rake
You say, “What possibly could be said about a rake?” Well, let’s see what I can come up with.
You must realize that there is a tremendous variety of rake designs. Years ago my favorite was the bamboo rake. It was light weight and the tines nicely flexible. Years later I used a plastic rake to gather piles of leaves in the neighborhood streets for the “claw” to pick up. It served its purpose well until I realized that raking the street ground down the tines until they no longer had hooks at the ends. You may have seen the rake contraption that closes on the leaves so they can be picked up. I haven’t tried that one yet because it looks too heavy to use for long periods of time. As of late I have settled for a lightweight metal rake that I actually paid retail for at Davis Ace. It’s one of the few tools that I didn’t get at a garage sale. It seems every time I come across a metal rake at a garage sale, it is in really rugged condition. This is probably because they last so long. The metal rake works well in my yard and also the street. I recently found that large leaves like magnolia leaves can be picked up when they get imbedded among plants by stabbing the tines through the leaves.
While working at an iris garden recently, I was wishing I had brought along one of my old favorites—a hand rake. Mine is 17 inches long with a tine spread of 5 inches. I used to use it a lot when I was more OCD than I am now. (At one point I was sucking up every last hackberry leaf with a vacuum cleaner—sick.) If you have a situation where leaves get amongst your plants, and you tend toward OCD, consider purchasing a hand rake.
Another unusual use for the hand rake is to assist you in removing aphids from plants when using a hose sprayer. By supporting a branch from behind with the rake, the branch won’t bend away from you and practically all the aphids will be blasted away.
Hand rakes are a common item at nurseries and are quite cheap at Amazon.
You know, it’s OK if you are OCD if it makes you happy.
Stan, The Tool Man