the digging fork.....

ok, so once upon a time, an intrepid gardener asked her adoring spouse for a digging fork, such that she had seen martha use in her gardening book....and she had a smith/hawkins catalog on hand to pinpoint the exact english-forged steel digging fork she might want for mother's day...guarenteed for life.......but lo, the m-in-law who hapened to be visiting that weekend thought that such an expenditure was outrageous and certainly too much money to spend on gardening tools.......and so it came to pass the the generic digging fork was gifted.....and not too many years later that fork bit the dust because it was cheaply made.....and the intrepid gardener was regifted with yet another generic digging fork.....sunday afternoon said second digging fork bit the dust.....literally......it's fiberglass handle dissolving.....leaving tiny fiberglass wounds on the gardener's arm.......and yet a third generic digging fork was regifted that very afternoon......so the point of this rant....?.....yes, the intrepid gardener has a point.....had the chosen digging fork been purchased at the get go...the forged steel with wooden handle attached to the fork by replaceable connections.....the cost of that fork would have been less than the combined purchase price of the 3 forks bought instead.....and should the chosen fork been purchased, and it broke...it probably could have been fixed....in this neck of the woods, shovels are just too brutal...too many roots, and rocks, and roughage.....but a digging fork works wonders at getting delicate plants out of impossible places.......thank you, gentle readers, for following this rant to its conclusion.......i feel much better....and will certainly keep you apprised of just how long fork number three stays in commision......