Weeds are as sure a thing as light from the sun. They’ll eventually pop up in all gardens and sap the moisture and nutrients from whatever flowers, vegetables, herbs, or other plants that you actually want to grow and thrive.
There are different ways to remove weeds from a garden – you could use your hand, or any number of tools. Some weeding tools are hyped-up gimmicks, others – like the Garden Bandit – are worth a closer look.
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The Garden Bandit’s design allows you to remove weeds right next to your desirable plants without disturbing their roots. The metal loop easily cuts through most soils, and as a bonus using it also aerates the soil. All you need to do to remove a weed is place the loop around it, and pull the Garden Bandit forward to cut underneath it.
This simple tool is just a 12″ plastic handle with a high tensile stainless steel band attached to both sides. The stainless steel band forms a loop that’s 5 inches long and 2 inches wide. It should be a safe assumption that the weeder is rust-resistant.
You can purchase the Garden Bandit at West Coast Seeds for $13, plus around $7 shipping.
Buy Now (via West Coast Seeds)
Lee Valley also carries this product, but in their catalog they call it a “Hand Loop Weeder,” even though the two products look virtually identical. They’ll charge you $13 with $8 shipping.
As a reminder, Lee Valley has a semi-annual free shipping promo which usually requires a $40 minimum order amount.
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Here’s Lee Valley’s promo video, which shows how the weeder works, short and sweet:
Buy Now (via Lee Valley)
According to photos on both websites, the Garden Bandit comes in five different colors, but neither store has any way to specify which color you’ll get.
The Garden Bandit/Hand Loop Weeder is made in Canada.
First Thoughts
My preferred method of getting rid of weeds is to hit them with the string trimmer, but then again I was never much of a gardener. Every now and again I will take a few minutes to actually pull a few weeds by hand, but I don’t usually get much done.
When first I spotted the Garden Bandit, I thought this was a tool I’d actually try if I saw it sitting out by the flower beds. It’s just a simple handle with a strip of metal looped from one side to the other — simple enough I could probably make one out in my shop in about 15 minutes.
Tomas
It doesn’t look like it would get the roots of anything but the smallest weeds. Everyone that gardens knows that if you don’t get the roots the weed will just grow back in a couple weeks.
Pete
Exactly, and if you string trim it you could throw seeds everywhere resulting in more weeds.
Best thing to do is prevent them in the first place. Mulch heavily at least 1/2″. It will keep the weed seeds from entering the dirt in the first place, also it acts like a sponge keeping your beds moist for longer and adding nutrients to your soil over time.
fred
I guess that from a pure ecological standpoint – native plants – some that we call weeds – are what wants to grow in place of our lawns and gardens. Our abhorrence of weeds is probably irrational at some level – but seems nonetheless implanted (so to speak) in our psyches. That may account for there being so many weeders on the market with names like “Cape Cod Weeder” , “The Weed Hound” , “Yankee Weeder”, “Cork Screw Weeder”, “Crack Weeder” , “Nejiri Kama”, “Winged Weeder” etc. My wife, who is quite the gardener – trained at a world class Botanical Garden – swears at most of these – but for really big “weeds” and weed trees she likes this thing – which is as much a pry bar as it is a weeder:
http://www.extractigator.com/
Nathan
Actually many of the most annoying and invasive weeds are not natives, but exotics. It is too bad we can’t find a way to all get along, though.
fred
You’re absolutely right – and we (humankind) have often done it to ourselves either inadvertently or through some purposeful way – later found to have been misguided. Some of these weeds, like quackgrass, have been around so long that they have become commonplace
Hang Fire
I’m sure it would be useful in bagged soil. (This is to say, it would not be very useful for most gardeners.) For our native mix of clay, loam and rocks, nothing beats traditional tools like a dandelion weeder, or a hand mattock/cultivator.
Peter H
There is no “perfect weeder” that will work for any weed in any soil type. This is not the right tool for taking out dandelions from a lawn, for instance. For a garden bed, especially a tilled garden bed, this tool is ideal for getting rid of the small weeds that pop up throughout the growing season. If you don’t want to kneel down to get the weeds, then consider a Hula Hoop or similar long-handled tool with the same kind of weed cutting head.
fred
For a long-handled approach – you might try a “Swoe Hoe” . W
mik
This is a great tool for hand weeding and the makers of it. http://www.gardenbandit.com are in canada and have a longhandle version called telesco weeder. Love mine, use it every day!
mik
btw, I bought mine from lee valley too and you are right it is the same tool made by gardenbandit.com . it is well made tool and made by a small company in Canada. I’ve had the garden bandit for many many years I bought it at a small store in Toronto but the store closed & when lee vlley started carrying it I thought I’d get another one.
Karen Foster
My mother bought two of these at the botanical garden gift shop in Cleveland, Ohio and gave one to me. I absolutely love it. I have fairly large gardens and it is the only tool I use to weed. It also works well at cultivating the soil. It’s much stronger than it looks. I just ordered two, one to replace the one that I have used for years because I have bent it beyond repair, and the other for my husband who has begun to work in the garden with me. I wish the garden stores in our area would sell them as I would give one to each of my gardening friends.
Bart Simpson
GF bought the Garden Bandit, sooo,.had to make one for myself!
Made it out of 1/2″ X 12″ strip of stainless sheet (plasma cut) and a shaped wood plank/handle.
Sharpened the stainless strip on both edges.
Works like a charm on new weed sprouts.
Works like a weed whacker on lawn edges also.