First of all, I like you writing style.

Second, I am a rabid fan of the Ho-Mi digger. I have one with a short handle and also the long handled version.

I LOVE these two tools. I have sucessfully lost the short handled one seveal times, found it once, had to replace it once.

One of the things I like to use it for is to tidy up edging. We use the straight edge spade t cut a nice 45 degree angle edging, and go over it after with the HoMi to tidy up the rough side.