Best garden hoes according to redditors

1. There are a lot of calculators on "Green to brown ratio" or "C:N" ratios... but unless you are capable of weighing your debris and figuring the moisture content, it's all just a guideline for you. For your needs, make the pile a 2:1 ratio in volume of leaves to grass. Mix the mass evenly as grass tends to mat and go anaerobic if you layer with it.
   
   
2. shred the leaves. If you have a mulching mower that actually recirculates the material and shreds it, use that. You mentioned a blower... does this blower suck as well? I use a blower/vacuum for my backyard leaves, but my back yard isn't that big.
   
   
3. Instead of one big pile, which gets to be a chore to turn due tot he size and weight, instead aim for several small piles about 1 - 1.5 cubic yards. Start a pile as tall as your chest and it will shrink to your waist or lower as it cooks.
   
   
4. add some water as you add to the pile. The pile should not be soaking... just damp. If water is dripping or running out of the pile, there is too much water.
   
   
5. use a thermometer. Use a compost thermometer and place it in the fresh pile. The temperature will rise over a couple days and may even hit 160 degrees. Let the pile sit until it hits 120 degrees. When the temperature gets to 120, turn the pile into a new pile. Do this by scraping the fresher material from the top and making a pile with it. Then add the internal pile, now darker and warm, on the outside of the new pile. The pile will cool as you do this, but you will be moving the still compostable stuff to the middle. The temperature will rise again but not as high. When it gets to 100, turn and mix it to a new pile. It may rise and fall again. Keep this going every couple days until the temperature doesn't move. At this point it is done with any meso or thermophilic action.
   
   I recommend having a larger passive pile and a few smaller active piles. The larger pile can be for food scraps and such... the larger items. The smaller piles will be for active composting -composting you are doing. Turn the larger pile every week or so... or less.
   
   Once the small piles aren't changing in temperature, they can be used as compost but you can take some extra steps.
   
   
6. take the new compost and sift it through a 1/4" screen. Store the 1/4" stuff in a bin with a lid.
   
   
7. the stuff that doesn't make it through... you can add to a new pile for further breakdown.
   
   
8. the can of 1/4" stuff should sit for a month or so in the sunlight with the lid on. Any seeds left in the compost that survived the thermophilic process will sprout in the can (instead of in your garden.) This will prevent weeds.
   
   Amend your soil with the 1/4" stuff. I recommend doing so with a wheel hoe as this will help break into the soil a bit better. Or use a motor tiller if you have one.
   
   As for JUST the leaves, if you place damp leaves (better if they are shredded) into a pile and let it sit for a few months, you'll get something called leaf mold. Sift this as with the compost and combine the two or use separately. It's not quite compost, but it will add biological activity to the soil.
   
   RIP your free time. Composting is strangely fun.

Push pull hoe

https://www.amazon.com/Hoss-Tools-PPH994-Push-Pull/dp/B01KINA8NW

Oh, that's not so bad. From your post, I was expecting 4 yr old tree saplings! You could run a lawnmower over that and it will be 90% improved.

Don't worry yourself about getting your strategy right the first time. You can try a couple different things, and go at it again if the previous failed.

These would each work:

• pour boiling water on the weeds, which will kill them
  
• get a weed-killing flame wand
  
• kill and remove the weeds with a pass-thru hoe
  
• pull by hand (labor intensive, but can be relaxing)
  
  Don't worry about "kill or pull first". Even if it's a perennial with a gigantic root system, it can only survive losing its top a couple times before it dies completely, so feel free to just keep pulling the tops off.
  
  You'll have to return a couple times a year to kill new weeds, this is a regular maintenance item. New seeds will germinate, and the roots will grow in mulch just like dirt.
  
  Personally, I've never had much success with weed mats. New weed seeds will blow in from the wind, and they will germinate in the mulch you put on top of the mat. But to answer your question, no, you don't have to put it down the same day or week or month.
  
  I don't see much weeds worth identifying in your photos.

Nejiri Gama Hoe

Seriously. This is one of the very best garden tools I own. Keep it sharp.

I have heard the real professionals, who have hundreds of acres to deal with just use herbicides. That truly is the easiest way.

In smaller plots,[ I love my diamond hoe.](
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006IH3CY/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_FMqavb0BPV517) Although I am considering a [Japanese Hoe](
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V2LWII/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_vQqavb068E8Y4) for when I am trying to pick through a bunch of weeds which are mixed with what I planted.

For weeds, I like a hoe, myself.

(Obligatory) Found OP's mom on sale for $69.99
https://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Garden-Light-Weight-Lifetime-Guarantee/dp/B003R15ZJU/ref=sr_1_9?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1466125631&sr=1-9&keywords=garden+hoe

Not sure if you have a plan for weeding as it fills in, if not a hula hoe is great for taking out seedlings by hand.

https://www.amazon.com/Gardeners-Supply-Company-Hula-Hoe/dp/B007XIVZCE

Couldn't find the old version, but found the new tactical model.

Stirrup hoe. I swear by these things. Get a short handled stirrup hoe and weed careful between the plants. Takes no time at all. https://www.amazon.com/AMES-Companies-Inc-1985450-Action/dp/B00SCEMDCO

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BTW, is that Buttercrunch?

Maybe a long handled Nejiri Gama Hoe

This is a hoe

This is a Ho!(NSFW)