Reddit mentions: The best garden hoes

1. There are a lot of calculators on "Green to brown ratio" or "C:N" ratios... but unless you are capable of weighing your debris and figuring the moisture content, it's all just a guideline for you. For your needs, make the pile a 2:1 ratio in volume of leaves to grass. Mix the mass evenly as grass tends to mat and go anaerobic if you layer with it.
   
   
2. shred the leaves. If you have a mulching mower that actually recirculates the material and shreds it, use that. You mentioned a blower... does this blower suck as well? I use a blower/vacuum for my backyard leaves, but my back yard isn't that big.
   
   
3. Instead of one big pile, which gets to be a chore to turn due tot he size and weight, instead aim for several small piles about 1 - 1.5 cubic yards. Start a pile as tall as your chest and it will shrink to your waist or lower as it cooks.
   
   
4. add some water as you add to the pile. The pile should not be soaking... just damp. If water is dripping or running out of the pile, there is too much water.
   
   
5. use a thermometer. Use a compost thermometer and place it in the fresh pile. The temperature will rise over a couple days and may even hit 160 degrees. Let the pile sit until it hits 120 degrees. When the temperature gets to 120, turn the pile into a new pile. Do this by scraping the fresher material from the top and making a pile with it. Then add the internal pile, now darker and warm, on the outside of the new pile. The pile will cool as you do this, but you will be moving the still compostable stuff to the middle. The temperature will rise again but not as high. When it gets to 100, turn and mix it to a new pile. It may rise and fall again. Keep this going every couple days until the temperature doesn't move. At this point it is done with any meso or thermophilic action.
   
   I recommend having a larger passive pile and a few smaller active piles. The larger pile can be for food scraps and such... the larger items. The smaller piles will be for active composting -composting you are doing. Turn the larger pile every week or so... or less.
   
   Once the small piles aren't changing in temperature, they can be used as compost but you can take some extra steps.
   
   
6. take the new compost and sift it through a 1/4" screen. Store the 1/4" stuff in a bin with a lid.
   
   
7. the stuff that doesn't make it through... you can add to a new pile for further breakdown.
   
   
8. the can of 1/4" stuff should sit for a month or so in the sunlight with the lid on. Any seeds left in the compost that survived the thermophilic process will sprout in the can (instead of in your garden.) This will prevent weeds.
   
   Amend your soil with the 1/4" stuff. I recommend doing so with a wheel hoe as this will help break into the soil a bit better. Or use a motor tiller if you have one.
   
   As for JUST the leaves, if you place damp leaves (better if they are shredded) into a pile and let it sit for a few months, you'll get something called leaf mold. Sift this as with the compost and combine the two or use separately. It's not quite compost, but it will add biological activity to the soil.
   
   RIP your free time. Composting is strangely fun.

How many hours a day does sunlight hit the yard? (Different groundcover options require different amounts of sun.)

If you have some ground you want to keep bare ground/soil, get yourself a pass-thru hoe. You'll weed more in 3 minutes than you would in hours pulling weeds by hand.

Alternatively, you could put down some weed-resistant fabric (sold at Home Depot/garden centers/etc) and cover it with a couple inches of rocks (like rounded river stones), and that will be safe for a firepit. You could do designs with different types/colors of stones, if you wanted to be fancy; you'd hold the different stone types in place with turf edging. But you'll need to clean leaves, etc, out of the stones 1-2x/year or they will degrade into new soil and then weeds will grow in that.

None of these backyard options will cost more than $100-$200 or so, but make sure you shop around at websites and stores and sellers from outside the city; there's a huge markup on garden products sold inside NYC to rich, space-short city-dwellers.

I have heard the real professionals, who have hundreds of acres to deal with just use herbicides. That truly is the easiest way.

In smaller plots,[ I love my diamond hoe.](
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006IH3CY/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_FMqavb0BPV517) Although I am considering a [Japanese Hoe](
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V2LWII/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_vQqavb068E8Y4) for when I am trying to pick through a bunch of weeds which are mixed with what I planted.

Not sure if you have a plan for weeding as it fills in, if not a hula hoe is great for taking out seedlings by hand.

https://www.amazon.com/Gardeners-Supply-Company-Hula-Hoe/dp/B007XIVZCE

Nejiri Gama Hoe

Seriously. This is one of the very best garden tools I own. Keep it sharp.

For weeds, I like a hoe, myself.

(Obligatory) Found OP's mom on sale for $69.99
https://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Garden-Light-Weight-Lifetime-Guarantee/dp/B003R15ZJU/ref=sr_1_9?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1466125631&sr=1-9&keywords=garden+hoe

This is a hoe

This is a Ho!(NSFW)

Couldn't find the old version, but found the new tactical model.

Maybe a long handled Nejiri Gama Hoe

Push pull hoe

https://www.amazon.com/Hoss-Tools-PPH994-Push-Pull/dp/B01KINA8NW

Stirrup hoe. I swear by these things. Get a short handled stirrup hoe and weed careful between the plants. Takes no time at all. https://www.amazon.com/AMES-Companies-Inc-1985450-Action/dp/B00SCEMDCO

​

BTW, is that Buttercrunch?