Garden Fork Spade and Shovel

Three of the most used Garden Tools – Garden Fork, Spade and Shovel

All three, the garden fork, spade and the shovel have a similar working design in the fact that they all have long handles, wood or metal, with the working head at one end. Some have plain straight pole like handles while other have handle grips ‘D’ shape ends or ending in a ‘T’ shape. In the case of the garden fork and spade the working head is metal and this normally applies to a garden shovel also but there are shovels with a plastic working heads, these are much lighter construction for moving light matter, included in this group is the snow shovel.

Gardening has long been a popular hobby that has shaped the way we live our everyday lives, therapeutic and provisional aspects of this have created somewhat of a science to the cultivation dynamics.
A garden fork is essential when attempting laborious work in your garden. They are often used to dig and break up the soil but are also used when lifting and dividing plants. Especially useful when digging heavy clay or wet soils as this is normally very cloddy (cloddy = clumps of soil or clay). Manufactured with tines, normally four, which resemble fingers, they break up and filter materials such as soil and clumps of earth. They range in size from being a small garden fork (sometimes referred to as a border or ladies fork) to large pitchforks.

A garden spade aims to provide a multi-purpose practice, serving best for digging, cutting and transporting small amounts of soil. Spades are grouped by sharing the characteristic of having a rectangular flat head. There are spades that exist with added functions for adaptability, leverage being one.

A shovel is used for scooping or moving soil and other matter around the garden. Sometimes used for digging but this is not recommended as the construction is often not suitable and can result in broken handles. The design is made to be durable without causing too much strain on the gardener. Over the years the shovel has been a primary object in measuring rates of efficiency when it comes to the workload value ratio. i.e. How many full shovels in that pile of soil?

Dozens of Fork, Spades and Shovels exist in many styles, length of handle, size of working head, all with their own special functionality. There is practically a tool for every desired type of maintenance.

Image by: erix!