Found it!

[ladyapple27]

This is a patch of cat mint under an oak tree in the yard. Cat mint is about the only thing that will grow there, and it doesn't spread because it has no where to go except the lawn, where it gets mowed along with the grass. The red garden implement in the pics is a type of mattock called a potato digger. This is one of a set of 2 that belonged to my maternal great-grandfather. They are over 150 years old.  (The mattocks, not the handles; the handles have been replaced many times.) My mother painted them red because she likes to paint things red. At any rate, I like to park tools under the tree. Today, I went to retrieve my antique potato digger, and it was gone! I finally figured out that a child had "borrowed" it and followed a trail of holes dug in the yard until I found it. I was so relieved to find it that I didn't worry about all those holes.  

Comments

[eqfe.livejournal.com]

I have a few tools like that, from grape hoes to mattacks, one a lot bigger, but I've never used them to dig potatoes, LOL.

[ladyapple27.livejournal.com]

The blades on these mattocks have been worn down to the broad part of the tool, making them perfect for digging root crops in clay soil. I also have mattocks that were made by my stepfather's great-great grandfather, who was a blacksmith. Then there's the one that my grandmother bought the year that I was born...

[eqfe.livejournal.com]

The closest I can come to that, in age, for sure is my grandfather's army trench shovel from WWI.