A while back Kate (hey Kate!) described the hoe she uses to weed her beautiful flower garden. It looked like a great hoe, and I had never seen anything like it before. Well, I finally got around to looking for something similar. I finally found one that seems the same, a Hula Hoe, called by many other names.
My reason for pursuing this now is that the garden is almost overwhelmed with weeds. Attila is the gardener here. He has been working on the garage roof project since late June. It is a huge project, and he has been working on it almost every waking hour that he has not been at work. At the same time we experienced a very dry four or five weeks, almost a drought, which was hard on the garden. Attila took time off from his roof project to water his garden. There just wasn’t any time left for weeding.
I have arthritic knees, there will be no kneeling to work on the garden for me. I also have back and shoulder issues, less serious, but serious enough that bending down to weed causes enough pain to require medication. I was not going to be weeding the garden. I have suggested many times that raised beds would allow me to participate in gardening, but Attila has not liked the idea. The upshot is that the garden has not been weeded since mid-June.
Saturday, August 4, 2018
There are some very big weeds in the garden, and mats of smaller weeds.
What to do!
This morning I decided to try to find the hoe that Kate described, and as soon as I found it, out we went to purchase it. This evening, after the sun had sunk below the horizon, I ventured into the garden with my new hoe. I weeded about two-thirds of the garden, without breaking a sweat, and only bending down a few times. This hoe is a miracle tool! Well, it is for an old gal like me who can’t get down on the ground to tend the plants.
This hoe is a game changer here at Mist Cottage. There are still quite a few home renovation projects to be tackled, all of them will be tackled by Attila. This Hula Hoe will allow me to gently tackle some of the landscaping, some of the gardening. And I will enjoy it!
August 5, 2018
Another stinker of a day, too hot to do anything out-of-doors, except find shade and try to keep breathing.
I took my morning coffee out onto the back porch where, although the air was very humid, it was quite pleasant. I sat for an hour or so, watching the birds, the clouds, and the movement of shadows as the sun lumbered into the sky.
Eventually Attila awoke, made his morning coffee and came out onto the porch too. After revelling for a few hours, in the luxury of sitting around, we decided to work on the garden. Attila didn’t favour my chances of lasting very long, and how right he was. After about thirty minutes I was unable to continue, and feeling a bit frantic, so I decided to head into the coolness of Mist Cottage. I had to cold cloths to cool my body down. The garden looks a little better, and I recovered relatively quickly, within 15 minutes I felt comfortable again. Without the air-conditioned escape, I would not have cooled down until the heat wave subsides. Note to self, no air conditioning, no vigorous activity during heat waves.
Attila spent the rest of his day finishing off the back wall studs in the garage, building shelves between the studs, and painting the back wall. One step closer to completion. Blocking between the rafters, trim around the new window, and odd bits of flashing and trim on the roof, and more painting, still need to be completed. I think though, that after this weekend, if a day of decent weather presents itself on a weekend, activities other than working on the garage roof can be prioritized.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
HEAT WARNING
27°C
Date: 5:00 PM EDT Sunday 5 August 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.9 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 26.6°C
Dew point: 20.9°C
Humidity: 70%
Wind: S 18 km/h
Humidex: 35
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“True humor is fun – it does not put down, kid, or mock. It makes people feel wonderful, not separate, different, and cut off. True humor has beneath it the understanding that we are all in this together.”
Hugh Prather
Where there’s a will, there’s a way and it seems you found it with your hoe. It looks like a great invention.
A hula hoe, I remember those! Haven’t seen an ad for them in many years. Had one years ago. They really do work well!
Be careful being out there in the heat. You’re lucky it only took you a shortwhile to come back, this time. It might not always work that way, though. When I overheat badly it takes me hours to cool down and I can still be weak for many hours after.
Wendy, I am quite impressed with this hoe! I have used a hoe since I was able to stand without its assistance, but had never seen these. I think they are a European tool, so very handy, the soil does not build up on them as they cut horizontally, so the weeds stay largely in place. I have all kinds of plans for using this hoe, when the weather decides to cool down enough for human activity.
Teri, I had never seen a Hula Hoe before, and wish I’d had one as a child, when I worked in the fields!
Yes, I was pretty lucky I cooled down and recovered so quickly! Today the heat will be more extreme today, so I won’t be out there working on anything at all! I am so grateful for the ground source heat pump, it makes these heat waves bearable… well, the whole summer so far has been one very long, very intense heat wave, not really a series, as there seems no relief is to be had.
I looked online to see how your hula hoe compares to my horseshoe (or stirrup) hoe, but can’t tell the width of the hula from the photos. My horseshoe’s about 6″ wide. It makes weeding a breeze, doesn’t it! and I love the way it tips up diagonally to get into tight places. So handy!
Take good care in the heat. We have three days of above-30 forecast for the next few days.
-Kate
Kate, it is an amazing hoe! I am in love with it, and can’t wait for the heat wave summer to let up and let me at the garden! I think the hoe is 6″, and I noticed they make smaller ones but don’t sell them at Canadian Tire.
I find I can be out in the morning, but by afternoon I have to escape into the house where it is cooler. I said to Attila as I was heading in from the heat, that if the house wasn’t air conditioned, I would by lying on the concrete basement floor with a fan blowing over me, just to survive. I don’t know how people do it in apartments and cities if they don’t have air conditioning!
Hula-hoes started as a k-tel type TV product when I was in my 20s. I had one at my first house in SC around the mid-80s. They’re great!
Teri, that is interesting, k-tel picked up on a lot of handy things. The hula hoe is sometimes called a stirrup hoe, or a horseshoe hoe. I found the following interesting, it was originally an attachment for English agricultural equipment:
“Its inventor was Jethro Tull — no, not the English rock group but the English agricultural engineer who developed the first mechanical, horse-drawn seed drill in 1701, of which the oscillating wheel hoe was a spinoff.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/the-wheel-hoe-comes-full-circle/2017/05/30/05959938-3f34-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cfea4ef25703