Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
This container weeder, with a compact head and inwards-facing blade to protect plant stems from accidental damage, is ideal for scraping off moss, weeding and turning over the soil.
Though, as far as most moss in containers, and even raised beds, is concerned using gloved hands is much more efficient and you can actually get the stuff properly removed.
In fact this is a hand-held draw hoe though of a design that is rather new, as far as they head itself is concerned. The blade is rather sharp, from the factory, which is quite unusual in may respects today. The handle is of FSC-certified wood and the tool comes with a ten-year guarantee.
The blade and other metal parts are forged and made from high-quality high-carbon steel and while that means that they are not stainless are will rust easier than stainless steel carbon steel is much more durable in that it often is harder than stainless.
It is a well-balanced little hoe that should be an extremely useful addition to the armory of the container gardener or the one who grows produce in raised beds, also in the square-foot method. Raised beds also present the same problems as do pots and other containers of working with tight spaces and the requirement to weed, remove moss, and separate out individual plants.
The draw hoe design is also much better suited for containers and raised beds than is the so-called Dutch hoe design, which works with a pushing motion rather than drawing across, and in that case it can happen that, rather unintended, a plant will bite the dust.
This little hoe is from the new RHS-endorsed collection of specialist container gardening tools from Burgon & Ball. The other tools are listed in the article “Passionate about Pots” and, hopefully, in due course, we shall be able to have a closer look at those as well by means of a review and test.
The review sample was received as media gift at the Burgon & Ball stand at the Garden Press Event 2019 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London (UK).
© 2019
