Tools for controlling weeds?

[Penellype]

One of my most useful weeding tools (the others are hands, a garden fork for big stuff and a small hand fork for smaller weeds) is a blunt old kitchen knife. I find if something like a dandelion gets established I can often remove it with the knife without disturbing too much of the soil (often mulched) around it. Its also good for getting the odd tap rooted weed out of the gravel drive.

[BertieFox]

The Dutch hoe is probably the best weapon we all have to combat weeds but it is more suited to rows of vegetables rather than block plantings in deep beds.

I am trying deep mulch techniques this year with the beds covered about two inches deep in wood chips from the home shredder. The only problem is that I probably need to spend the next three weeks shredding non stop to create sufficient materials having acquired all the clippings and branches from friends for a vast pile in one end of the garden!

The bits covered so far are wonderfully weed free though the paths around them are full of weeds! There's regrettably no easy solution apart from loads of hard work, or worse, the use of chemicals.

[Two_Sheds]

I don't mind pulling the odd weed that raises itself through my mulches, but I'm not going to hoe the paths every day, no way.
After rain they go from clean brown earth to green grass weeds. I cover the worst patches with a wet newspaper mulch, which takes 5 mins. After a few weeks the weeds are gone & I can move the newspaper to another patch or tear it up for the compost heap

[bearded bloke]

With regard to your Mantis,make sure the cultivating heads are on the correct way round,it is not immediately obvious but they are "handed".

[veggiechicken]

I like weeding - yes, I'm crazy - but you don't have to give it much thought so its a good time for daydreaming.
You can make up games too - like weed hopscotch. Choose a weed, say dandelions, and pull out any that are in reach without moving your feet (good stretching exercise). Jump to the next unpulled dandelion and pull out all the ones within reach again. I admit that I have a lot of weeds but concentrating on one type at a time is more fun than trying to clear a patch of ground

[bearded bloke]

Do they have hoes like this in the US ....








It cuts on push face,pull face & angled end face.

[veggiechicken]

I'm lucky Dan, I'm retired so have all the time in the world to do the things I enjoy - like weeding
I hope you find as much pleasure in your garden as I do

[BertieFox]

The best thing about having relatively small individual beds (mine are 4 metres by 1 metre) is that it divides weeding into easily manageable tasks. It is not completely disheartening to look at a single bed and think 'I can never weed that', as it only takes a few minutes.

But look at the whole plot, and you can easily be overwhelmed by the task. Even though I have 40 or so of these individual beds, by treating each one as a separate task I avoid having a nervous breakdown!

And yes, weeding DOES take up most of a gardeners' time, unless you want to grow everything through holes in black plastic or with hydroponics.