Cool Weeding Tools + Planting Progress June 5th

I had a GREAT day at the farm yesterday, despite the fact that it rained half the day.  The rain made the soil super soft and was a great opportunity to do a first round of weeding.  I'm going to be spending a LOT of time weeding this summer.  Once things get planted, I'll probably spend more time weeding than doing anything else (including harvesting).   That's how it rolls when you're farming organically and without any plastic weed barriers.  I've discovered a few new awesome weeding tools that I think could be helpful to anyone with a garden of any size.

First there's this awesome weeding tool that's about the length of a water bottle.  Its great to use in between seedlings and can get into super small areas.  You'll either bend over, squat, or get on your hands and knees to use this tool, unlike some of the long handled weeders, but for precision work, I haven't found anything better so far!

For long handled tools that you use standing up, this is a new one that I've fallen in love with.  They call it a Collinear Hoe.  Basically, like any of the tools I'm talking about today, it works great for removing small seedlings (root and all) as well as chopping larger weeds off at the soil level.

Finally, my old stand by: the stirrup hoe.  This is one you can usually find at garden centers, rather than having to order it through the mail.  It works similarly to the Collinear hoe, although its probably better suited for even larger weeds.  We've also found these very useful for weeding at the community garden.

You can find all these tools--and many more--at Johnnyseed's website.  They're not paying me to advertise for them (haha, I wish); its just that they are a great resource for all things small-farm related. Here's a link to all their hand tools. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-218-hand-tools.aspx

And finally, here's the planting progress as of today.  For the most part, everything is in; there are still some rows I need to finish (half are planted so far) and there are still some seedlings in the greenhouse ready to go out to supplement the direct seed sowing I've done.  But yeah, I'm feeling good... and by good I mean really tired, sore, but satisfied with my progress!  Thanks for reading!