I’ll bet there’s an old hoe leaning against a wall in the corner of your tool shed or garage. A hoe that hasn’t been used in a long, long time and may have been replaced by a petrol or electric tiller, chemical weed killer, or mulching.
Chopping is not exactly fashionable these days, perhaps because it seems to require what Charles Dudley Warner said in his 19th century classic “My Summer in the Garden” that every gardener should have: “an iron back with a hinge in it “.
But, believe it or not, chopping is an easy and safe way to control weeds. Perhaps even easier than many of the “labor-saving” methods it has replaced.
The reason for hoes, rototillers, weed killers, and mulch is twofold: first, to keep weeds at bay, and second, to keep the soil surface loose so rain can penetrate rather than slide over the surface.
Chemical weed killers, which ultimately provide an open field for resistant weeds, also do nothing to keep the soil surface loose. Straw, leaves and other organic mulches keep the soil surface loose and suffocate weeds, but only if they are kept in a sufficiently thick layer.
Motorized cultivators break up weeds and loosen the soil, but in the process they burn organic material, destroy the soil structure, destroy earthworms and beneficial insects and damage the roots.
Chopping can have the same effects as power plowing, but it would take more energy than most gardeners to make up for the damage. Used correctly, a hoe does little damage.
TIME SAVING
Chopping is easy and does not require anything other than grasping the handle of the hoe. Compared to the time and effort involved in applying weedkillers (mixing, putting on protective clothing, spraying, then cleaning the sprayer), starting a stubborn tiller motor or hauling mulch.
(Nothing against mulching; a thick layer of straw or compost covering the soil has many benefits. You just can’t chop AND mulch to control weeds; it’s one way or the other unless the mulch is one fine material such as sawdust material or well-rotted compost.)
You may have an aversion to hoeing because you used the wrong type of hoe or caused the weeds between hoes to grow too big. Never wait to see large weeds before grabbing your hoe. Instead, chop the soil every week or two and as soon as the soil crust begins to dry out, after each rain. In this way, weed seedlings are killed before they have a firm footing.
When weeds grow rampant, the only type of hoe that kills them is a standard large-bladed garden hoe that is used with an uncomfortable hoeing movement. This hoe is useful for chopping potatoes or mixing concrete.
RIGHT HOE, RIGHT WAY
For cultivating loose and weed-free soils, hoes with knives that run parallel to the surface, such as the different types of hoes (or “Dutch”) hoes, the hula hoe, the colineal hoe and the gooseneck hoe, are best suited. These hoes don’t cause undue root damage as, when used correctly, they slide along and loosen the soil from just a quarter of an inch or so below the surface.
My flower garden is in variously shaped mulch beds, but the vegetable beds are in long, straight rows where the soil is mulched with well-rotted compost. I hoe these beds with my favorite hoes, either a winged weeder or a wire weeder. The winged weed killer has a V-head shaped blade that resembles an airplane wing. The wings are sharpened front and back and are parallel to the ground as I hold the hoe handle. The wire weeder has a cleverly bent thin but strong wire that is useful for hoeing between small plants.
I use one of the two hoes by walking backwards and moving my arms in the same gentle motion that I use when sponge wiping the kitchen floor. Walking backwards is important to avoid stepping on chopped ground, where any footprint would be a solid bed of weed seeds.
The cut earth flows over the blade and then falls back with each push and pull of the handle. About once a week it only takes a few pleasant minutes to keep the soil free of weeds and the surface loose. And you don’t need an iron with a hinge in it!
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