CA2246091A1 - Nu-hoe - Google Patents

Abstract

In this invention the tool embodies a flat surfaced plate whose perimeter bristles with hardened, sharpened cutting edges. The tool, because of the central, point-of balance placement of a handle stem designed to accept a variety of handle types and lengths, lies horizontally flush with the garden soil surface. Garden cultivation, ie., sowing and unwanted vegetation control may be accomplished without lifting, chopping or excessive bending or stooping.
Weed control close to or even within the rows of cultured vegetation is aided by the inclusion of strategically placed hooking/pulling notches within the perimeter of the tool's hardened and sharpened cutting edges. The design and embodiment of the invention herein described allows even physically infirm persons to garden with relative ease.

Description

SPECIFICATION
The invention under consideration is, in essence a mufti-use, manually operated tool for cultivating/planting/weeding suitably prepared garden soil.
Most commonly available tools for the preparation and good maintenance of cultured garden crops require that the gardener have good ambulation. Most garden hoes, shovels, scythes, edgers, etc., usually require the use of both hands and often times one or both feet.
Most gardening tools require that the gardener have the strength and an ability to raise and/or to plunge the sharp tool edges in a chopping or digging manner to prepare the garden soil for cultivation. Maintenance of the planted and growing garden bed requires similar and often more intense lifting, chopping and bending in the process of controlling unwanted vegetation.
Modern gardening instructors, in demonstrating the most e~cient use of a gardeners hoe for weeding insist that the hoe handle be held in a vertical position. The gardener's hand should grasp the handle with his thumbs pointing upward along the handle. The weeding is then accomplished with short chopping strokes while keeping the handle in a vertical position.
These actions allow the garden blade to shallowly enter the garden soil, and in the process, sever or uproot the weeds. This process is rather awkward and quite slow.
In tools designed for emplacing gardens and maintaining good order and a healthy growth environment for cultured vegetation, the tools have cutting edges which are designed and placed in a configuration which require the gardener to do bending, lifting, and chopping action to make and maintain a garden. It follows from the above that the gardener must be physically fit and ambulatory enough to accomplish such actions.

I have found that many of the disadvantages presented by some gardening tools may be overcome by using a garden tool which rests its weight upon the garden soil.
This type of tool requires very little lifting or bending. The garden grooming can be accomplished in a professional way and with a small fraction of the time and effort required when using other types of garden tools.
In drawings which illustrate embodiments of the invention, Figures I through X
are top views of the invention in some of its various, through not limited, configurations.
Figures XI
through XX depict typical side and end views showing the invention with four different handle stems to which longer or shorter handles may be attached. Long handles would be for use from an upright or standing position. Shorter handles would be selected for elevated garden plots or by persons who are obliged or choose to garden, from a kneeling position.
The tool to be described in its various configurations is comprised of a flat plate of durable composition to which an adjustable or fixed handle (B) of various lengths may be attached at or near the plates centre of balance. The plate will or may have hardened and sharpened metal cutting edges (A) usually throughout its entire perimeter. The perimeter of the plate, in its various configurations will be indented by strategically located weed-pulling or hooking notches (C). In some configurations, some portion of the notches (C) may be slightly elevated for delicate work.
The most effective use of the tool is the following Place the flat, bottom surface of the tool upon the garden soil so that the tool's flat bottom surface and the garden surface are flush.
Grasp the handle at a comfortable point which allows the plate to rest flush with the garden soil.

Raise or elevate the handle slightly so that the leading edge (A) of the tool's flat bottom surface is angled slightly down and is poised to enter the garden soil.
Push the handle forward while maintaining the downward angle of the tool's leading edge (A). When the tool's leading edge (A) is submerged beneath the soil surface, the gardener may then proceed to walk forward while maintaining the submerged position of the tool.
By exercising normal caution, the umwanted vegetation will be sheared off beneath the surface of the soil. With practice, a leisurely walking gait may be attained to quickly complete the task.
On other occasions and under different circumstances it may be necessary or desirable to operate the tool while the gardener remains stationary or is walking backward.
In that scenario the tool's handle must then first be slightly depressed or lowered.
In doing so, the rear (A) edges) of the tool are then poised to enter below the soil surface, alternately, elevating the tool's handle and thrusting the tool forward and then lowering the handle and pulling the tool, aids the process of weeding in more confined spaces.
The hooking/pulling notches (C) are provided for use where additional caution is necessary to avoid damage to the cultured vegetation. For instance where undesirable vegetation appears in close proximity or amongst the cultured crop, the undesirables may be "hooked"
out with judicious use of the various hooking/pulling notches (C). As illustrated in an end-on view of Figure XVI and XIX, the hooking/pulling notches (C) may be permanently elevated to facilitate weeding near or within rows of crops. -

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
A manually operable tool for the cultivation of prepared garden soil -specifically for the preparation of seed trenches and the covering thereof - and for the ongoing control of pest vegetation upon the garden plot.
I claim as property and privilege the unique facilities of the tool, i.e., the peculiar horizontal flat design of the main plate of the tool which allows for the distinctive push-pull and/or side-to-side, lateral shuttle-like to and fro, sideways-oscillation of the tool's main plate with its unique hardened and sharpened perimeter edges and which thereby eliminates, with a minimal expenditure of effort, unwanted vegetation through the shearing action of the tool.
A tool as defined in Claim #1 in which the perimeter of the tool with its hardened sharpened edges is interrupted by strategically positioned indentations or uniquely designed notches which function to hook and pull out, unwanted vegetation.
Such notches may also be equipped with hardened and sharpened metal edges.
A tool as defined in Claim #1 or Claim #2, in which the extremities of the expanse of the normally horizontally flat main plate of the tool may be strategically inclined or bent upward at or near the notches Figure XVI and XIX which hook and pull out unwanted vegetation.
The tool being described may also prove time and labour saving during the initial sowing of the garden seeds. The gardener, having located the position, extent and spacing of the intended rows to be seeded may place the tool in a flat position centrally upon one intended and marked row. By raising the handle attached to the fiat tool, the sharp and pointed leading edge will penetrate the prepared soil to the desired depth. The tool may then be pulled backwards along the entire length of the intended row to be planted. The point will leave a trench ready to receive the seeds. When the trench has been seeded, it may be backfilled by placing the flat tool at the side of the seeded trench. The handle may then be raised obliquely in a manner which allows one sharpened edge (C) to act with a snow plow or grading effect as it is pulled alongside the exposed trench of seeds. The trench with its seeds will be covered by this action and then tamped down with the flat of tool ready for watering.