[TTG]

What are the different types of hoes for and if you only have one which is best for allotment growing? I've seen ones with the bent over end sothe blade is pointing down, but I have only ever used the ones where the blade is almost in line with the handle with a hole behind the cutting blade kind of "D-shaped". It is used either way up to cut along the ground jusst below the surface or to till the ground up a bit the other way around with a more vertical action. The other has a solid blade bent over so it kind of works, I guess, with a drawing action rather than the chopping action.

I just wondered about the relative merits of hoes and their uses. I will only get one so which is best overall?

[gypsy]

the hoe with the bent over blade is called a draw hoe I think, it can be used for drawing stuff towards you or I also use mine for breaking big clods of soil after it has been dug over, then I use the other hoe that you describe, like a D shape to break the soil into a fine tilth.

[noshed]

I've got the D shaped one for most things but I also use an onion hoe, which is a small draw hoe. Good for small spaces.

[TTG]

Thanks for that. These might seem like stupid questions but its how we learn. You see a lot of subsistence farming communities using draw hoes and I just wondered why. I read on a very good tool suppliers / manufacturer's website once that the draw hoe, in its various forms, is a very good general tool. They implied that it could in some weights be used like a small spade and that it is used the world over. I'll stick to my nice shiny stainless steel spade my parents bought me for Christmas. Its a spear and jackson I think. got a dark stained wooden split handle, part of the heritage range I think. Goes with my Dad's old fork (once he straightened the tines) that is probably older than I am. He kept his Dad's tools and I got the odd one of his. An old Dutch hoe I think its called (the d shaped one).

[BostonInbred]

Damn, i though this was a thread about american street girls..........

[Slowgrind]

TTG Does this help? http://www.hoecollection.blogspot.com/2006/06/entire-hoe-collection.html 

[Kristen]

You see a lot of subsistence farming communities using draw hoes and I just wondered why.

Me too! The pointy-corner of a draw hoe is good for digging weeds out, but to loosen the soil it seems to me that one has to work forwards ... and then walk on the bit just cultivated

I'll stick to my nice shiny stainless steel spade

I used to only use stainless steel spade as we have clay soil, and it didn't stick to stainless-steel much. But I bust it - they are more brittle than mild-steel ones - so now I use a mild-steel spade and carry a flat wallpaper-scraper in my back pocket to clen the clay off every few minutes. Much easier to bang into the ground with by booted-foot than the stainless one - sharper leading edge.

I like the Wilkinson Sword Stainless Steel Swoe - strangely missing from the magnificent gallery of pictures in the earlier link!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wilkinson-Sword-Stainless-Steel-Swoe/dp/B000297U3Y

Pointy-end of levering weeds out, and works with a push/pull action to open up the soil, and can reach around the back of plants - and can work backwards so as not to walk on the area already done.

[goodegg]

i think the swoe is the best if your only getting one you can weed close to plants use it for making drills for planting it very good

[LollyPoppy]

Hi there.

I know this thread has been quiet for a few weeks but I just had to add my tuppence worth. I've just got a speedhoe by Haxnicks and in my opinion it's the best thing since dead weeds . I'm very new to allotments and the centre of our plot really needed weeding as I hadn't been able to get there for a while. My husband has been unwell for a few weeks and as I'm having to work on the plot largely on my own thought I might give this hoe a go. It really is the bees knees. I find it much easier to use than a conventional hoe and without the usual jarring at my shoulder.

[Kristen]

Their video looks interesting ...
http://www.haxnicks.co.uk/Garden/Speedhoe/

... I also wonder about a Sprake - from the Spork (Spade+Fork) people
http://www.sporkgardentools.com/shop/sporks/sprake