Ditch The Rake: The Easy-To-Use Tool For Removing Grass And Weeds From Gravel Driveways

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"Ouch, my back," you say after several hours of weeding your gravel driveway the old-fashioned way with a rake. "If only there were a way to prevent weed growth on a gravel driveway," you might add, but that's a tall order. Sure, there should be a weed-blocking barrier under the gravel if the driveway was properly installed, but as long as there's any dirt between that barrier and the surface, weeds can grow in it. That doesn't mean you need to spend hours raking your driveway, though. Not if you have a scuffle hoe.  

Some tools are ingenious, and a scuffle hoe (also known as a hula, stirrup, or hoop hoe) is one of them. Perfectly designed for uprooting small weeds, it features a metal triangle affixed to the end of a long handle, and on the bottom of the triangle is a sharp cutting blade. As Dave Knop demonstrates on YouTube, you use the hoe by digging the blade just below the surface of the ground and pushing or pulling it to cut the weeds near the roots. If the roots are shallow enough, the hoe might actually pull the weeds out completely.

A scuffle hoe, like this well-reviewed 54 in. Wood Handle Action Scuffle Hoe from Home Depot, works as well on gravel as it does on garden soil. If you make it your go-to tool for clearing your gravel driveway, you might never have to rake weeds again. 

A scuffle hoe isn't designed for digging, and there's no need to push it deep into the gravel. If you simply set it on the surface and push or pull it, it will automatically bury itself just deep enough to cut small weeds and deposit them on the surface, while leaving the gravel pretty much the way it was. It's perfect for a driveway with a weed barrier that prevents roots from growing too deep, because it doesn't cut through tall weeds as efficiently as it does small ones. 

When you're done with the hoe, you can collect the cut weeds with a leaf rake and compost them or mulch them with your lawn mower. While the rake is collecting weeds, it will also smooth out the gravel and deposit any of it that was displaced back to where it belongs. Your driveway may have gravel that's too heavy to move around with a leaf rake, in which case you may want to do this cleanup with a sturdier garden rake. 

Because a scuffle hoe is primarily a cutting tool, it's important to keep the blade sharp, and there are multiple ways to do this. You can use a file, an angle grinder, or a drill with a grinding attachment, but don't over-sharpen, because a super-sharp blade wears out more quickly. The tool will do its job and last for years if you keep the blade about as sharp as a dinner knife.