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I love gardening. I hate weeding. Fortunately, I have a solution to my garden problems: a stirrup.
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I started gardening four years ago. Before that I was a gardener. I selfishly enjoyed summer evenings on my parents’ back porch, surrounded by the beautiful native perennial garden beds that my mother had lovingly arranged. Loud colors, enticing aromas and the enticing hum of wildlife provided a much-needed respite from my technological existence. But the idea of making such an effort to plant my own garden? Hard pass.
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Then the pandemic happened. I am miserable. The world was often miserable. I need something to pull me out of my funk. I am determined to transform the scorched hellscape of my 0.27 acre meadow into a biodiverse, pollinator-friendly haven designed to shelter and feed the butterflies, bees and birds that inhabit my region of the United States. In May 2020 I officially became a gardener.
It’s been removed, but it still looks wild (in a good way). The writer’s garden blooms with wild bergamot, anise hyssop and more. Photo: Sebastian Campagnucci
My mother arrived excitedly at my door with transplants from her own garden: a delightful array of North American native plants, including Golden Alexander (
Soon my garden became beautiful. And, thanks to some much-needed antidepressants (really), life is starting to look pretty, too. But then came the weeds. I never realized how much work goes into maintaining a garden. Everywhere I look, a project is looming. Chief among them: weeding.
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Dealing with weeds is no fun. It’s one of those almost daily gardening tasks that feels endless. Every time I turn around, something grows where it shouldn’t. Deceptively beautiful hedge bindweed is trying to choke the life out of my tender purple coneflower seedlings. English ivy creeps up quietly from neighboring properties. Legy crabgrass quickly forms aggressive colonies in my annual beds. And welcome to my garden, too, plants like black-eyed Susan and blue wood aster, self-seed every season.
In 2021 I am looking for a tool to make the weeding process more efficient (an attempt to make my old school mom roll her eyes). Although I have used hand weeders and cultivators in the past, these two options require a bit more work than I am willing to put in. They didn’t let me quickly remove large annual gardens full of weeds.
In late spring, this annual garden bed is filled with daisy fleabane, black-eyed Susan seedlings, and other various interlopers. Photo: Sebastian Campagnucci
But the stirrup ho (sold under a variety of names, including the scuffle ho, action ho, loop ho, and hula ho) is different. With an uncanny resemblance to a stirrup, its design and functionality are ingenious. The Craftsman Action Hoe, which I now use almost daily in the garden, has a durable yet lightweight 54-inch hardwood handle attached to a flat, steel blade head that swings back and forth slightly; A simple push and pull action ensures weed roots with minimal soil disturbance. The trapezoidal shape makes it easy to maneuver between plants for the most effective weeding without disturbing or (god forbid) injuring my precious garden.
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The stirrup hoe is much better than the hand weeders and cultivators that I used in the past because I can weed from a standing position, which reduces the stress on my body. This tool can be used for a variety of soil conditions, from my own dense clay soil to the lighter soil in my raised vegetable garden beds. And the ease of use allows me to weed a huge area with small to medium sized weeds at once (larger weeds require hand weeding or another tool entirely). After using the stirrup for a variety of weed-related needs, what was once a chore is actually…fun? And, even better, I can weed much faster than any previous method I’ve tried.
Since I work at Wirecutter, I can’t help but let my own anecdotal evidence speak for itself. I thought I would put together my own (vaguely scientific) experiment to prove that this new method was superior to anything I had tried in the past.
I planted a new Monarch Waystation, a 10-by-20-foot garden that features early-season to late-blooming flowers intended to support monarch butterflies at various stages of their life cycle, from birth to late summer. Southern migration. After biblical levels of rain this spring, weeds are close to conquering my new garden bed. So I did a test to compare the speed of weeding with a stirrup how versus manually pulling weeds. The garden bed is divided into two equal parts: one half is won with a hoe and the other by hand. I set the timer and started weeding. I aim for about 90% to 95% weed removal from each side.
My new Monarch Waystation is completely overgrown with weeds. On the right, I weed with a stirrup hoe. Left, my hands. Photo: Sebastian Campagnucci
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After weeding the left side of the garden bed with my hands. Almost the same results in half the time. Photo: Sebastian Campagnucci
I could weed a garden bed with a stirrup hoe in half the time of hand.
But the stirrup ho is just not fast! It made me less tired and more confident in killing weeds. My native soil is very compact and difficult to dig by hand, so with my fingers numb and tired from weeding I tried to dig deep into the ground to pull out the roots. Using a hand weeder tool can fix this, but I don’t believe it will ever save me since I have to manually remove each weed one by one.
It is also very efficient; 15 minutes of hand weeding makes my knees, arms and back wobble (yes, I could be in better shape). But with my beloved Stirrup Hoe I could weed my garden without bending over – just weed with the Stirrup Hoe and with a rake to collect the debris. A stirrup hoe is ideal for gardeners with limited mobility.
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Stirrup Hoo has significantly improved my life. This reduces weeding. Finally, I can enjoy my beautiful garden in peace, without the weeds that bind me… at least until they come again.
Sebastian Compagnucci is Wirecutter’s Senior Audience Development Manager, SEO. When he’s not chasing after his rambunctious toddler, he enjoys the quiet company of plants. He may have more photos of his plants on his phone than his family, but very few. His property was recently certified and registered as an official Monarch Waystation.
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