What Is a Garden Hoe?
Home gardeners and commercial gardeners alike use a set of essential tools to tend to their plants, including garden hoes. If you're a beginning gardener, a garden hoe may seem like a rather foreign instrument. Hoes have long been a part of human history and come in different designs suited to various gardening tasks. Does this Spark an idea?
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Earliest History
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No one knows when the hoe was invented or who invented it. However, hoes have been used as gardening tools since the earliest recorded history. Hoes featured in cave drawings show humans growing crops. These early hoes, dating to around 5,000 B.C., consisted of forked sticks used to loosen soil. These gave way to long sticks with animal antlers or shoulder blades as the hoe blade. Shells, such as clam shells, were also used as blade materials.
Declining and Resurging Popularity
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Tool manufacturers began fashioning garden hoe blades out of metals such as iron and steel around the 13th century. Their versatility led to the hoe being used by gardeners and farmers worldwide. During the mid-17th century, gardening experienced a boom in popularity, and with it, the hoe's popularity rose. The hoe's popularity declined, though, with advancing technology in agriculture around the early 20th century. They began to be replaced by machines that did the same job but required less effort. Home gardening died down some, and hoes became less popular. Recently, however, home gardening has experienced a revival. Home gardeners look to tried and true gardening methods to take care of their smaller gardens.
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Types of Hoes
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Hoes come in several different types, which differ in terms of the blade shape and function. A traditional hoe, known as a draw hoe, uses a wide blade to drag through the topsoil. The diamond scuffle hoe drags across soil in either a pushing or pulling motion. This type of hoe features a blade that resembles two triangles pressed together, giving it its other name, the wing hoe. Collinear hoes, also known as onion hoes, also work on rocky soil and feature a more narrow, sharpened blade. Dutch hoes have a shape similar to a triangle and rectangle combined with a sharpened edge. Stirrup hoes get their name from their saddle stirrup appearance. Gardening supply stores may sell stirrup hoes with shortened handles for hand-weeding.
Uses of Hoes
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The types of hoes perform different actions in gardens. For instance, collinear hoes work in a straight line and perform light weeding. Diamond scuffle hoes are appropriate for use on rocky or previously cultivated soil to dislodge weeds below the soil line. The draw hoe loosens weeds and can dig into the ground. Dutch hoes should be pushed rather than pulled across the soil and tend to be used for removing young weeds or for edging. Stirrup hoes allow for weed removal without damaging nearby desired plants.
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References
- Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center; Native American Herb and Vegetable Garden
- The Gardener's Rake; Garden History; The Hoe
- Chester County Dwell; A Brief History of Garden Tools
- University of Vermont Extension; Department of Plant and Soil Science: Which Hoe to Use
- Historic Camden County; 18th Century Gardening Tools; Sandy Levins; 2003
- "Garden Digest"; Gardening History Timeline: 1900-1999; Mike Garofalo; 2003
- Photo Credit garden tools on the grass image by Bartlomiej Nowak from Fotolia.com
