Using a Hoe in the Organic Garden
An Essential Gardening Tool for Soil Prep and Weed Control
Every organic gardener needs a quality garden hoe to make yard work easier.
Buying a Hoe
Regardless of the type of hoe you choose, buy a hoe with a hardwood handle and a hand-forged steel blade for durability. Ash is one hardwood that can withstand the elements if you forget it outside. The handle must be smooth, but avoid hoes with lacquered handles, which can become slippery when damp. Choose a hoe with a handle long enough to prevent excessive stooping.
A draw hoe is the tool most gardeners think of as a conventional hoe. The blade is four to six inches wide, enabling it to slice weeds at soil level or engage in light hilling and cultivation tasks.
If your soil is well cultivated, consider a Dutch hoe to slice weeds beneath the surface. The Dutch hoe is also called a push hoe, because gardeners accomplish the weeding work by pushing, rather than by pulling as with the draw hoe.
You can buy an ergonomic hoe with a swan neck at the base, which holds the blade in a flat position while the handle is at an angled position. This draws the working end of the hoe across the ground without the need for user to adjust his posture.
A loop hoe is useful for weeding in narrow locations or between closely spaced plants. The open design of a loop eliminates the blind spot behind the blade that can cause a gardener to cut into a garden plant accidentally.
When to Use a Hoe
If a gardener complains that hoeing is hard work that may be because he has waited until the weeds are too mature to surrender to the hoe’s blade. The hoe shines when used as a garden tool to slice young, tender weeds in the organic garden. It doesn’t matter that the spindly root remains below the soil, because the plant isn’t vigorous enough to put forth new growth from that root at this stage.
Use the hoe to create the small hills used in the garden for planting crops that require soil mounds for maximum production, such as potatoes and pumpkins. You can also use your hoe to mound soil around vegetables that need blanching, such as leeks.
Use the hoe as a compost helper to chop coarse vegetation and turn the heap.
When to Avoid Hoeing
If your garden is experiencing below average rainfall or drought conditions, combat weeds with a 3-inch layer of organic mulch or compost. Excessive soil cultivation in drought conditions furthers moisture loss by increasing evaporation. When the meteorologist forecasts rain, you can then hoe to chop up the crust that covers the topsoil, to prevent rainwater from running off.
Use an alternative to hoeing to remove weeds that reproduce readily from small cuttings, such as mint or purslane. Using a hoe to remove mint is akin to the story of fishermen cutting the arms off starfish and throwing them back into the sea, where each arm generates a new starfish. You must employ hand pulling or horticultural vinegar to combat these plants.
