So, what can you do with a Spading Fork?

[so lucky]

Wonder how it would work for spearing moles in the run? I haven't had much luck lately with my shovel and hoe combo. (I used to be a champion mole eradicator, but, sadly, have lost my touch)

 

[digitS']

I once had a garden that was nearly 300 feet long but only 25 feet wide. Essentially, it was right in the middle of a farm field that was plowed and planted to crops every year. It was kind of tangled in some farm buildings and the farmer had trouble making use of that ground, so - I got it.

One day, I started at one end and walked the 300 feet. Uh, oh! There were fresh gopher mounds! I turned around at the other end and almost immediately walked back. In my footprint was some fresh dirt from the gopher's activity!

I had my trusty 4-prong cultivator, aka my garden cane. Scratch, scratch! Out he came - bang! Compost . . . Moles, I don't know. It is the pocket gophers that can show up around here. Also, ground squirrels and marmots but they require (usually) some higher firepower than a cultivation tool. My shovel, aka my garden cane, has 2 marmot notches on it. I never touched the ground squirrels with my sledgehammer (too heavy for a cane ) but the rocks I drove into their holes might have trapped them below ground. I'll never know - they were gone.

Steve

 

[baymule]

I'm just getting started with my spading fork, ya'll are giving me good ideas! I will continue to use it to work up the garden beds. Thanks again Steve for posting about this!

 

[bj taylor]

the spading fork is good to hang your garden hat on. that's a perfectly legitimate use. it says so in my soon to be written garden manual