Diggit Hand Tool

Diggit was born out of a mother son collaboration between Elena and Paul Shemeta of the Seattle area. This northwest duo's first gardening tool hit the market in 1997 at Seattle's Fremont Sunday Market. While Paul was tasked with the refinement of the tool and the fabrication process, he credits Elena for the creation of Diggit. It was Elena who was responsible for the initial concept and the drive to get it to market.

When Elena got fed up with the mess that a weeding claw was making of her soil, she went in search of a better tool. After rummaging around her cluttered cellar for some time, her tool of choice was a foot-long tent stake. When she began weeding with the tent stake, to her surprise, it worked phenomenally. It uprooted the weeds efficiently and cleanly, roots and all. When Elena convinced Paul (who was now an accomplished mechanical engineer) that they should figure out how to refine and produce it in volume, they were on their way.

Paul worked for a year perfecting the tool. According to him, his process was "a lot of trial and error with assembly methods, the design and size of the tool, digging weeds at halftime during football games, asking people their opinions about the latest design..."

Using Diggit was the real key for Paul though. He went through alot of different handles before settling on the one that is used now. He knew it was the right one because even during intensive weeding sessions, he says, "It didn't give me blisters."