A prime activity for any gardener is that of digging the soil in order to loosen and aerate or to help remove weeds.
There are a host of different tools for garden digging depending on your approach, technique and personal capacity. Generally garden spades carry more soil on their blades which is good for turning the topsoil over while garden forks are preferred for loosening the soil, requiring less effort.
Digging Spade:
The most common type of spade is the Digging Spade which has a broad blade and sharpened, flat edge to cut through averagely friable soil.
If you are digging trench style e.g. working along in lines, digging a trench then immediately filling it in, then this format of spade is perfect. Though due to the broad dimensions of the blade it will carry a fair weight of soil and therefore not be suitable for those with less strength. The Digging spade is not a tool for fine, detailed work – this is a workhorse tool for big effect to relatively large areas.
Handles are generally made of Ash, being a traditionally strong yet slightly flexible wood. Modern composite plastics are sometimes used for handles which have similar attributes to wood, especially being light weight and contribute to keeping costs lower.
Grips tend to be ‘D’ shaped for maximum comfort and blades should have a flat foot ledge at the top to allow foot pressure without cutting into shoes.
Stainless steel is a must for any spade blade – a good wipe down after use however is always recommended along with a wipe over with an oily rag to set it up well for storage.
Border Spade:
These are slightly smaller in both length and blade width, being designed for lighter workloads and to dig more precisely.
Overall design and features are the same as for Digging Spades with the exception of the blade width which would be around 2/3rds of the size.
These tools are ideal for female gardeners and those who like to tackle their digging work with less overall effort while taking care to dig around roots of existing plants without damage.
N.B. this tool is sometimes called a ‘Cottage Spade’.
Perennial Spade:
This is an even smaller spade than the Border Spade and has an arrow-shaped blade with only the slightest of curve to it.
It is both useful for small scale accurate soil digging in amongst existing plants but is also especially good for splitting or dividing perennial plants, which in many cases needs to be performed every few years.
The sharp leading edge helps to cleanly cut through clump roots, rhizomes or clusters of corms and bulbs with minimal tearing or damage. The pointed shape of the blade is also very useful for more accurate work than can be achieved with a regular square ended blade.
Again Ash is the material of choice for light weight and strong handles, which are noticeably shorter than standard spades. though The hand grips however tend to be ‘Tee’ shaped to make root splitting and dividing easier to control.
GroundBreaker Spade:
These are spades with a pointed leading edge to the blade that will cut more easily into hard packed or heavy clay soils than a flat edged blade.
Like border spades, they tend to have slightly narrower blades as their usage is not intended for turning over large amounts of soil in one go, but as their name suggests it is to break through tough, hard packed or rocky soils.
Materials used are the same as other quality spades e.g. Ash handles with ‘D’ grips and stainless steel blades with flattened footledge to allow full downward pressure from the foot.
They usually come in two sizes, one smaller for female users and larger for male or stronger users.
They are excellent for their designed purpose but can be used as a general purpose garden spade if you only want to purchase one spade.
Transplanter Spade:
Transplanter spades are a specialty design that make the digging up and moving of plants as easy as can be.
They have the dimensions of a regular digging spade and share the same materials of stainless steel and ash wooden handles - but the blades are more inwardly curved and the cutting edge is gently curved as well.
The result is a specialty spade that really helps to cut a smooth, circular cut-out around the plant and is well balanced to remove it as gently as possible, while, most importantly keeping the root-ball in one piece.
It then provides a safe cradle shape to move the plant in question to its new location and insert into its new hole or home with accuracy.
Due to their similarity of size and weight to digging and border spades, Transplanter spades can double up for general purpose garden digging if you only want to purchase one spade hand tool.
Pickaxe or Mattock:
These are not purely designed for the complete action of digging, but sometimes useful to break the top level of soil when it is so hard-packed or stony that even a Groundbreaker Spade cannot make progress on it its own.
They consist of a single steel head with two cutting prongs, either one horizontal, the other vertical or one pointed and the other either flat or vertically orientated.
Handles tend to be shorter than most other larger hand tools and made of wood or composite plastic, though they can also be fibreglass.
The handles take a lot of stress and pressure so tend to be thick yet narrow enough to wrap your hands around.
Replacing handles is very easy and not expensive.
Shovels:
Shovels are not designed to break the soil but to move larger quantities of pre-loosened soil.
The blades are usually thin, shaped steel, often galvanised rather then stainless. They have raised edges and a curved overall shape to hold quantities of broken soil on the blade during re-location.
These are lighter weight tools as their only purpose is for re-location and not breaking or loosening soil.
They can of course also be used to move quantities of any loose materials like gravel, compost, sand or animal feedstuff.
Handles can be either tubular galvanised steel, wood or composite plastics.
PostHole Shovels:
Posthole Shovels have straight sided, longer blade heads that are usually made of galvanised pressed steel for lightness and reasonable strength.
The blade is generally slightly curved to allow both cutting and shovelling of the loosened soil.
The handles tend to be much longer than other spades or shovels and do not have a ‘D’ shaped hand grip, just one long and thin straight handle.
Blades must have a good foot ledge as post hole digging requires plenty of foot pressure.
Garden Forks:
Digging Forks are the ubiquitous design and feature four stainless steel tines and a flattened foot ledge, though they tend to be narrower than that of spades as less downward pressure is required with a fork.
