the United States. My mother arrived enthusiastically at my doorstep with transplants from her own garden: a delightful array of North American native plants including Golden Alexander ( Zizia aurea), Bee Balm ( Monarda spp.), Anise Hyssop ( Agastache foeniculum), and Canada Anemone ( Anemone canadensis). So in May 2020, I officially became a gardener. I needed something to pull me out of my funk. But the thought of exerting such effort to plant a garden of my own? Hard pass. The vibrant colors, alluring fragrance, and charming hustle and bustle of wildlife offered a much-needed reprieve from my otherwise technology-fueled existence. I selfishly enjoyed lazy summer evenings on my parents’ back porch, surrounded by stunning native perennial garden beds lovingly established by my mother. I started gardening just about three years ago. Thankfully, I have a fix for my garden grief: a stirrup hoe.
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