Garden Hoes Made of Aluminum

Traditional Garden Hoe

• A traditional hoe has a head about 6 inches wide, set at a right angle to the handle. Because you pull it through the soil toward you, it is often called a draw hoe. Another use for this hoe is mounding up soil around potato plants, for example, or for making a furrow for seeding a vegetable plot. The Fiskars aluminum-handled garden hoe features a carbon steel head with a non-stick coating. Its price was listed as $23 at publication time.

Scuffle Hoe

• A scuffle hoe, which has a triangular double wing-shaped head, is pushed or pulled just under the surface of the soil, cutting off young weeds. The blade is angled so that the person hoeing is more upright, rather than bent over, as when using a traditional hoe. The motion is a back-and-forth scuffle. These hoes are easy to use between rows of vegetables. The most familiar scuffle hoe is the Winged Weeder, which does not come with an aluminum handle.

Stirrup Hoe

• The stirrup hoe's head resembles the stirrup of a saddle. The lower, flat part of the loop is the cutting edge. Like the scuffle hoe, it is used by pulling the head along just under the surface of the soil to cut off young weeds. Because the sides aren't sharp, these hoes are easy to use around established plants without damage to the plants. Flexrake, makers of the Hula-Ho, offers two versions with aluminum handles. The 54-inch handle costs $20 and the 60-inch handle costs $25.

All-Aluminum Hoes

• The Bennhurley company manufactures all-aluminum shovels, hoes and post-hole diggers it calls the strongest, lightest and safest tools available. They are hand-made in the United States and are unbreakable, according to the company, which guarantees them forever. The aluminum is anodized for strength and non-conductivity. The all-aluminum garden hoe has teeth on one side of the blade, weighs 2 lbs. and costs $28.