Weeding Tips and a Tool
by Meg Lynch, Editor  We had a few colder-than-average, rainy days (over the weekend, naturally) but now the weather is sunny and warm here. We are past the last-expected-frost date in my area, but the nights are still chilly. I'm looking forward to planting annuals out front in a couple weeks. In the meantime I have some seeds to sow out there. I went out today to get the area ready—weed seedlings are popping up everywhere and I wanted to clear them out.
Our "Organic Approach" columnist, Peter Garnham, recommends attacking weeds with a sharp hoe while they are young and still resemble little threads with tiny leaves. At that stage they can't reroot themselves after you simply dislodge them from the soil with your hoe. I followed Peter's advice and went out this morning, when there were plenty of freshly sprouted weeds after the weekend's rain. The earth was still a bit damp, but not soggy—the best conditions for easily pulling bigger weeds' roots up out of the soil.  Instead of a hoe, I used a tool that's new to me but popular among some of Horticulture's readers: the Cobrahead. I quickly found out why it has so many fans. The makers describe its sharp head as a "steel fingernail," which is really accurate. You just grip the handle and pick away, as if you are scraping something with your nail. I was surprised at how precisely I could maneuver it. I zeroed right in on weeds big and small and scooped them up by their roots. I just severed the really tiny ones and scratched them back into the soil.
And it seems like the Cobrahead will be a good tool to use when I plant my seeds and seedlings later—it works as a digger, too. Visit the Cobrahead website
5/6/2008 4:51:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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