Short version of the review:
I’ve got a new hoe, called a hoe●dag, and I love it.
Long version of the review:
I first heard rumors of this “hoe●dag” hand hoe via Mary Ann, from Gardens of the Wild, Wild West. When I found out that this hoe really did exist, I wrote a little email to the maker of it to introduce myself and present my hoeing credentials and ask if they had one I could try out and review.
Within a few days, I had my own hoe●dag®. As soon as I took it out of the box, I almost instinctively started to dig a little spot with it. Then I used it to chop out some weeds, grub out some grass, and make a nice furrow in some of the vegetable garden beds. I even used it to pry out some rocks.
Then, and this will surprise many of you, I hired my nephew-in-law to help with some challenging areas in the garden, and showed him all the shovels and hoes, both long-handled and short-handled, hanging on the pegboard in my garage and let him choose any of them to use.
He chose the hoe●dag®. My brand new hoe●dag®. At first I thought maybe I should get to use it first, but then I decided to let him give it a workout. After all, the people who make the hoe●dag® wrote in an email reply to me,
“Please abuse it to your heart’s content and let us know what you think of it.”
My nephew-in-law gave it a workout, in a place where he actually broke a lesser made trowel clean in two, the digging was so hard. But it wasn’t too much for the hoe●dag®. He told me the other day “give it a good review”. So I made sure to try it out some more, before I wrote up this review, by digging, weeding, tilling, and then prying out more rocks with it myself.
My assessment is that the hoe●dag® deserves a Great Review. (What do these young people know about hoeing, anyway?)
This is the real deal, a great hand hoe, well-made by hand and guaranteed forever.
This hoe and I will be spending many hours together in the garden and my garden will be better for it.
I will be always grateful to the wonderful people who make the hoe●dag® in Lewiston, Idaho, USA for sending me this one to review.
Summary of the Review:
This is a great hand hoe. I’m pleased to use it in my garden and add it to my hoe collection.
It looks more like an adz than a hoe but what are looks anyway?
Reminds me of my mattock, which is my garden tool of choice, used in much the same way as the hoe•dag(R). I've used my mattock for more than 30 years. Hope to be using it today to put in my veggie garden.
Jo Ellen, I love my mattock, too. I've had it for years. Nice heft. I tried to buy one for my workplace but couldn't find one that wasn't too wimpy. I may try the hoe-dag. Carol, is there enough weight to this thing that it leverages your muscle power?
I purchased something similar after observing a few landscape installers breaking up the hard packed clay during one hot summer. A lifetime guarantee sounds nice. gail
Looks goo and useful!
This looks like a serious hoe. I have nothing like it in my arsenal. At a local plant sale last weekend I bought a new tool called a Barnel Landscape Sod Trimming knife with serrated teeth. It looks more like a little saw than a knife and I have been using it to clean up border edges.
Efficient, well-made tools are one of the too often unsung pleasures of gardening! Thanks for singing our song!
Carol you seem to have a knack for finding the best hoe's around. One can't get things done with-out a good hoe" ..Thanks for the review.
Hi Carol, congratulations on your collection of unusual hoes! It's nice to meet the Queen of Garden Hoes 🙂 I've actually been called the Grub Hoe King for being the guy behind EasyDigging.com which carries the biggest variety of grub hoes in the USA.
I'd be happy to send you one of my tools to try out and review. I looked around your collection and see that you don't have a Fork Hoe like this one made by Chillington Tools of England, so that's an option.
Please contact me through my website if you'd like to sample a tool. Weed well!
I bought a Hoe Dag at a garden show just because it looked like it would be useful. As it turns out it is the most useful tool in my shed. It quickly digs holes for planting plants – it has put my small garden shovels out of work. It chops right through roots up to about thumb size. Hardpan soil doesn phase it. It's a great tool!