He holds a round gardening tool (3)

I believe the answer is:

hoe

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'gardening tool' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'he holds a round' is the wordplay.
'he' becomes 'ho' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'holds' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a' becomes 'per'.
'round' indicates the central letters.
The central letter of 'per' is 'e'.
'ho'+'e'='HOE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hoe that I've seen before include "Garden implement" , "Garden tool for scraping up weeds" , "Romanians (anag) -- European enclave" , "gardening implement" , "Weeding tool" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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