When we moved into our house, the yard was more weed than lawn. For the first two years I spent the summer on my hands and knees digging out as many as I could without going insane from the seeming futility of the battle. Our neighbor took my husband aside one day to ask what I was always doing out there crawling around the yard (It was hard for him to understand why we didn't just spray our yard like any sensible person). When my husband explained that we didn't want to expose our daughters to the toxic chemicals that pesticides are made of, he respectfully nodded and promised he wouldn't secretly spray our yard as he had with the previous owners. (Wha?!)

Anyway, the following summer we bought a Weed Hound, a glorious tool that lets you stand erect and pluck weeds out by their roots so easily you'd think the ground was actually spitting them out. Now our yard is almost weed-free - and completely pesticide-free. And, my husband has become a Weed Hound evangelist - telling friends and neighbors of its wonders and coercing them into trying ours out. Here's his nine-second demonstration of the ease and effectiveness of this marvelous tool.


(My eight-year -old daughter eagerly uses it too, but the day I shot the video the ground was too hard due to the prolonged drought we've been having. Try as she might, she just couldn't get it to work. Typically though, it's easy enough for a child to use.)

You can get the Weed Hound at some local garden stores or on Amazon.com for just over $25 - which, since it's stocked by Amazon directly, means it ships free.

Do you have a favorite unusual gardening or landscaping tool? Tell us about it in the comments!