Another sister, Helen, had been on my for years to get a 'hula hoe' . .ughhhhhhh ...NOTHING could be as easy and useful as she said it was!!!! She came to visit me this spring and brought her hula hoe with her - determined that I was going to see how easy it was to use and how effective it was.
After using it for about 10 minutes, I sent hubby to Lowe's to get one for me! It only costs $20 and since weeding kills my back, I saved that much on Ibuprophen alone for the remainder of 2010!!!! Now I won't even have to buy any Ibuprophen for 2011!
The hula hoe is used to remove weeds from your flower beds and/or foundation plantings. Just one scrape back and forth and the weed is out of the ground! It glides under shrubs and plants easily! I've been guilty of uprooting plants by weeding - not so with the hula hoe! I sometimes pick the weeds up and throw them on the compost pile - sometimes I leave them to compost where they are - depending on my mood or how much time I have. After a few hours in the sun, you'll never see them again anyway - and the soil needs all the help it can get.
The hula hoe can even be used for edging. Just cant it a little and you can get in close to your concrete walkways and clear out a couple of inches of grass. Sometimes you might have to use the edger to 'straighten up' your work - but it's still much, much easier than using the edger alone. And the best thing is that you only have to do this about twice a year. I also use it to grab grass trying to grow into my foundation plantings.
Try it - you'll like it! Of course Helen and I had to get one for Patsy! She loves hers as well!
Shovel
If I could have but one tool, let it be my shovel; but luckily I can have more than one tool.
The shovel can be used for a myriad of things other than digging. I use mine for edging and pruning all types of vines.
Blowers/Mulchers/Vacuums
Thank goodness these now come in one easy to use tool. All the time spend on raking, loading in the wheelbarrow, and carrying to the compost pile then loading back into the wheelbarrow after it's composted is now reduced to one job . .
The vacuum picks up the leaves and mulches them then stores them in a bag.When the bag is full, we empty our bag into the wheelbarrow and when that's full, we take the mulch directly to where it's needed.
Oh, and the job is MUCH easier when you can get someone else to do it for you!
A chipper is next on my list to buy. We have tons of Hickory trees around the yard and after a rain or windstorm we have to drag the debris to the woods .. a chipper would provide a really good, cost-effective mulch as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment