How to Operate a Portable Garden Hoe

The portable garden hoe is on of the most indispensable tools a gardener has. There are various types, which serve better for some jobs than others, but most everyone is familiar with the common garden hoe. Do learn about the different types. Garden hoes are excellent hand tools that have been used for thousands of years!

• Choose the right hoe for the job. There are many garden hoes you can purchase so make sure you pick the one that is most comfortable for you.


• Hold the garden hoe so that it is at a comfortable angle and height for you. This varies for the particular task and person due to variances in people's height.


• Avoid working bent over; you will strain your back. That is a common complaint when working in the garden.


• Grip the hoe with one hand down the shaft and the other at the very end for working. If your hoe is one for pushing and pulling, such as the Dutch hoe, a grip at the end helps push while the lower hand helps pull.


• Work the hoe for the task. If you are taking out new weed seedlings or working manure into the surface of the soil with a stirrup hoe, push and pull the blade portion down and into the soil far enough to cut off the weeds' roots and mix in manure.


• Hill up soil, such as around potatoes, with a common garden hoe by gripping the shaft where it is comfortable for you to grab onto dirt and pull it toward yourself. The bigger head on this hoe is right for moving soil into place quickly.


• Dig shallow or deep trenches for seeds and bulbs with the Heart hoe. This has a triangular-shaped head just right for making planting trenches and can be drug behind you.


• Cultivate or loosen up hardened soil to knock down weeds and aerate soil with a hoe and two-prong rake combination. The pronged end is right for chopping into soil, lifting and loosening it while the other end works as a good chopper.