IN SEARCH OF THE PERPECT HOE

By the Mother Earth News editors

We test the new weeding tools and find out which ones work best.

Last summer, MOTHER rounded up and thoroughly tested 11 of the new garden hoes. Surprisingly, the tools covered an array of functions—scything, cultivating, chopping, hilling. As far as straight weeding goes, we concluded that it's best to have both a light-duty and a heavy-duty hoe. (A good one-hand hoe can be helpful, too.) The light-duty hoe helps you control early weeds before they become a problem; its heavy-duty cousin tackles the areas where you didn't quite keep up with your good intentions. Together, they truly humble the ordinary hardware-store hoe—and make weeding almost fun. (For ordering information, see " Mom's Marketplace ")

ONE-HAND HOES

HEAVEY-DUTY HOES