It never fails. You spend hours laying out your garden beds, choosing the perfect plants, spend months starting seeds, lovingly water, and watch for growth… and then it happens. Something that is definitely NOT your plant is growing - and growing rapidly at that.

Weeds. They plague the most loved and cared for lawns and gardens all over the world. The chances are, you’ll spend more time pulling, plucking, picking, and otherwise attempting to eradicate the worst of them in your yard, than you will enjoy the pleasure of the yard itself.

Knowing how stubborn and persistent weeds tend to grow, how should you handle it?

Luckily for all of us home gardeners, weeds are a problem that can be solved with just a little elbow grease and a handy-dandy yard tool. Now all you have to do is to determine which one is the best weeding tool for you. Luckily, this article has done the job for you! Read on to find your next gardening best friend.

Backyard Boss Top 5 Weeding Tools for 2021

PRODUCT

FEATURES

Cobrahead Weeder - $$title$$

Cobrahead Weeder

  • Type: Short-Handled
  • Materials: Recycled Plastic Handle and Forged Steel Blade
  • Weight: 8.8 Ounces

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Grampa's Weeder - $$title$$

Grampa's Weeder

  • Type: Long-Handled
  • Materials: Real Bamboo and 4-Claw Steel Head
  • Weight: 16 Ounces

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Yard Butler Twist Tiller - $$title$$

Yard Butler Twist Tiller

  • Type: Long-Handled
  • Materials: Steel
  • Weight: 72 Ounces

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GREBSTK Crack Weeder - $$title$$

GREBSTK Crack Weeder

  • Type: Short-Handled
  • Materials: Wood and Steel
  • Weight: 5.6 Ounces

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Jenlis Razer Rake - $$title$$

Jenlis Razer Rake

  • Type: Collapsible
  • Materials: Aluminum and Galvanized Steel
  • Weight: 86.4 Ounces

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Why You Can Trust Us

We're passionate gardeners and we know it's disheartening when weeds start to take over your meticulously trimmed lawn, your gorgeous flower bed, or your vegetable garden. We've been there, on our knees, pulling out dandelion, crabgrass, morning glory, thistle, or chickweed, making sure they won't crowd out our favorite plants or overgrow our lawns. It's tedious.

Weeding tools can make this chore much easier and more effective. In the spring, we love using our tiller because it helps us quickly prepare beds for planting while uprooting weeds and tilling them under. During the growing season, we use hand tools to go between plants and grab weeds by their roots to pull them out whole.

We've gone through a number of tools to find what's best for our needs. Now we're here to help you find the best weeding tools for your garden.

Best for Small Weeds

Cobrahead Weeder and Cultivator

    This helps you to both dig and cut at tough stems with precision in just about any type of soil. The curved neck and head is made to get deep under the plant to cut the tap-root, the main root that will keep the plant from coming back if removed.

      Pros:

    • Self-sharpening steel
    • Tough in any soil
    • Comfortable design
    • Versatile for both cutting, digging, and loosening
      Cons:

    • Could leave holes in the soil
    • Requires arm strength to use properly
    • Blade lacks a knife edge

Why We Like It: Its versatility extends to being useful as a digging tool for creating trenches, bulb holes, and cultivating around delicate plants to name a few. I love how many things you can do with just one tool simply by changing how you hold it. Plus the grip works for both left- and right-handed users.

Who Should Buy It: Since it boasts a comfortable handle and is designed for leverage, this is a popular tool to use for people who don’t have a lot of strength to do much pulling, and for large areas requiring more effort as well.

Best for Larger Weeds

Grampa's Weeder

    Grampa’s weeder was first invented over 100 years ago as a long-handled, forked gardening tool for weed and plant removal. Since then it has only gotten more popular as the go-to for lawn and garden weed removal due to its simple grasping concept.

      Pros:

    • No bending down required
    • Grasps and destroys taproot easily
    • Sturdy design
    • Good for taller people also, no stooping
      Cons:

    • Not for raised garden beds
    • Hard to use where plants are close together
    • Not much precision overall
    • Not good for plants that send out runners

Why We Like It: This has made it a popular weeder for lawns due to how easy it pulls weeds through a patented forked lever method. It literally takes little to no effort for the user to remove dandelions and other pesky plants that tend to take over a yard. The lever design gets at the taproot and pulls it clear to keep the weed from regrowing.

Who Should Buy It: Personally, I think this thing looks like a lot of fun to use, and I bet I could talk my kids into fighting over who gets to use it. Because of its design, it is for quick removal of unwanted plants in more open areas where you can easily maneuver the tool into position.

Best for Tough Weeds

GREBSTK Crack Weeder

    This little weeding tool is made to specifically deal with small and stubborn weeds that grow in the tightest spaces. It’s designed as a short handheld crevice weeder with a beechwood handle and a stainless steel blade.

