Reviews, Comments and Useful tip for the Ho-Mi Korean Hand Plow."The garden tools I can't live without."I saw the ho-mi in a garden catalog and it looked interesting so I bought one. I love it! The ho-mi is easy to use and multi-applicational. I use it for weeding, digging, planting, furrowing and cultivating. I find it is just about the only garden tool I need to carry with me around the gardens. Because I have had back problems I prefer to do most of my gardening on my hands and knees and the ho-mi is just a nice little garden hand-tool to work with.”
“The ho-mi is shaped like a plow having a triangular head with a sharp point and an "arm" that is curved around to the handle. The angle of the arm helps provide leverage in getting up weeds or for scooping under and lifting up plants for transplanting. The point makes it easier to use than a trowel for breaking through crusted earth and I find the angle easier on the wrist than the awkward straightness of a trowel when it comes to lifting out plants. It does a wonderful job of loosing soil around plantings while taking care of weeds -- a job you might otherwise need two separate garden tools for, so I guess you would say the ho-mi is also a timesaver.
“My husband saw how delighted I was when using this garden tool (which you may also find referred to as an "E Z Digger"), that he wants me to order another one for him! The only drawback to the ho-mi is in its plain-ness which tends to become camouflaged if you leave it lying around. (Watch out for the pointed end here too!) You may want to put some paint or brightly colored tape on the handle for easier visibility because this little gem is too precious to lose. I have not met another gardening tool that I have been this delighted with. Now, instead of dragging a tote full of garden hand-tools out to the garden, I just pick up my trusty ho-mi and I'm set for just about anything. Of course larger jobs will still require larger tools but as garden hand-tools go, I think this is the best.”
H.R.- Omaha, NE.
”Ho-mi Korean Hand Plow looks like a ploughshare on the end of a short wooden handle. Also called the ho-mi digger, the Ho-mi Korean Hand Plow is an incredibly useful garden tool that does the job of a garden trowel, but I find it's a lot easier to use than a trowel.
When making planting holes with a garden trowel, you have to twist your wrist. You'll notice the strain after planting a half a flat of annuals.
The Ho-mi Korean Hand Plow, allows you to make your planting holes without having to twist your wrist. Instead you use this garden tool in an up-and-down motion. It's a whole lot quicker to use for planting too.
I quickly discovered it’s benefits after a bout of bad wrist strain from gardening and working on the computer, my two favorite and most time-consuming activities.
Now I like it so much I rarely bother with a garden trowel anymore, although I have to admit that a trowel is still the best tool for jobs like potting up a container garden.” B.H. Asheville, NC
“My favorite weeding tool is the Ho-mi Korean Hand Plow, an ancient Korean gardening tool still in use. Pronounced "hoe-me", hoeing is only one of the functions of the multi-use garden tool. I use the pointy tip for digging out larger weeds. It can also can be used for digging holes for transplanting, division of smaller plants, or getting unwanted seedlings out from between sidewalk cracks. Both the curved and flat sides are useful for scraping the tops off of small annual weeds to weaken root systems or for soil leveling. Because the ho-mi is multi-functional, there is less need to constantly swap tools. Granted the well-known dandelion digger that looks much like a giant fondue fork has a deeper reach for tap roots, but I find that if the garden gets a quick going over for weeds every week or two, most weeds will weaken from the sustained onslaught.”
P.B.- Litchfield, CT
I find the Ho-mi Korean Hand Plow particularly useful renovating a flower bed. When the bed cleanup is complete, the next task is cutting a nice, clean, 45-degree angle edge along each plant border. For this job, I use a well sharpened, straight-edged spade, along with a nifty little garden tool called a Ho-mi Korean Hand Plow to finish the edging. Place the resulting clumps of grass and earth somewhere to dry out. Then, shake off soil and add the grass to the composter.”
R.H.- Lancaster, PA
”I would guess that most people who garden at any scale are always looking for good garden tools to help them. Judging by the numbers of new 'gizmos' that appear each spring there are also great numbers of people who are not satisfied with their garden tools and are looking for something better and more efficient. There are plenty of inventors and manufacturers who see a business opportunity in tool making.”
”The HoMi (which young Koreans tell us means 'farmer's knife') is different. It has been the traditional tool of choice in Korean intensive vegetable and flower gardens for centuries. It isn't reinvented every few years because it works efficiently, is strong and durable, and has been tested in that most practical laboratory, the intensive food garden. Peasant farmers can't throw away a useless tool or consign it to the back of the garden tool shed. They need a practical working implement that they can depend on day in day out because their livelihood depends on it.”
-Michael Plane
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