CULT: Disabled gardners


A few tools I have found useful--and less stress on lower back 
muscles--:

"Dutch Hoe"--has a handle like a hoe, but the tool at the end is a 
band of steel sharp on both sides shaped rather like a "D" with the 
handle at the top of the curve. The blade sits flat on the ground, 
the user can push or pull.  I find this much faster than a hoe, safer 
on plants, great on small weeds.

"Cultivator"  shaped like a four-tined fork, but only the same width 
as a hoe, tines bent downward.  This is great for loosening soil, and 
is perfect for grassy weeds.  Small broad-leaf weeds with a tap root 
sometimes need a little extra, and I roll the cultivator over on its 
side to drag the rooted weed out of the loosened ground.  This 
cultivator, if it snags and loosens an iris root (true root--not the 
rhizome) it doesn't cut it like a hoe would.  I just cover it back 
up.  There are short handled versions of this too, but I'm referring 
to the long-handled one, used like a hoe but easier.  I don't chop--
just drag it back and forth.

"Scuffle Hoe"  Made like a hoe, but the blade is pointed forward, not 
bent back-- shaped like   \_  so it is used by pushing.  This is 
particularly useful in getting out weeds growing in gravelled paths 
or parking areas not packed too tightly.  Just push along under 
the surface.  It works in gardens too.  I kept the one I used to have 
(can't find a source currently) as sharp as I could--slips through 
roots of weeds like knife through hot butter.

The only thing better than above for weed control is a two to four 
inch mulch of seed-free material.  But that's a no-no with bearded 
iris, or so most people think.  Depends how much of the much you get 
up around the rhizomes.  Iris roots love to grow under a mulch if the 
rhizome isn't suffocating or sweating under a blanket.

Neil Mogensen zone 7a near Asheville, NC


 

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