Are weed pulling tools worth buying for a persistent weedy garden?

[wanderingalien]

Every few weeks my garden is over come with weeds. Due to worries about plastic, I'm not willing to use a plastic sheet as a ground cover. I've heard of the vinegar trick but am worried about damaging the soil or killing other plants.
The previous tenants used plastic sheets with gravel on top. It failed after a few years. They kept adding more layers of plastic and more soil which I then had to dig out.
So I need recommendations for one of those weed pulling devices to make my life easier. have never had one before. I think they're about £30-40 so I would want to know that they are actually of any use. Can anyone send me links if they have one that they enjoy using. TIA.

Titec weed puller 11.99 on amazon. Came sunday and only had a quick go as ground is so hard but much easier and whole root came out!

You need to be certain which weeds you are talking about.

Weed pullers will not work on chickweed or sticky Willie.

Neither will it work on couch grass or bindweed.

They do however work brilliantly on dandelions, teasels, anything with rosettes that can be grabbed on to. It might work for a time on docks or nettles if they are quite young.

Also if the soil is hard, nothing will come smoothly out of the soil, it will just break off. I do my extractions during winter after or during heavy rain.

What types of weeds are they? If they have shallow roots would a hoe work?

I haven't tried a weed puller because in my experience roots don't always grow straight downwards, like they appear in the adverts. Sometimes you just need to spend time crouched down with a daisy grubber to dig out all the root.

We have a tool like this but bought on a whim from a garden centre. It works better than expected to get weeds out of the grass.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/bq3f5c9h

I think they work all right for things like getting dandelion roots out of lawns, but not a lot else. For most weeds you need to get down on your hands and knees and pull them up, or dig them out with a trowel.

Total waste of time trying to pull weeds out of rock-hard dry ground though.

Figure out the species and therefore the depth of the root. Upload some photos and we can probably advise :)

Bare ground/substrate will always have plants trying to grow. Put in plants you like instead. More plants of choice = fewer weeds.

I have a similar tool to @7238SM from amazon which works brilliantly.