The stirrup hoe has made my life substantially better. It makes weeding suck less. And finally, I can enjoy my beautiful garden in peace, free from the weeds that bound me… at least until they come back again.

You don’t always need pricey grow lights to start seeds indoors. Here’s how I use shop lights to get my seedlings garden-ready for much less money.

Sebastian Compagnucci is deputy audience director. He occasionally covers gardening when he needs an excuse to be outside.

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It's also far more ergonomic; 15 minutes of hand weeding left my knees, hands, and back throbbing (yes, I could be in better shape). But with my beloved stirrup hoe, I was able to weed my garden without crouching down at all—weeding with the stirrup hoe and using a rake to collect the debris. The stirrup hoe would be ideal for gardeners with limited mobility.

But the stirrup hoe wasn’t just faster! It also made me less tired and more confident in the destruction of the weeds. My native soil is very compact and tough to dig into by hand, so weeding left my fingers crampy and fatigued as I tried to dig deeply into the soil to extract the roots. This likely could have been solved by using a hand weeder tool, but I don’t believe it would have saved me any time since I would have still needed to manually remove each weed individually.

These standard length Titanium Coated Drill Bits are easy to use for cutting into wood or metal thin plate or hollow section – and the Titanium Coating just increases their durability.

Each tool produces a clean chamfered hole in the material. Can be used on plate, bar, tube, or box section. Cutting fluid or drill lubricant is recommended (the type of fluid depends on the material being machined). As with all machining, it is best to go slow, keep the tool cool, and use LOTS of lubricant. They are industry fabrication quality and IMHO – one of the best hand tools around

But the stirrup hoe (which is sold under a variety of names, including scuffle hoe, action hoe, loop hoe, and hula hoe) is different. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to, well, a stirrup, its design and functionality are very clever. The Craftsman Action Hoe, which I now use on an almost-daily basis in the garden, has a durable yet lightweight 54-inch hardwood handle attached to a flat, steel blade-head that slightly oscillates back and forth; a simple push and pull action severs weed roots with minimal soil disturbance. Its trapezoidal shape allows for easy maneuvering between plants for highly effective weeding without disrupting or (god forbid) injuring my precious garden.

In 2021, I sought a tool to make the process of weeding more efficient (an endeavor that in concept would likely make my old-school mother roll her eyes). Although I’ve used hand weeders and cultivators in the past, both of these options still required quite a bit more work than I was looking to put in. They also didn’t allow me to clear large annual garden beds of weeds quickly.

Application: Choose a clean dry surface and mark your intended spot. We recommend that you mark or center punch the material to prevent any ‘wandering’. Apply lubricant if necessary, and with your 4mm extra long drill bit located in your variable speed reversing drill – simply drill your hole. Will perform and outlast normal HSS bits particularly if drilling tough metals

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I planted a new Monarch Waystation, a 10-by-20-feet garden consisting of a variety of early-to-late-season blooming flowers meant to support Monarch butterflies through various stages of their life cycle, from birth to their late-summer migration south. After biblical levels of rain this spring, weeds were close to conquering my new garden bed. So I orchestrated a test to compare the speed of weeding with the stirrup hoe against pulling the weeds manually. The garden bed was split in two equal parts: one half to be weeded by the hoe and the other by hand. I set a timer and got to weeding. I aimed for roughly 90% to 95% weed removal from each side.

Because I work at Wirecutter, I couldn’t just let my own anecdotal evidence speak for itself. I felt compelled to put together my own (vaguely scientific) experiment to prove this new method is far superior to what I’ve tried in the past.

TiN (Titanium Nitride) increases the strength of the steel and makes it more heat-resistant; this is an important factor in drilling hard materials because the friction of metal against metal can produce high temperatures that damage the material or the drill bit.

My mother arrived enthusiastically at my doorstep with transplants from her own garden: a delightful array of North American native plants, including Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea), Bee Balm (Monarda spp.), Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), and Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis).

I started gardening just about four years ago. Before then, I was a garden mooch. I selfishly enjoyed lazy summer evenings on my parents’ back porch, surrounded by stunning native perennial garden beds lovingly established by my mother. The vibrant colors, alluring fragrance, and charming hustle and bustle of wildlife offered a much-needed reprieve from my otherwise technology-fueled existence. But the thought of exerting such effort to plant a garden of my own? Hard pass.

Sebastian Compagnucci is Wirecutter’s senior audience development manager, SEO. When he’s not chasing around his rambunctious toddler, he enjoys the quiet company of plants. He might have more pictures of his plants than of his family on his phone, but just barely. His property was recently certified and registered as an official Monarch Waystation.

Drill Bit Standard HSS Titanium Coated Bits are easy to use for cutting into wood or metal thin plate or hollow section – and they are Titanium Coated for a long life!

Then the pandemic happened. I was miserable. The world was often miserable. I needed something to pull me out of my funk. I became determined to convert the charred hellscape that was my 0.27-acre turf lot into a biodiverse, pollinator-friendly paradise designed to shelter and feed butterflies, bees, and birds native to my region of the United States. In May 2020, I officially became a gardener.

Please understand that failure to use lubricant and or drilling fast can radically reduce the life of the 4mm extra long drill as a dull or burnt tip on the drill tap pretty much destroys the tool.. Injecting cold water while working, can effectively extend the service life of the drill bit.

Soon, my garden was beautiful. And, thanks in no small part to some much-needed antidepressants (really), life started to feel beautiful too. But then came the weeds. I never realized how much work is involved in the ongoing maintenance of a garden. Everywhere I look, a project looms. Chief among them: weeding.

Dealing with weeds is not fun. It’s one of those near-daily gardening tasks that feels endless. Every time I turn around, something is growing where it shouldn’t be. A deceptively beautiful Hedge Bindweed attempts to strangle the life out of my delicate purple Coneflower seedlings. English ivy silently creeps over from neighboring properties. Leggy crabgrass quickly forms aggressive colonies in my annual beds. And even welcome plants in my garden, like Black-Eyed Susan and Blue Wood Aster, self-sow readily each season.

The stirrup hoe is so much better than the hand weeders and cultivators I’ve used in the past because I can weed from a standing position that reduces the strain on my body. The tool can be leveraged for a variety of soil conditions, from my own dense clay soil to the more lightweight soil in my raised vegetable garden beds. And the ease of use allows me to weed an immense amount of surface area containing small- to medium-size weeds at one time (large weeds require hand weeding or a different tool altogether). After I used the stirrup hoe for a variety of weed-related needs, I realized the once-tedious task could actually be … fun? And, even better, I could weed significantly faster than with previous methods I’ve tried.