Handles tend to be Ash, fibreglass or composite plastics, while some of the latter may be curvy to create the ultimate ergonomics (which cannot be achieved with traditional wood or fibreglass – hence the often very high price).
Garden Forks are intended to just break up the top soil, especially where it has become compacted therefore restricting water and air ingress into the soil.
They are also useful when weeding in amongst established plants to break the soil and make hand collection of weeds easier.
Garden Forks come in a variety of sizes, being specifically aimed at users of different physical sizes and strength, while smaller fork heads are particularly useful for getting in amongst existing plants while minimising root disturbance.
Multi-Pronged Hoe Cultivators:
These are much lighter tools that usually feature three steel prongs or tines that are angled to around 90 degrees, with the lightweight head being attached to a single pole handle.
Cultivators are designed to loosen soil to aid water and air ingress, particularly amongst existing plants in shrubberies and veggie beds where the user can work with precision to avoid root damage.
Cultivators are made with either long handles for standing use or with mid-length or short handles for use when kneeling.
Wolf Garten of Germany make the Multichange series of tool heads (illustrated here) which click on to handles of differing lengths. The same tool head can therefore be used with a short or long handle, therefore saving money overall.
There is even one format from Burgon & Ball of the UK that is called a ‘Twist Cultivator’ and is designed for the five short steel tines to be pushed vertically into the soil and then twisted to break it up.
Single Blade Hoes:
These are again light weight hand tools designed for accurate soil disturbance and levelling.
Handles are single pole and heads comprise of a single small ‘spade’ shaped blade that is either vertical to the handle or curved to ninety degrees to allow a push-pull action.
Straight blades are generally called ‘Dutch’ hoes and those with angled heads are referred to as ‘Swan-Necked’ hoes.
Heads are generally stainless steel, though cheaper models may use galvanised steel.
Handles are wood or fibreglass, the latter generally being cheaper.
Some tools are available with a three pronged tine on one side and a single blade on the other with both angled at ninety degrees to the handle – these are known as ‘Double-Headed’ cultivators.
All styles of cultivators or hoes can be either long handled for standing use or mid to short handled for use while kneeling.
Wolf Garten of Germany make 'Multi-change' tool heads and handles separately, which then click to attach, therefore allowing the purchase of one head to fit multiple handles (or the other way round) which can be a very economical approach to tool purchasing.
Bulb Planters:
These are very specialised tools specifically designed to dig small round holes in lawns or borders that are just big enough to plant bulbs – usually spring bulbs like tulips and daffodils.
They feature a ninety degree foot ledge for good downward pressure and a ‘cut-away’ steel tube head to make soil plug removal easy.
As with post hole shovels, the handles are long, though bulb planters often feature ‘Tee’ shaped hand grips.
Short or mid handled varsions are also popular, though the full length format reuqires a lot less effort to use.
Half Moon Edgers:
Again the Half-Moon Edger is a very specialised tool specifically designed to slice turf at the edge of a lawn to provide a crisp and clean edge.
Half Moon Edgers are a very ecological alternative to the polluting and noisy strimmers, though they do require a little more effort and skill in use.
They consist of a stainless steel, 'Half-Moon', sharpened edge, flat blade, a flattened foot-ledge for downward foot pressure and a sturdy wooden handle, usually made from Ash.
These are very traditional tools, generally easier to find in Europe though the GardensOnline shop does feature edgers from Burgon & Ball of the UK and Wolf Garten of Germany.
Hand Trowels and Forks:
Trowels are essentially short handled spades, having a curved and sharpened steel leading edge blade and a short wooden handle for ease of manipulation.
Broader bladed tools are usually referred to as just trowels, though narrower bladed tools are usually called Transplanters and often feature a measure gauge engraved onto the blade surface to assist in getting the desired hole depth.
Very broad and curved edge trowels are called Compost Scoops.
Hand Forks have similar dimensions and generally have three stainless steel tines.
Cheaper versions may utilise flat-tined, galvanised heads.
Mid handled versions can be very useful for getting in amongst shrubberies and veggie beds and although good for digging planting holes, they are most often used for weeding and soil loosening on a small scale.
Grubbers, Weeders and Widgers:
These tend to only be made with mid to short handles for very accurate work in amongst existing plants, pathways or rockeries.
Blades are either very narrow single and curved or made up of sharpened tines to make breaking of soil surface easier.
These tools are generally for weeding purposes, but also especially useful in in breaking up rocky soils ready for planting.
Regardless of the shape, these tools tend to be manufactured from tough, stainless steel as they are required to take plenty of stress and pressure.
Summary:
Who would have thought there could be so many different ways to break the soil? Well there are even more not mentioned so far but they tend to be for very specialised or niche uses.
Overall we hope you are now armed to make the most informed purchase decision for your next ground breaking or digging hand tool.
As with all tools, generally the more you pay the better value you receive. Yes, that’s true, don’t mix up cheapness with value. A Garden Spade costing over $100 will most likely last you a lifetime and perhaps even longer while the cheap Chinese knock-offs will most likely bring you pleasure for only a few months or years at most.
And then there’s the pure pleasure of using a quality, well designed and well made tool – for discerning gardeners there’s nothing better than the feel of a well balanced hand tool, made to last from stainless steel and quality wood.
Its all part of the pleasure of gardening.
Most tools mentioned here are available from the GardensOnline shop, for convenient and easy garden shopping 24/7/365.