The only garden tool I own

[boggybranch]

The best garden tool, to me, and the only one I own (not counting the trowel) is the "Garden Claw". It does the same job as a tiller and it requires no gas, oil or maintainence. Not as fast as a tiller, but, if you have the patience, time and enjoy getting your hands in the dirt, it does a much thorough job at giving you the opportunity to get out all the weeds, grasses AND their roots.
Don't beat you to death like a tiller will, either.
Would recommend the "Gold Garden Claw" as it is extra heavy duty with a much easier handle design for using than the 'standard' model.

 

[digitS']

I found the garden claw a little hard on my wrists but that may just be me .

Years ago, I used only 2 shovels and a garden rake. I've had a strong aversion towards a hoe since I was a kid. When I was a ten year-old, every moment that a hoe was in my hand, it was high noon, 85 degrees and I couldn't see the end of a weed-choked row of vegetables .

One shovel was technically a spade and I liked to dig out all my garden beds each year, either in the spring or fall. The other was a square shovel and I used it for cleaning the paths between the beds.

The garden rake was used for leveling the bed, opening up drills for sowing seed, and covering the seed.

Actually, I still use these 3 tools for those purposes but I've added a long-handled spading fork and use it on the ground where I won't be moving all that dirt with a spade. Then there are the motorized monsters :/ so deserving of vilification.
What am I allowed to say about the guy with the tractor ?

Oh, and I've got a hoe or 2 . . .

Steve

 

[Greenthumb18]

I've never heard of the Garden Claw, but sounds like it would be better to use than a ordinary tiller.

 

[boggybranch]

It's sure better to me. Every tiller I've owned, with the exception of one , would have me worn-out before I got it started....and that one wore me out AFTER I got it started.
Then when I 'tilled up' a place....seems like it just made the grass and weeds multiply and grow that much faster (sorta like it would make em mad) instead of killing them.
With the "claw" and 2 hands......roots and all are gone.

 

[Randy]

I'm thinking of just using the weedeater in the garden this year instead hoeing or tilling the weeds. :mow

 

[boggybranch]

I'm thinking of just using the weedeater in the garden this year instead hoeing or tilling the weeds. :mow

That'll make it look better and definitely be easier than weeding....but the weed roots will still be living and competing for soil nutrients with your garden plants and as the roots expand and develope, unchecked, they will be even harder to remove when you "have" to get them out.

 

[vfem]

I swear by the stirup hoe!!! Scrape the top of the surface, damage the weed root and tear the weed up all at once! quick and easy. These things are cheap and come in all sizes as well.

 

[rockytopsis]

We have had both of those tools, the claw and the stirup hoe, and if the ground is worked up already they work fine, not worth any thing for un-broke ground which is what the tv leads one to believe k is being used. However it is plain to see that the ground in the ads is very well worked.

We do use the weed eater, if a spot of weeds gets too high, then I either use the big tiller or my mantis to take the roots out. If either one of my tillers dies it will be replaced.
Nancy

 

[digitS']

My garden soil is sooooo rocky! It's glacial till - I've no reason to expect that ground would be different at 10 feet or 100 feet, just less actual soil and more rocks .

I bought one of those rototiller attachments for my weedeater several years ago. My thought was to kill the weeds in the permanent paths between the beds - so, rocky and packed.

It was like holding a tiger by its tail ! I still use the attachment; circling a bed several time while incorporating fertilizer - in loose soil. The paths have been another story.

I once laid paper and wood chips across quack grass & bindweed on the perennial garden paths -- where things can really be the worse, weedwise. The weeds just crawled out of the paths into the beds .

A long-handled spading fork and a long spring day add up real well for soil prep. And, I've got a 4-prong cultivator out there most every time I'm there. It helps me in getting there and getting around. Now-and-then , it actually kills a weed . . .

I use either the little 31cc Honda (same people who make the engine for the Mantis) or the big rear-tine tiller. The rear-tine is going to kill me, someday. The little one, I pull backwards and that's hard enuf BUT it has to make a return engagement every week or 2 :/!

For me, it's round-up in the ornamentals and dragging that little tiller backwards thru the veggies. What's that saying we've been practicing lately: "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." . . . i just do the best i can.

Steve

 

[Randy]

I wonder if you were real careful if you could spray a little round up in between rows? With my luck I would kill my whole garden.