Clay stabber
Lee Valley Tools’ spring catalog always gets our fingers itching to get out in the garden and dig, prune, plant, cut and mulch every year. But moving, transplanting or dividing roses and perennials is heavy work in the kind of soil most Coloradans have. Try loosening it with Lee Valley’s rose fork, with its two sharp, 9½-inch tines and conical tips that penetrate soil and step-on prongs at either side. The fork can also be used to simply get some air into compacted soil around established plants. Rose fork, $69,
Knee protector
And if you’re out there pulling weeds while your soil is wet and the weeds are young — as you should be — try Lee Valley’s memory foam kneeling pad. The core is dense EVA foam, with a foam cover lined with neoprene to make it waterproof. Kneeling pad, $34.50, Susan Clotfelter, The Denver Post
