Garden hoe
A garden hoe is a remarkably adaptable implement.
You can lean over pea fences to destroy between-row weeds. You can reach under trees and around vegetables. Anywhere your garden cultivator can’t go is hoe domain.
But by far the most important function of a hoe comes when you fold your two hands over its handle top, set it at a 60 degree angle and lean on it. This is the best position from which to peruse passing nuthatches, jet aircraft, gathering thunderclouds and neighbors buzzing busily up and down fields.
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The only maintenance for a hoe involves sharpening it about once a year. However, honing should be done for maximum effect. You wait until there is an audience before launching into the raspy symphony. This impresses onlookers with your foresight and diligence but not with your noise.
Consequently, you are left alone to hoe a little and lean a lot.
I read an ancient gardening advice book that suggests how to store a hoe in winter. You fill a box with sand and dump used crankcase oil on top.
Then you shove the blade of the hoe down in the sand and leave it until you need it again.This is supposed to prevent rusting and make the hoe last longer.
My system of winter storage has been to hang the hoe in the garage. So far the hoe has lasted 40 years and I suspect after another 40 years it will still yield a couple of loonies at a garage sale. By then I may have a cane to lean on.
Hoe got its name from a German word meaning hew. It’s a sunny day so let’s go hewing.
