Our Meadow Creature broadfork came in the mail a week and a half ago, but between the flood and my cold, I only got to play with it for the first time Wednesday. My first impression? This tool is fun! I'm slowly running out of terraforming opportunities to keep myself happy during the winter, so adding the broadfork to the mix will be as good as an antidepressant.

More seriously, in soft garden soil, the broadfork works almost too well. Mark had to rein me in, reminding me that our goal is merely a light loosening rather than to really till up the soil. I eventually decided that a gentle fluff from the edge of the bed is a good compromise in this kind of situation, which will hopefully add a bit of aeration without negatively impacting soil life. I plan to run a side-by-side comparison this spring, but suspect that beds loosened lightly with the broadfork will be especially good for root crops like carrots.

I also wanted to see how well the broadfork performs in hard ground, so I headed up to the extremely poor soil of the starplate pastures for test run number two. Here, it took more effort to sink the tines into the earth and I had to put my back into it to loosen once the tines were engaged. This area will definitely be a good spot to work up a sweat next winter, and the soil will probably benefit much more from broadfork action up here than down in the main garden, but I'll admit this area felt more like work than like play.

So did I select the right size? I went for the smallest model, and that is definitely all I could handle in the starplate pasture. I suspect I could have worked with the next size up if I'd stuck to the main garden, but I'm not so sure the extra two inches of loosening depth are really mandatory. So, yes, I think Mark's nudge toward the smallest size was a good choice, and for most female gardeners I would recommend the same. If you're particularly tall or brawny, though, feel free to choose the 14 inch!