The rain was lovely

[msts_eirene]

After two days of rain, I now have very happy gardens. Especially the weeds. Being a person who loathes weeding, I have a couple of very cool implements for such. They'll get put to good use this evening when it dries out a bit

Comments

[arwensouth]

I will happily volunteer to take a foxglove off your hands! And I'll go test that link later....

[arwensouth]

The link works now!

[arwensouth]

p.s. Please describe your nifty weeding implements -- those of us who likewise despise weeding are justifiably curious!

[lady_corbin]

http://doitbest.com/Hoes-Ames+Co.-model-1840900-doitbest-sku-701761.dib

This is a 2-prong weeding hoe. The prongs cut under the weeds and lift them out of their comfy little beds. It's for larger spaces, and I can't use it in places where I've got seeper hoses under the soil. For those places I use a hand tool (for which I can't find a picture) which consists of an "L" shaped blade attached to the wooden handle. The bottom of the "L" is flattened into a lead shape, and the inside edge is sharpened. Not knife sharp, but sharp enough to cut the weeds off just below the soil's surface.

My camera's not wanting to xfer pictures to the laptop this morning, or I'd take a picture.

[arwensouth]

I definitely need one of those weeding hoes. One of the things I'm finding is that pretty much no matter where I dig around here, there's a serious mat of roots just under the surface. I think this would let me get under that and yank them out of the way.

Either that, or I need one of these:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100051614&N=10000003+90401+502411

The other thing I've seen that might be handy is one of these, only with a long handle:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=56763-76362-18001204&lpage=none

[lady_corbin]

I have a garden weasel, if you want to try before you buy. I don't find it very useful for weeding, but it's good for stirring up the compost pile. It's also good for turning up soil in already-prepared beds. But it's too large to be an effective weeder.

The second implement I have a hard time with because it requires you to push it into the soil to use it, and there's nothing to help with leverage. The palm of my hand would get sore. Or my back with the longer handle. I prefer being able to pull things to make them work.