Hoes sold at most hardware stores and big boxes are a huge disappointment. Rickety, spindly handles, welded-on hoe blades that are flimsy and sure to break, good only for feeble efforts at weeding.

The grub hoe is what your grandpa likely thought of when a hoe was mentioned - a solid piece of steel, with a large, healthy blade and an eye into which is mounted a good, stout wood handle.

I found out about the grub hoe when I had a project requiring a trench, and I resisted renting a polluting, gas-powered trencher. Surely, I thought, they had a decent tool for digging these before the fossil fuel craze. I googled, and found that I was right - the grub hoe is an ideal tool for digging trenches and general excavating.

And it's about the same price as the really pathetic, useless hoes you could buy at hardware stores and nurseries.

You can see, read about and order a grub hoe, here-

It's a wonderful tool, but if it's not enough for you to have a great garden tool, you should know that it's also one of the traditional martial arts weapons of Okinawa. You can view a youtube video of the grub hoe as a martial arts weapon at left.