Great Outdoors -- Weed Hound - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

Great Outdoors -- Weed Hound
By: Amy Jacquin

You probably enjoy a beautiful flower garden, or eating home-grown vegetables. But you probably don't enjoy the weeding that's required to keep those plants healthy.

A little isn't bad, but too much can cramp your back. But maybe not if you use the Weed Hound.

Barbara Blanchard of Cape Girardeau is well known for her teaching experience, and for her gardening talents. That's why we asked her to help test the $25 Weed Hound.

"Let's see if we can find a dandelion," says Barbara, taking off for her flower bed.

The Weed Hound is a metal tool with nail-like teeth that's supposed to bite and hold a weed, while you pull it out of the ground. It claims to work on dandelions, crab grass, wild garlic, and other types of weeds.

"Use in moist soil," Barbara reads directions. "After that rain, I think we're in good shape!"

"Center it on the weed, and push with your foot," she acts out the instructions as she reads them. "That should be very simple."

The Weed Hound pulls the dandelion and most of it's root!

"That wasn't bad," Barbara laughs. "Shall we try another one?"

We test a couple of more dandelions, and get the same result. Then we take aim at a clump of wild garlic... which most people call wild onions.

"Those are difficult to get up, a lot of the time," she says, as she closes the Weed Hound around them.

But the Weed Hound grabs the bulbs in its teeth!

"It's doing a fairly good job, Amy, for just a little gadget," Barbara says.

So we move from the flower beds, into the lawn... to see how it does in denser soil.

"Oh, now that one didn't come up at all," she says, after grabbing only a few leaves. "Maybe there's too much grass around it? I don't know."

But several more tests proved the Weed Hound up to the challenge.

"Well, now, this one came up," Barbara shows the long root.

Barbara admits she could pull the weeds just as quickly, if not more so, by hand. But says the Weed Hound might save you some back pain.

"The nice thing about this little tool, is that it's easy to use," she says. "It wouldn't be bad to keep this tool with the other tools that you have for gardening."

It might especially come in handy if you're weeding around rose bushes, and don't want to risk the thorns. But it's not any faster, and it's kind-of pricey for what you get. So the Weed Hound earns a B-.