Weeding tool for bad backs

[Becky]

I'm currently on the look out for something to allow me to weed flower beds without having to bend down or forwards - has anyone here tried anything? There are a few around which work in different ways, so I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations...

Here are a couple of examples:

Speedy Weedy
Fiskars Weed Puller

Thanks for your help!

 

[Tmann]

It's funny you mention this as I just purchased one for my wife but it did not work very well so she is going to return it. It was about 3.5' tall and what you did is center the weed in the center of these spikes, then put your foot on the step, twist and pull up, then you push this slide type thing on the post and it will extract the weed. It is supposed to pull more of the root up. The result was that it more or less just tears the weed and does not seem to pull the weed up.

My suggestion would be to put something down like preen, not sure if you have it across the pond or not. The only reason I don't use it in large parts of my yard is that I have a lot of perennials that naturally reseed themselves through seed and it would kill these off as well.

 

[Becky]

That's interesting (but unfortunate) to hear about it not working as expected - I've read reviews online saying similar things which is why I was hoping someone on here had had a good experience with one of them! Bit of a shame really... maybe I should put my inventing hat on - there seems to be a gap in the market!

 

[warmweatherwoman]

A while back I was looking for something like this for my mother..but ever product out there doesn't work as they say If anyone finds one that actually works please share.

 

[cmckinney01]

I don't know of any weeding tools that would save your back. However, I would suggest that you kneel on a pad to weed. Kneeling puts less strain on your back. Don't crouch or stand and bend. Doing either one may hurt your back.

 

[Meowmie]

I have the perfect tool. It's called grandkids! You have to turn it into a game though, or they don't work after a few min. and you can't really return them, you can send them back but they return again (thank goodness)

 

[Chuck]

A Hula Hoe or Stirrup Hoe.

 

[Pat]

Grannies kids sound good to me. My grannie kids will not cooperate though so I still do it myself.

 

[Meowmie]

Pat, it has to be a game or they lose interest fast. The BEST one, if you have more than one grandkid over at a time, is a race to fill the bucket.

I give them each an ice cream bucket, and whoever fills it first gets a prize. Have to have a lot of prizes on hand though, this game can be repeated over and over.