      Pros:

    • Blade edge protects stone paving
    • Durable materials with easy hand grip
    • Cuts through tough soil
    • Specially designed for tight spaces and pavements
      Cons:

    • Difficult to use for uneven paving edges
    • Short blade doesn’t reach deep enough

Why We Like It: This blade folds at a right angle, with a sharpened outer corner, to cut through weeds and hardened soil, and a hardened inner corner, to prevent accidentally damaging the pavement. It's incredibly lightweight and perfect for getting into the tightest spaces in your yard, eliminating dandelions, persistent grass, moss, and other unwanted vegetation from your garden.

Who Should Buy It: Those who want to prevent using a weed-killing solution or nicking expensive stoneware can use this weeder to eradicate weeds. Brick driveways, garden paths, and even exterior walls with small weeds growing through its cracks or nestled in tight crevices can finally be dealt with by using this weeder.

Best Long-Handle Weeder

Yard Butler Twist Tiller

    This heavy-duty tiller is a multipurpose gardening tool that not only helps dig out all kinds of weeds, it's also great for tilling and aerating soil. In a nutshell, this gardening tool is made to minimize the effort needed to care for your garden.

      Pros:

    • Effortlessly loosens soil
    • Multipurpose usage fit for weeding and tilling
    • Ideal for raised beds
    • Minimizes effort required
      Cons:

    • Will still need to bend to pull weeds
    • Incompatible with hard, dry, and compacted soil

Why We Like It: It’s designed with a long T-handle steel bar connected to a sturdy step plate, which eliminates the need to bend down while still allowing for precision in its use. Connected to the step plate is a steel claw with heavy-duty tines that dig deep into the ground with little effort. This design creates a tool that simplifies the process of loosening soil, helping to not only uproot weeds but also to aerate the soil and make way for better water and nutrient supply.

Who Should Buy It: This tool works best with raised beds but, with proper moisture and soil prep, this could also tackle hardened and compacted soil beds.

Best for Large Areas

Jenlis Razer Rake

    This versatile rake is specially designed to pull out weeds in the most efficient way possible, whether they’re growing in your yard or are found in your lakes and ponds.

      Pros:

    • Can easily take care of large and hard to reach areas
    • Easily removes large aquatic weeds
    • Sharp rake teeth
    • Lightweight yet durable
      Cons:

    • Complicated assembly
    • Impractical for deeply rooted weeds

Why We Like It: It uses lightweight yet durable materials that make it easy to weed out the undergrowth, either by using it as a normal rake in the yard or throwing it in the water and uprooting water-grown weeds. The wide rake head is made with sharp teeth that tug at large areas of weeds, gathering several weeds at a time. It also comes with additional accessories such as a rope and a floatation device for tackling lake weeds. Storing it is also a dream come true since it's collapsible and doesn't take up much space, great even for small garden sheds.

Who Should Buy It: The way it's designed helps uproot large weeds surrounding and growing the water but is limited to smaller weeds when used for dry ground. Either way, it helps make weeding out gardens a fuss-free process. So those who live by a pond, this is your best friend.

To see the Jenlis Razer Rake in action, watch this video.

Why Weed at All and Not Use a Weed Killer?

Chemical and organic weed killers can be very effective in helping to eradicate weeds, but there are many things to consider before you attempt this route. For starters, using any sort of plant killer, chemical or not, around your annual and perennial beds is going to most likely result in plants you didn’t want to kill gasping for their last breath as well.

The biggest problem with weed killers is that they are not always specific to just weeds. They generally kill vegetation with no regard as to whether it is your prize petunias or an annoying patch of creeping charlie. And you definitely don’t want poisons in with anything you eventually want to consume.

Many lawn fertilizers have weed killer mixed in, and while they can be effective, it doesn’t always kill what weeds have already gone to seed and makes it unsafe to leave your kids, pets, and wildlife on the lawn until the poison levels are low enough.

Weed-killing solutions work but don’t confuse it with a solve-all. Be prepared, at the very least, to wage war by hand in your garden and vegetable beds!

Why a Tool? Why Not Just Pull It Up?

Hand holding a CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator tool.

Image credits: CobraHead via Amazon

Physical stressors such as bending down, reaching out, or straining your back and legs seem to be a given in gardening. However, with the right tools, this shouldn’t have to happen as much! Ideally the less strain on your body, the better. Save your energy for nurturing your garden instead of wasting it all on the vegetation you plan on killing.

Weeds have an annoying habit of rooting themselves into the most difficult areas. It’s not unusual to see them coming up between block pavers, through stone landscaping, or growing blatantly in the middle of a perfectly manicured lawn. Regardless of how hard you pull, weeds are determined to complicate your gardening life if you leave the roots in the soil. They’ll disappear for a few days and then come back like they never left, like some bad, B-rated horror movie.

You don’t have to spend hours on the ground, bent down low, and pulling on weeds over and over again. Make your life easier with the help of tools designed for that purpose. In that way, you’ll also be able to pull it from the roots much easier. Tools can make your weed killing experience much less stressful, and help make sure they die the first time.

Types of Weeding Tools

There is quite a variety of quality weeding tools on the market, and to choose the best ones for you, it’s important to understand how each works. Mainly there are two basic categories: Ideally you may want to have one of each depending on your yard needs.

