American away from home: tend soil (3)
I believe the answer is:
hoe
'tend soil' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'american away from home' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for United States).
'away from' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'home' becomes 'house' (I've seen this before).
'house' with 'us' taken away is 'HOE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hoe that I've seen before include "Attend to beds" , "Weed" , "Romanians (anag) -- European enclave" , "Weeding implement" , "Garden tool for scraping up weeds" .)