I will let the Gardner know to go back using the hoe.
Using the hoe as a method of uprooting weeds and unwanted plants is great for some plants, not so effective with others. You ever try to get rid of Blackberry Bushes without using a herbicide? It’s not easy.
Blackberry bushes are invasive, aggressive, prolific and annoyingly hardy. It can be like fighting an Octopus, one with thorn covered tentacles.
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.
1/4 the effort to hoe a day after it rains than when it is bone dry.
The only use I’ve had for a hoe is to deal with a snake in the cellar. But... At my age, I’m NOT going to go to the cellar anymore. If mother nature comes and blows me away, so be it! I’m well past the days to worry about it. As for gardening... anything you try to grow around here will be eat up by critters before you get to it.
Then article this brought back to mind the the time when we were very young and hoeing Dad's new garden next to the slop yard, not the other garden that was almost the size of a football field in the pasture in front of the house, but a smaller one just to take advantage of the different soil. So, we were hoeing with both of us very annoyed at being child labor and got into a salient cussed match about hoeing territory. All of a sudden, I came down right on the top of my brother's head with my hoe. I don't even remember what happened after that, but I bet it wasn't a good thing for me and I bet I got my little brother out of a little work for the rest of the day. &nbswp; It's what family legends are made of.
Yes, I've got a hoe now, but it slips in the ferrule and I don't think much of it.
We have ghettos full of thousands upon thousands of unemployed young men. We could employ them in a national back-to-nature program in the fields hoeing corn and chopping cotton. This would provide them with gainful employment and be beneficial to Mother Gaia!
They'd have fresh air, sunshine, no chemicals, and a healthful 100% natural workout. And don't forget free room and board and pocket money for Newports, Nabs, and Saturday night 40s. What's not to like?
Bros before Hoes.
The Associated Press can KMA. Why don’t they worry about all the herbicides being used in all these thousands of acres of cropland being converted into SOLAR PANEL FIELDS that are springing up everywhere?
Anyone that has ever let a field go and not mow it knows how fast it will grow up in weeds, bushes and trees. If STRONG plant killers are not used those solar panels would be destroyed in short order.
If no one is worried about all that weed killer getting into the soil and water I am certainly not going to worry about what weed killer I spray around.
“WEED, SHRUB & TREE MAINTENANCE Left alone without cultivation and management, farmlands will progress from a mixture of weeds to small shrubs and eventually forest. Thus, weed, shrub and small tree maintenance must be considered. Either the landowner will need to provide for this effort or contract these tasks with a service provider. As a landowner, applying a non-restricted use herbicide does not require a license for pesticide applications to manage the lands. However, many of the shrubs and small trees are not easily controlled by these general herbicides. Thus a license to purchase and use a restricted use herbicide may be necessary. Currently, this license can be obtained by passing an exam provided by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA & CS) Pesticide Division. This license will require attending four hours of training in a three-year time period and a small fee to maintain this license. For more information pertaining to licensing, visit the web site NCDA & CS Pesticide Division.”
Read more at: https://craven.ces.ncsu.edu/considerations-for-transferring-agricultural-land-to-solar-panel-energy-production/
an old hoe is leaning against a wall.
They can get arrested for that around here...
Using one always costs money.
No. I left that hoe and I’m never going back.
Now what was this thread about? Oh, yeah. Weeds. Can anyone recommend an effective gardening tool?
My wife wanted one of the Mantis tillers and I found one at an auction for 2 bucks. Put on a new carb and gas tank and now it runs like new and is the perfect tool for weeding a garden.
She has not run it yet, may not but I’m glad I have it.
I also have several “Scobie hoes.” Buy one of those and you never have to replace it. If you arent familiar with those, they are the kind that convicts in the old movies used to be given to work the fields with.
This year I’m trying the cardboard groundcover strategy in my raised beds as an experiment. Last summer I gathered cardboard boxes - with the lockdown going on and getting stuff shipped to me that was easy.
In the fall when the garden went fallow I turned over the soil and then covered it with the cardboard. This spring, instead of having an intensive session of hoeing and weeding to prep the plot for planting I was able to go straight to planting by poking holes where I wanted my starts to go.
I still have some weeding to do - mostly along the seams between the pieces of cardboard. But there has been 1/10th the amount of effort as in past years. The cardboard is isolating my veggies from the weeds and concentrating the water I give them.
The cardboard also breaks down naturally. Just don’t use stuff that has a lot of slick graphics and remove stuff like shipping labels. This fall I’ll strip the old cardboard off, turn and amend the soil, and lay down new cover.
Next a mule and a plow - fertilize as you garden; later when you sell you produce, you can get a white slave at the market to do the hard work.
Chemical weed killers, which eventually provide an open field to weeds that are resistant to them
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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
My grandmothers garden hoe had worn down to a nub when she quit gardening. No bigger than a spatula. I bet it had hoe’d hundreds of row miles of garden.
I just ordered a three-cornered hoe recently. Had one on our place as a child. They are hard to find.
Ping!
He hasn't met my garden soil yet.
When it rains, it's mud.
When it dries out, it's concrete.
Try hoeing in either one of those situations.
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.