Long-Handled Tools

Image credits: Grampa's Gardenware via Amazon

Long tools will allow you to cover larger, more open areas more quickly (such as a lawn) while you are standing.

Short-Handled Tools

Short-handled tools require you to bend or work on your knees but allow you to get into those closer spaces under and around your plants.

Tool are further divided by their use and multiple head types:

Knives

As suggested by the name, knives look very much like large knives attached to a sturdy wooden handle. The serrated edge of one side is for sawing and digging, while the smoother edge is used to slice. These are good to get in between pavers, slide into the root below ground, and create trenches.

Hoes

Multiple hoe varieties are available, but their purpose is all the same, to help remove weeds through both pushes and pulling actions. Sharp edges work into the soil to get the weeds at the roots and help remove vegetation. Both long and short-handled versions are popular because not a lot of effort is needed in their use with easy-to-access weeding spots.

Tiller

Tillers can loosen and aerate the soil while at the same time uprooting and removing weeds. Look for one with a step plate to give you some extra leverage, and be sure to twist both left and right to avoid one-sided strain on your body.

Rake: Fork or Cultivator

Rakes look very similar to what their name suggests: a 3 to 5 fingered metal fork, occasionally staggered, to pull and grab at vegetation. These are very helpful in loosening the soil and aiding to pull up multiple weeds at once in close quarters, especially if you have compacted soils.

Digger: Fishtail or Asparagus Knife

Diggers are just that, a forked-like, flat head that is sharpened to cut through weeds by fitting around the stem and using a pushing or twisting motion. These are some of the best hand weeding tools of the short-handled variety due to their overall ease of use.

Cobrahead

Called such because of their curved neck and flattened head, cobrahead tools are both long and short-handled and can get into the toughest of soils to dig and cut out unwanted vegetation. It also can be used to created plow furrows for planting.

How to Choose the Best Weeding Tool for You

You should ask yourself a few questions before making a final decision regarding the best garden weeding tools for you. There are factors to consider concerning where you are using it, what you are using it on, and even the materials used to make the tool itself.

Where Will You Be Weeding?

Woman using a hand weeding tool to weed her raised garden bed.

Weeding a lawn can be very different than weeding a raised garden bed, or between block paving. Consider the location of where you will primarily be working. If you have drastically different areas to work within, you may want to consider different tools or one that can do multiple tasks.

What Types of Weeds Are You Removing?

Weeds, unfortunately, come in a variety of different shapes and sizes. The size of your weeds should be taken into consideration as well. Immature weeds have shallow root systems and are easier to remove than some mature varieties, that can grow almost as tall as a single-story house— and will have a root system deep enough to match it.

What Are the Soils Like?

Obviously, compacted and clay-baked soils are going to take more effort to dig into than well-turned, composted soils. Luckily, with the correct tool, your efforts can be minimized since the tool is in charge of the tough part. Look for sturdy handles and strong metals.

Are You Going to Be Comfortable (Either Standing or Kneeling)?

An elderly woman, crouched in between flowers, weeding.

The use of any tool requires some physical effort on your part, and you need to think about how comfortable you will be in using it. Some tools require a twisting wrist motion, others need a pull or push to get the desired effect.

Are Long-Lasting Materials Used in the Make of the Tool?

Ideally, you want your tools to be a one-time buy. Good workmanship is a huge factor since you don’t want to be shelling out money on the same product year after year. Sometimes, spending a bit more on quality saves you the most time and money in the future.

How We Picked

Weeding can be a smooth process with the right tools, and a painstakingly long process with the wrong set of tools. What I have provided you with are just five options from hundreds of weed eradication tools found online and in stores. Was it easy to comb through hundreds of products to come up with these five? Of course not, but when you have to spend money on something, you want to make sure it's worth it.

Narrowing down wasn't easy, but to get here, we focused on choosing highly rated weeding tools based on consumer ratings. But reviews alone aren't enough so we chose tools based on certain materials and their weight. Weight is an important factor, according to me, because the heavier the product the more the chances of it not being used! Keeping all this in mind, we were able to trim the list down to five of what we believe are the best on the market.

Invest in the Best Weeding Tool You Will Use

Who would've thought there would be so many ways to deal with weeds! Not all weeding tools are equal— one that's good for dandelions might not be great for crawling weeds or even for lake weeds. If so, does that mean I need to buy a different weeder for each kind of weed I have? Nope!

To get your money’s worth, a multipurpose gardening tool that comes with several functions or can tackle different kinds of weeds would be your best bet.

Of the five products mentioned, we believe the best one is the Yard Butler Twist Tiller. Not only does it simplify the de-weeding process, but it also improves soil moisture and health. Since using this already loosens the soil around the weed, regardless of its size, removing it from the root is so much easier. Although we feel that, in general, this is the best of the bunch, be sure to consider your own needs.

It doesn’t sound like the most exciting activity but, with the right tools, weeding out your garden can be fun, relaxing, and oh-so rewarding!