At a Loss for Another Name

[digitS']

I'm not really trying to expose crime and corruption with it but, ladies and gentlemen, I give to you, my muckrake:

There is a heftier version of this kind of tool: the potato fork. I have always wanted one but have never been quite sure of its usefulness for cultivation purposes.

A lighter weight version is a 4-prong cultivator - I've got one of those. (And, I have the short-handled 3-prong cultivator - a useful tool for weeding that I can use sitting on an upside-down bucket in the garden.

The muckrake may well be known under a different name but I only know "muckrake." Honestly, I'd like to use a more respectable name for it as I'm not raking muck in the garden. Lacking the investigative talents of a true muckracker I'm at a loss . . .

I use this tool for cultivation. To the full depth of 5" to 6", it does an admirable job!

The bed the tool is lying on was trenched out with a spade last fall. The trench was layered with compostables (mostly, frost-killed garden plants) and refilled. The soil is wonderfully soft, there are a few spring weeds but they will be dispatched quickly with the muckrake as I work around the bed, 1st in one direction and then, the opposite way.

By the time this simple task is complete, the bed will be fairly level, any fertilizer sprinkled on the surface will be thoroughly incorporated into the top half-foot, and the bed will be ready for transpants. I can quickly go over it with a garden rake and it will be just about perfect as a seed bed for sowing.

Simple, easy to use, cheap, and efficient - a good garden tool.

Steve
& his muckrake: exposing crime, fraud, waste, graft, and illegal financial practices

 

[hoodat]

I also get a lot of use out of mine but, like you, I don't know what to call it. I forget what they called it where I bought it.

 

[Collector]

I don't know the name of it, but they use them in the Columbia Basin to clean debri out of the irrigation canals. Nice looking tool though.

 

[digitS']

That there debris is "muck." So, maybe it's a muckrake. But, I just do the chop/pull, chop/pull, chop/pull . . .

It is a little hard on my back because of the pull but that's true with the garden rake, also. Nevertheless, I can get around about 100sqft before I need to stop and allow the muscles to relax. Probably no special danger to any body-part since there's nothing heavy associated with it.

Yeah, I'd go back to Best Buy Surplus and ask them what it is but I probably wouldn't get the answer. Problem with being hearing-impaired - just nod and smile, maybe babble about something totally off-the-wall so that there isn't any danger of the person asking a question. Confronted with a question, just nod and smile . . . .

Steve

 

[Collector]

Yes that debris is muck for sure, I always see them pulling sod and sticks and stuff off of the screens and out of the canals with thpse muckrakes.
My hearing is just getting a little less these days, Its more at the selective stage HAHA!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I did a quick search on "hoe" and came up with a candidate. Would you consider that a fork hoe?

http://www.easydigging.com/Garden_Tool/hoeing_weeding.html

 

[hoodat]

I get a use out of mine not many others here do. It's ideal for finding pismo clams in the surf.

 

[lesa]

Hoodat's bragging again!!!

 

[digitS']

That's what I should have had DD doing when she was down in San Diego ! I used to dig razor clams in Cresent City with a shovel and horrible results! I mean, either miss it completely or cut it in two! Later, I did much better with little-necks and just my bare hands in Humboldt Bay. I did pay a price for using my hands, tho' :/.

Ridgerunner, calling it a "hoe" is just barely acceptable but I think that for my use, that's what it is - a fork hoe. I went to the article in Fine Gardening and read how the author was afraid he would have to retire from gardening if the one he has was no longer usable.

Smith & Hawkins was the source for his hoe but they no longer make one. The article's information on Hida Tools shows they are called a "farmer's fork" . . . "garden hoe." The length of what I've got is 58" overall, so it is really has quite a long handle.

The hoe became my enemy when I was a kid on the farm. My parents would set me to hoeing and it always seemed to be 10:30 on a hot summer morning and I was always stuck about half way down a row with that dang hoe and nothing but tough weeds in front of me . As my own years of gardening have gone by, I learned to accept the usefulness of a hoe but it didn't come easily.

Here is a little Japanese hand hoe I got this winter. It looks almost too aggressive for my weeding use. I don't want too much help - I may become negligent.

Steve
who can appreciate the value of living in a quiet world

 

[patandchickens]

I woulda called it a potato fork (just a small lightweight one)

Pat