A wheeled hoe is a tool used to move dirt in a garden or other outdoor space. It features a wheel used for guiding the tool and for making movement across a patch of dirt easier. The wheel is mounted to an axle, which sits in a metal frame. Long handles are affixed to the metal frame, allowing a user to walk behind the wheeled hoe and push it along through the dirt. An attachment mounted behind the wheel is used to do the actual hoeing, and several different attachments are available for different purposes.
Many of the attachments used on a wheeled hoe are used for digging the dirt between rows in a garden. The most common shape of such an attachment is rectangular, though some attachments may be modified rectangles, scooped rectangles, or squares. These rectangular or square attachments are sometimes known as stirrups because they look similar to the stirrups used on a horse saddle. These attachments are useful for digging beneath the surface of the dirt and removing unwanted plant roots that may be invading the garden soil. The width and length of the stirrups can vary to accommodate differently sized garden rows. Turning the soil with such a tool also allows the wheeled hoe to aerate the soil, or add oxygen to the soil for access by the plants.
A hiller attachment for a wheeled hoe is used to create grooves or furrows in the soil. Such grooves can aid in moisture retention and delivery to root systems. Such an attachment is shaped like a blade that cuts through the soil as the wheeled hoe moves forward. In most cases, the attachments on the wheeled hoe can be removed and replaced quickly and easily; some systems require the use of tools such as wrenches, while others may feature a quick-release system that allows the components to be interchanged quickly.
Some attachments are quite narrow to avoid cutting or otherwise damaging mature plants that would come in contact with wider blades or attachments. Hoeing the soil between the mature plants prevents invasive grasses or other weeds from stealing valuable resources from the soil, but over-hoeing can lead to damage to the matured plant. Narrower blades allow the soil to be tilled without striking the plant at all. Some hoe attachments rotate or oscillate, and these are more likely to come in contact with the roots, leaves, or fruit of a mature plant.
