Figure 1 - Fulcrum garden weeding tool
Everybody knows that weeds rob plants of necessary nutrients and moisture and may attract insects and bacterial infections that would affect the garden plants. At this stage, it is time to do some weeding and get rid of all the excess and unneeded plant life. A garden that is weeded is also attractive and walking about is much easier. A number of garden tools are available that can make weeding both an easy and an enjoyable activity.
A garden fork or a digging fork is one of these garden weed removal tools. The tool has short tines that are used for loosening and turning soil. The garden fork is pushed into ground and rakes out weeds and small stones along the way.
One advantage of this too is that is removes weeds without cutting their roots. By uprooting the weeds, the weeds are unlikely to sprout again as opposed to cutting their shoots.
To weed amongst other plants, the border fork is used which has thinner times with short closer-spaced tines. The fulcrum weeder, as shown in Figure 1, has a long thin handle and a split tip. This weed is very effective in removing weeds like dandelion which has taproots. It is also effective in removing fibrous roots of weeds like ferns and marigold.
The Cape Cod weeder has a scraping head, triangular in shape and is also used in weeding activities. The crack weeder similar to the cape code weeder is designed to go into crevices, narrow spaces, deep sections and on stone walls and take out those annoying weeds hiding in these locations. The L-shaped blade is very effective since it is able to scrape the bottom parallel to the ground.
Cultivators are large machines used to plant or remove weeds while aerating the soil soon after the crops have sprouted. Closely related to the cultivator is the harrow tool. This garden tool is effective in cultivating the soil surface. This garden tool is actually a set of discs. The garden tool is very effective on land that has had previous been ploughed and was in need to have soil lumps broken up to give a fine tile and soil finish. Hoes are also used to chop weeds while at the same time dig and pile soil on plant bases.
At the same time they can be used to create shallow trenches for planting bulbs and seeds. All these activities can be performed simultaneously with the help of a hoe. A mattock can also double as a hoe and serve the same weed removal work.
The kirpi is another garden weeding tool with a curved blade and a wooden handle. It is effective in removing tough roots and for raking out roots deep in the ground. There are many other tools used in weeding operations and their applications depend largely on the size of the garden and the level of weed removal required.