The Whisk Brooms Relative

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Finding a Close Relative
One day while on hands and knees trying to clean out some old palo verde seed pods using my finger tips I found myself wishing for a small rake the size of a hand trowel. Long handles and wide rakes don't get into the narrow places where dead leaves and seed pods find their way. Some beds in the garden I'll leave the leaves where they fall so they can decompose, but other places, like along the front entrance walk, I like to keep pristine, with a well manicured look.

What I needed was a close relative to the whisk broom - something with a short handle and narrow width. Lucky me, I found just what I needed back in 1998 in the Fall catalog from The Natural Gardening Company. The short wood handle and springy metal tines were perfect for the job. I could do yard maintenance and carry the little rake in my back pocket. Matched with a metal dust pan and I had a winning combination for getting into those narrow spots that need a bit of grooming.

This little hand whisk rake gets into the tight spots.

The Natural Gardening Company stopped sending out catalogs but they did establish a presence on the Web and I paid them a recent visit to see if they still had the neat little rake. Sure enough and it looked about the same price ($11.95 not including shipping and handling) that I paid five years ago. I was tempted to order a new one but mine still has all its tines and it still gets a regular workout in the garden and in between the rows of vegetables in my raised beds.