Posted on 06/15/2021 10:27:55 PM PDT by Olog-hai
I’ll bet that in some corner of your toolshed or garage, an old hoe is leaning against a wall. A hoe that hasn’t seen use in a long, long time, having been replaced by, perhaps, a gasoline- or electric-powered tiller, chemical weed killers, or mulches.
Hoeing is not much in vogue these days, perhaps because it seems to require what Charles Dudley Warner, in his 19th century classic “My Summer in the Garden,” said every gardener should have: “an iron back with a hinge in it.”
But hoeing is, believe it or not, an easy, safe way to control weeds. Maybe even easier than many of the “labor-saving” methods that have supplanted it.
The reason for hoes, rototillers, weed killers, and mulches are two-fold: first, to keep weeds in check, and second, to keep the soil surface loose so rain can percolate in rather than skitter away across the surface.
Chemical weed killers, which eventually provide an open field to weeds that are resistant to them, also do nothing to keep the soil surface loose. Straw, leaves, and other organic mulches keep the soil surface loose and smother weeds, but only if maintained in a thick enough layer.
Powered cultivators chop up weeds and loosen the soil, but in so doing burn up organic matter, ruin soil structure, disrupt earthworms and beneficial fungi, and damage roots. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I lay down cardboard.
Whenever we get packages, I strip off the tape and break up the boxes and lay them in the garden on the walkways.
They eventually breakdown and condition the soil, too.
Q VC
“I was just reading about using salt and vinegar to kill weeds - dissolve a cup of salt in a gallon of white vinegar, add a tbsp of dish washing soap and spray on the weeds.”
I just made a batch this past weekend.
Gallon vinegar, cup Epsom salt, 1/2 cup of dove dws.
It works.
We have a long hoe.....................................in the WH.................
Looks like it would be kind of awkward to use in pots.
That is interesting looking, would have to have a long handle as my bending over is limited. Our soil is in such good shape, but I can see where that sharp point could come in handy. What I have is working great just need to keep at it every few days. Diana, looked up your Korean hoe and found this - https://qz.com/quartzy/1594086/the-traditional-korean-homi-is-a-tool-every-gardener-should-own/
Last week I removed my hoe from the tool shed and sharpened the edge. It effectively eliminated the plants trying to grow around my experimental potatoes.
The sharp edge of the hoe effectively chops off unwanted vegetation
A weed is vegetation growing in an undesirable location.
looks Lethal!
...and for the leaf blower crowed, I use a rake. Most times faster/better and always quieter.
Weed killer is to a hoe as Kamala is to a street walker.
Let liberals use sticks. A hoe uses iron which was mined using technology.
— If 46% Glyphosate at 3 oz gal does not work, then up it to 6. Even 12 if it is 60deg or below. Be sure to include a dollop of surfactant to make it stick and not wash off in the rain.
For weeds with slippery surfaces like cattail or are resistant (sort of yellow up after spraying but do not die) add an equal amount of Mecamine with the Glyphosate
I go medieval on stubborn weeds. A cocktail of glyphosate and 2-4-D, using diesel fuel rather than water as the diluting agent (also servers as surfactant), will burn most any weed all the way to the ground. It's also effective on woody brush, sprouts, multiflora rose, and other undesirable types of scrub.
Obviously such a concoction is not something that you would want to use on your kitchen garden or around your fish pond, but it works great for fencerows, around out-buildings, etc.
Cool looking tool. It’s called a HoMi if one wants to search the Internet.
Here is a hand hoe I like. Available through Walmart supplier.
If you look a the blade you can see where they forged a hard carbon steel edge on the soft steel body. It uses a beechwood handle. I have one. You can run it under the ground and cut weeds off, or use the pointed edge to work carefully around your plants. I have a Warren hoe If I am standing. I would look at the pictured hoe If I moved to someplace where I have more than a 10 foot run of plants to weed!
I go medieval on stubborn weeds. A cocktail of glyphosate and 2-4-D, using diesel fuel rather than water as the diluting agent (also servers as surfactant), will burn most any weed all the way to the ground. It’s also effective on woody brush, sprouts, multiflora rose, and other undesirable types of scrub.
—
2-4-D is Mecamine.
Mecamine or 2-4-D is effective against everything, except grass.
Glyphosate kills everything.
Diesel fuel takes about 3 weeks to breakdown in the soil and is harmful to surrounding plants, beneficial insects, and shrubs. Which is why most commercial sprayers use water, and because water is cheaper than diesel fuel - the use of which is illegal in most states.
Real surfactants are harmless to people, plants, insects, and animals - unlike diesel - and are water fast within 15 minutes, sealing in the herbicides, preventing harm to people and animals in the area, again unlike diesel.
When spraying herbicides, you only want to kill the targeted species not harm soil organisms, beneficial insects like bees and mantises, as well other crops, shrubs, bushes, animals and people.
Above all, whatever product you are using READ THE LABEL!!! Not doing so risks killing beneficial things like bees - its failure to read and heed labels which is responsible for all bee deaths otherwise and erroneously attributed to glyphosate.
Looks Bonsai like...........
Nice-looking tool, I’ll have to get one. I wouldn’t be without my hula hula either. I don’t know if that’s just a California tool oh, cuz I brought it with me from Bakersfield. Super handy for weeding. You can cut into the soil, dismembering the roots
When I spray this stuff I mean for everything that it touches to die.
So feel free to spare me your lectures.
There are other people on this forum that might follow your ideas and kill things they do not want dead.
I was just explaining the proper and responsible way to go about spraying herbicides for others.
If its scorched earth you want, find some old supply of Chlordane as it kills everything including soil bacteria.
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