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Weeds!
Apr 1, 2015 12:33:46 GMT -5
Post by brownrexx on Apr 1, 2015 12:33:46 GMT -5
For in my garden I love my Hula Hoe or Scuffle Hoe depending on who makes it. It is sharp on both edges and you just "scuffle" it back and forth in the soil and it is used from a standing position too.
If the soil is moist and not compacted then the hoe will pull the weeds right out roots and all. In dry soil it will cut them off but they're still gone.
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Weeds!
Apr 1, 2015 18:48:44 GMT -5
Post by armjr on Apr 1, 2015 18:48:44 GMT -5
I use an old "Cotton Choppin" hoe. I don't know which is older, the handle or the hoe. My Italian ancestors came to Texas in 1903 and they likely brought it with them from North Carolina via Oklahoma. In the 80's some time we had a visit from my wife's grandparents. They were from North Louisiana and her grandfather was a gardener extraordinaire! He grew everything and lots of it. They did not have a can opener because they did not have any cans. They had gobs of Mason and Ball jars though. As they were preparing to leave, I had gathered a sack of squash, corn and other things from the garden to send home with them. I walked over to the car as her grandfather was putting suitcases in the trunk. I leaned the hoe on the side of the car and set the sack down and said, "here's something For you to take home with you". He beamed a big smile, said, "Thanks" and put the hoe in his trunk.
I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything, but, "You're Welcome". I picked up the sack and went inside. He kept that hoe and used it every day for the rest of his life. He lived to be 100. When we were up at the funeral, a bit of levity came when I came in from the shed with "His" hoe and said that I'd like to have it back. Of course there were no objections as everyone had heard the story by then.
I still use that same one and think about him often when I'm using it. He was a good man, loved his family, loved his God. I can find far worse and not many better to emulate.
Alan
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Weeds!
Apr 1, 2015 19:12:52 GMT -5
Post by mrsk on Apr 1, 2015 19:12:52 GMT -5
I have done a lot of prairie plant identification. It is fun, and often in the fall, I do a couple of sessions with my students, we learn the Lakota names and uses for them. It is fun.
But this post is about weeds, and with sand burs, goat heads, and cockleburs I think we have the MEANEST weeds in SD
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Weeds!
Apr 1, 2015 19:16:46 GMT -5
Post by desertwoman on Apr 1, 2015 19:16:46 GMT -5
Alan- Love the story about your wife's grandpa and the hoe.
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Weeds!
Apr 1, 2015 21:05:15 GMT -5
Post by armjr on Apr 1, 2015 21:05:15 GMT -5
Thanks, he was quite a guy. Old School North Louisiana all the way. He was a teacher, principal, superintendent and served on the school board for 20+ years after he retired. One time he and I, while looking at my garden, I was lamenting the influx of bermuda grass. This was when my garden was 2 acres and I was doing 100% organic, which translates to "Hoe time", in trying to control the Bermuda grass. He looked at it for a minute and drawled, "Aaalin, I always said the best way to get a good stand of Bermuda grass was to let a (expletive) share crop it for a year", and he walked away. Now, you gotta remember that he was from a different place and time. There wasn't a prejudiced bone in his body but that's just the way it was. I've seen lots of folks come to his house and none of them ever left empty handed. Whether it was money or an armload of vegetables from his garden, he was generous to a fault.
He was not an organic gardener. He believed in spraying weeds and spraying bugs, and that's why God made spray. One day not long after we were married, there was a crop duster spraying defoliant on cotton a couple of miles up wind from us. #1 wife came outside and took a long breath of air and exclaimed, "Oh, this smells just like my grandfathers house!" I then told my lovely new bride that what she was smelling was paraquat. She was only a little disappointed.
Alan
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Weeds!
Apr 2, 2015 9:17:23 GMT -5
Post by mrsk on Apr 2, 2015 9:17:23 GMT -5
Different times, different ways, but That era was a little less politically correct, and a bit more honest.
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