Weeding isn’t easy, but with the right tools you can make quicker progress and avoid aches and pains. Good tools also help ensure you pull the entire root, which is important in making sure the weeds don’t grow back. Weeding tools are essential if you don’t want to spray herbicides in your yard and garden, and they’re just as effective—if not more so—and not to mention safer.

Weeding tools come in two basic styles, short handled and long handled, and many different designs. Use short-handled tools for working on your knees in small, closely planted areas. Use long-handled tools as you walk through larger areas.

Short-handled weeding tools

• Cape Cod weeder: has a narrow hooked blade that fits into tight spaces
• asparagus knife: has a long narrow blade with a v-shaped tip for prying up individual weeds, especially in the lawn or groundcovers
• trowel: handheld shallow shovel with either a wide or narrow blade that can lift weeds from under their roots without disturbing other plants
• hori-hori knife: sharp-bladed knife originally used by bonsai enthusiasts in Japan to collect specimens from stony mountain soil. Also useful for transplanting, digging and pruning.   
• onion hoe (hand hoe, rock garden hoe): a short-handled version of a draw hoe. Used for precision weeding between closely grown plants. 

Long-handled weeding tools

• stirrup hoe (Dutch hoe, scuffle hoe): has a stirrup-like head that is sharp on both edges. It cuts weeding time because it works in a push-pull motion, covering a lot of ground quickly.
• draw hoe: has a sharp-edged rectangular head that uproots and chops weeds as the gardener pulls it toward him
• collinear hoe: has a long and narrow rectangular blade that sweeps the soil, something like a razor balde.
• Cobrahead
• Weed Hound
• Fiskars UpRoot

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