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I bought a house with beautiful landscaping: small flowerbeds and decorative shrubs and trees, tucked away in various corners of a hilly, rocky lot. The flower beds are very densely planted.

There are a lot of hand-hoes, cultivators and weeders out there - japanese nejiri gama, dutch hoe, korean ho-mi, Cape Cod weeders, three-prong claws of numerous styles, aluminum traditional hand-hoes/cultivator, asparagus knife - does anyone have any experience with the different types, and can offer a comparison?

RI Swamp Yankee
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    depends on what your soil is like and what kind of weeds you are battling... for instance the 3-prong claw is worthless against hard dry clay soil... but it makes an appearance as a weapon in "Enter the Dragon" covered in fur, as a "Bear Claw" style prosthesis. – Grady Player Jun 08 '12 at 14:02
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    @Grady Player: New England top-soil. It's been well sifted and covered with mulch, tho the mulch is pretty threadbare (hence the weeder - gonna attack the weeds and re-mulch.) Weeds are mostly small leafy green things, with the occasional thistle and dandelion (which I've got a Hori-Hori for.) – RI Swamp Yankee Jun 08 '12 at 15:05
  • maybe one of those things that looks like a sharp chipping wedge, so you can undercut them while standing up... undercutting usually good enough for small weeds. – Grady Player Jun 08 '12 at 16:39

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I have something similar to this:

http://www.amazon.com/DeWit-Dutch-Cape-Cod-Weeder/dp/B001P55DG0

These things are great for annual weeds, especially the Japanese Stilt Grass that is afflicting this part of North Carolina.

ncmathsadist
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  • I wound up with the Red Pig Tools Cape Cod weeder. ( http://www.redpigtools.com/servlet/the-32/Cape-Cod-Weeder-Rt/Detail ) It is insanely useful, a true "multi-tasker" that sees more use as a cultivator, hoe and digging tool than it does as a weeder. Especially for pebbly, tough New England soil, it beats the heck out of claw-style cultivators and trowels for breaking up and moving around dirt. – RI Swamp Yankee May 21 '14 at 12:34