No matter how much you might enjoy gardening, there is always one major pest that needs to be taken care of regularly: weeds. They grow in garden beds and lawns and they generally sprout up very rapidly.
Sometimes, spraying a weed killer resolves the problem but that’s not always practical, especially if you’re concerned about toxins or damaging the plants and flowers surrounding the weeds. Using digging tools to get them out is really the most effective and environmentally friendly way to eradicate weeds.
In order to make gardening more fun and the removal of annoying weeds easier, let’s look at some great weeding tools and digging tools to get the job done with a minimum of fuss.
Hand-Held Cultivator
Usually with three or four angled prongs on the end, the hand-held cultivating tool is excellent for breaking up compacted earth, with the prongs readily ripping out tight weed growth. If you buy a cultivator made from aluminium, it will be lightweight and won’t rust. Choose one with an ergonomic handle for added comfort.
Weeding Knife
Often crafted from quality stainless steel for added strength and durability, the weeding knife is an essential piece of kit to manage those pesky weeds.
Not only can the blade of the knife get under weeds and rip them out by the roots, but the design is also perfect for removing weeds growing in cracks in the pavement or reaching underneath rocks. The sharpened blade slices through weeds and roots as required.
Angled Hand Weeding Tool
Choose one made from stainless steel with either a rubber or wooden handle that’s been shaped for a firm and comfortable grip.
The forked prongs on the business end, combined with the angled shape of the tool, make it ideal for levering out deep-seated tap roots and the like. It’s a small tool that provides a lot of leverage and makes light work of hard-to-remove weeds and their roots.
Hand Hoe Or Mattock
Hoes and mattocks are regularly used for breaking up hard, compacted earth to prepare the soil for planting. They can also be an invaluable tool when it comes to removing stubborn weeds or larger weeds with deeper root systems.
You can use a hoe or a mattock to dig around large weeds and unwanted plants, loosening up the soil around the roots and even smashing through thick roots if need be. If you want to get serious about removing weeds, you’ll want a hoe or mattock in your garden tool collection. They make easier work of harder tasks.
Hand Trowel
This is another multi-purpose gardening tool that comes in really useful for weeding gardens. You can purchase a hand trowel in a narrow form or a trowel with a wider blade.
The hand trowel, equipped with a comfortable handle, is handy for loosening the soil around smaller weeds and digging them up by the roots. When you master using this tool, you’ll find it’s perfect for the rapid removal of small weeds with shallow root systems.
If you buy one made from aluminium with a rubber handle, it’ll be easy to look after and also be comfortable to use for extended periods.
Bent Neck Sickle
A bent neck sickle comes with a long handle, usually made of wood, and has a short, bent blade on the end with a sharpened edge. Stainless steel blades outperform and suit weeding tasks designed for a bent neck sickle due to their enhanced robustness.
If you have a patch of weeds growing in a confined space or an area that’s hard to reach, the bent neck sickle is a gardener’s best friend.
Garden Spade Or Shovel
If you have big weeds growing on your property that you want to remove, you can dig them out with a garden spade or shovel. If the ground is hard, first loosen it using a mattock and then use the spade or shovel to dig in under the weed’s roots to lift it out of the ground.
The Wrap
There are a lot of different tools available that make light work of weeding gardens and removing even the most stubborn weeds. To make your gardening more fun, have some of these gardening tools in your tool shed.
Author bio: Mike Sharp is an Australian horticulturalist living in Northern NSW with a keen interest in bush regeneration and native plants. He has worked with Forestry Tools on multiple bush regeneration projects in recent years.
