A sauzahn is a tool made for digging in loose soil such as raised beds. I’ve never seen one for sale in the U.S. If I were using raised beds, I would find a way to make one. It is used in the spring to refresh the bed. The Sauzahn is pulled through the soil to loosen and aerate prior to spring planting.
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@Murky you are right. Stirrup hoe is only good for cultivating shallow and light. My raised beds are filled with a loamy soil and supplemented with compost and tree leaf mould. The soil does not get walked on at all. I may add biochar this year after I check the pH. Using the stirrup hoe when weeds are small, takes about ten minutes per bed and is light work. No chopping, just slide back and forth. The meds have a mole liner, I can’t cultivate deeply.
For the winter, the raised beds have a thick layer of tree leaves. No weeds grow through that. I may remove the unrotted leaves and plant a garden pea cover crop in Feb or Mar, which I will turn over in May. That will loosen and aerate the soil, bring up nutrients, add N.
Actually this year should be less of even that. I bought rolls of butcher paper to use as mulch. Some larger areas will get black plastic. Less hoeing, weeding, and watering. The stirrup hoe will still have a role for some crops.
Actually for deep rooted weeds or sod elsewhere,
i just use a shovel. I’m trying to move away from heavy work so I’m thinking further ahead. For new or neglected garden beds, I cover with a thick leaf layer from Fall to Spring. If no leaves, I use black plastic. That kills almost all sod and perennial weeds. Underground fauna tunnel around and pre-loosen a lot of the soil, too. Then I use a shovel to turn it over and garden rake and/or hand tiller that looks like this.
Not a hand tool… but something I have been wanting… going home with me today.
Make my own mulch… better compost…
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From the cc number I assume it is more than 5 hp. I had a 5 hp one and it was not enough power. Have an old Craftsman 8hp now and much better.
@danzeb … this one is 6.5 hp.
Harbor Freight predator.
It says 3 inch capacity… but I watched lots of YouTube vids on it… that size might work on dry pine or poplar… but not on green or dry hardwoods.
I have 27 acres of timber… and 3 acres of clearing/fields… lots of saplings and bushes all around the edge of my fields… very thick… and brushy… dont think I will ever run out of smaller stuff I can easily chip and shred with this one.
I get around 20 wheelbarrows full of maple leaves from my two sugar maples… now I can shred those before adding to compost pile… shred my corn stalks… okra stalks… the list goes on and on.
Compost material… and wood chip mulch are my main goals. This will keep me busy… like I need that 
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One thing which hasn’t been mentioned is that for shoveling loose material, a light wooden handled shovel is the best. Using it all day (or a good portion of the day) won’t tire you out.
The most robust shovels are also the heaviest. Depending on the job, the heaviest isn’t always the best.
We have a couple different metal handled shovels I welded together. One of them is specifically for prying. It won’t bend. As long as the steel is sufficient thickness, it should be superior fiberglass and wood handles, in terms of strength. Alan has mentioned King of Spades is the touchstone for metal handled shovels. I basically built my own King of Spades before I knew King of Spades was a shovel.
Fiberglass handles are a bit stronger than any wood handle imo. And if you leave them out, the handle won’t rot. You can crack a fiberglass handle, but it’s not as easy as wood.
I generally pick up shovels at garage sales (like I do pump up sprayers). They are cheap. Some are very good, some are not so good.
I like plastic handles on axes and sledge hammers because people seem to strike the handle a lot. With plastic, it doesn’t damage the handle as bad.
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I’ve wondered about doing that because I don’t know how long herbicides might affect my sprays. I’d hate to set my apple back by using a sprayer that had 2-4-D residue, for example. Do you have any concerns and/or solutions about that possibility, or am I worrying needlessly?
Thanks -
When I buy a pump sprayer, I rinse it out very well. Then put about a 10% ammonia solution in the sprayer for about a day. That’s all I’ve found needed.
There is a lot of concern about using herbicide sprayers for, say, insects on fruit trees. But I have one 100 gal sprayer in particular that I use sometimes for herbicides and sometimes for insect/fungicides on tomatoes. Tomatoes are very sensitive to herbicides, so it’s important to clean sprayers well. But I do swap that sprayer back and forth during the summer from herbicides to insecticides. It just takes a long time to thoroughly clean that sprayer out.
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Thank you, Mark. I can get comfortable with that.
For those interested in another pruning saw… i found this one and think it is fantastic for the money.
I’ve found Lee Valley a pretty good source for a variety of tools, but was disappointed to see their garden tools have been greatly pared down.
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