I use a stirrup hoe quite a bit. I actually bought a 2nd one and cut the wooden handle down to make it more of a hand tool as opposed to a long-handled hoe. These make such quick work of weeds. Everyone I have shown (and let them try it out in my garden -- how tricky am I getting others to do my weeding?!? Tee Hee!) has gone on to get one. Same concept as the circle hoe. I'm thinking the one you got might be really good for some tighter spaces in the garden though. I'll have to check that out!

I’ve had my “garden bandit” from Lee Valley for years and it is one of my favourite garden tools along with my hori hori knife. I also have a similar long handled hoop weeder from them which is very functional as well.

how tricky am I getting others to do my weeding?!?

A classic T2d!

Hmm, that little Bandit hand weeder looks interesting. I do have a long handled stirrup hoe that I use in larger areas, especially in my cutting garden where I have extremely tenacious little grass-like weeds. My problem is I swear even if I cut out the millions of them, most not more than an inch high, and leave them there, they just re-root and grow again! So if I have to pick them all up anyway, it's easier for me to handpull than cut them with the stirrup and then try to pick them out of the leaf mulch.

:)
Dee

For those of you that have experience with such a tool, can I ask a (too) simple a question? As you 'scrape' the tool along the ground, decapitating/upending these small weeds, do you collect them to then completely dispose of or do leave them where they lie?

Rouge, obviously from my post above, lol, I'm not the best person to answer this. But, I always thought that you could just leave the weeds where they lay. When I worked on a farm that's what they did, (using a stirrup hoe) and actually left the (now dead) weeds as extra mulch in the rows.

But in my gardens, particularly the cutting garden that has those little blades of grass-like weeds, I'm afraid to leave the weeds there because they seem to re-root and grow again! I know that sounds weird, and you can tell me it's new weeds growing, and it may be partially new weeds, but many of the little ones re-root as well. Whatever this weed is, it's pernicious. I pulled up some newspaper covered in about three inches of leaf mulch, which had been there for at least 6 weeks, to plant something, and there they were, all white and feeble and spread out laying on the soil, but ALIVE and growing lol. Geez I wish the "grass" in my lawn would grow like this!

So if I use it in spots like this, I feel the need to collect and dispose, which to me, is easier to do if I'm hand pulling than to try to pick them up off my leaf mulch.

:)
Dee

I use something similar in my shade bed to remove the thousands of mountain ash seedlings. It’s a long handle one and quite effortless to use. I never have to remove the decapitated plants.

I don't usually remove anything that's been brought up by the hoe.

I got a japanese gardening ho years back like the below. It's easy to sharpen, which is needed since any of the hand tools will dull over time and become less effective. It's nice and small so you can get it to quickly cut around plants to weed your beds. It's also nice because you can turn it down to use it as a small pick to dig weed roots out.

ive never seen a full hoop version like yours though... might have to pick one up. There wouldn’t be any “accidental“ beheading of stuff I want to keep !

I use a pair of long-handled stirrup hoes similar to this one.

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/tools-supplies/long-handled-tools/hoes/stirrup-hoes/7%22-stirrup-hoe-9504.html

One of mine is 7” and one is 3” wide. I like the relatively flat bottom of the blade because it cuts everything at the same depth. My knees are in tough enough shape that I struggle to work at ground level, so I love the long handles because I can easily weed from a standing position. It makes quick work of weeds. I find some will reroot if they are large and some of the roots remain intact, especially if the soil is damp or it rains soon after I weed, but they are easily dispatched he next time I hit that part of the garden. I use these hoes almost daily in various places in the garden, and they Are a favorite garden tool.