Spades, Forks & Shovels
Cultivating the soil can be very enjoyable and is also good exercise. Having the right tool for the job is vital because it will make the job pleasurable, saves time and will avoid injury.
Spades are garden workhorses. Always buy a decent spade and keep its edge sharp - it will last for years. Uses include: digging; edging beds; trenching; cutting through roots; and slicing open bags of mulch, fertilizer and soil.
Spade
Spades are the ideal gardening tool for digging up small plants and removing and adding soil from flowerbeds. Spades come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, for a variety of different uses.
Spades, Shovels and Forks
Although there are various sizes of spades and forks, don't be misled into thinking you need one of each to suit each task.
Spade
A spade is your basic digging implement; use it to make holes and to dig sandy or loamy soil.
Spade - A tool used to prepare soil. Has a narrower, shorter and flatter blade than a shovel.
Spading Fork - A tool often used in clay soils, it helps to break up large dirt clods.
Green Spade - Plant Profiles and Resources
Written by an arborist, Green Spade is filled with profiles and helpful information on trees, shrubs and landscaping. The photos are gorgeous. You can also post your own questions.
Spade
Tarp
Hose
Old kitchen knife
Daylilies are rugged perennials. Though they can be divided at practically any time of year, early spring, late summer, and early fall are ideal.
Spades are essential for digging, for planting and for
removing various materials such as soil and sand
around the garden. They are available in varying lengths
The most used garden tool ...
Spade
Trowel or bulb planter
Garden hose or length of rope
Stakes
Choose bulbs for your site and zone. In an open space, you need at least 100 bulbs per 12 square feet to make an impact.
Spade for digging large holes
A hose (with sprinkling, spraying or other attachments)
Fork for turning soil and spreading mulch ...
Spade, hoe, rake, lopper, whatever, most gardeners should look for handles made of hardwood, such as ash. The grain should be knot-free and run the length of the handle. Softwoods are commonly used in inexpensive tools.
Do spade or plow when the soil is crumbly to the touch!
Don't plant under shade trees!
Do plant in the sun! ...
A spade has a straight blade and is used to edge borders, seperate perennials, work in compost and other soil ammendments.
A steel rake is needed for loosening and grading soil, and removing debris.
Kate Spade New York Stripe Straw Hat Traditional ... $58.99 21.35% OFF! 1 Store
Fiskars Garden Spade $29.99 1 Store
Smith & Hawken Premium Quality Solid-forged Garden ... $79.00 1 Store ...
GARDEN SPADE
Because of the garden spade's rectangular blade, it is an efficient slicing tool to make holes for planting shrubs, large clumps of perennials and trees (for the really ambitious gardener).
Border Spade -- the preferred digging tool when planting in confined spaces, in between existing plants in herbaceous borders and shrub beds, for setting plants and small shrubs. Ideal for edging. Blade must be kept sharp.
...
Do not spade, plow or cultivate soil when it is too wet. Pick up a handful of soil and squeeze it. If the dirt sticks together and will not crumble after squeezing, wait until it is drier.
Planting the Garden ...
'Ace of Spades': highly fragrant, double flowers are very dark brown, almost black. The plants grow to 3' tall.
'Blue Cockade': light blue or purplish flowers up to 2" in diameter.
Spring:
Spade or plow down cover crops.
Add fertilizers as needed.
Prepare seedbeds for planting.
Cultivate shallowly to control weeds.
Irrigate as needed.
Spade
Spading fork
Hand trowel
Watering can
Gloves
Ruler
Kid-size tools are available at many garden
centers. The "Let's Get Growing" catalog offers kid-size tools and other gardening resources for children. Call 1-800-408-1868 for a catalog.
Shovels and spades: Having a good shovel or spade is an essential part to any garden. Make sure to pick one that has strong handles and fits well in your hands.
Garden fork, spade, and trowel
Cultivation Dig new flower beds deeply, a foot if possible. Use a shovel or garden fork.
Transplanting Spade
Transplanting spades have a long narrow head which makes them ideal for digging and moving perennials and shrubs with minimal disturbance to surrounding plants. They are excellent for digging narrow piping ditches.
Use a shovel or spade to dig a hole that is large enough to completely cover your saplings' root system. The hole should be approximately 4 times the size of the sapling's root ball.
3. Plant Your Sapling ...
Our spade heads the list yet again, cementing its lead as the tool to have. The spading fork can work here as well. Have a spade or fork handle lying around?
Plows, tillers or spades are the usual answers to this problem. But gardeners can avoid the problem by creating beds narrow enough to work from the sides.
To dig one's own spade into one's own earth!
Has life anything better to offer than this?
garden quote/ saying by Beverley Nichols ...
Use a sod-cutting spade or tree-planter's dibble to cut the lawn in the desired shape of your flower bed. It is most effective to make the cuts straight downwards (vertical), as this will provide the proper angle for the lawn edging.
A spade with a straight cutting blade works well for edging beds, but it should be sharp enough to cut through the sod easily. A shovel with a pointed tip cuts into the sod more easily than a spade does, but a spade makes a neater trench.
Dig up the stump with a sharp spade or pick. This is both time- and labor-intensive, but effective. This method works well depending on the size of the stump and the enthusiasm of the labor crew.
Consult a local arborist or tree service.
The operation of inserting plants in the soil is performed in various ways; the most general mode recommended by Marshal and Nicol is pitting, in which two persons are employed, one to operate on the soil with a spade, ...
Using a garden fork or spade, dig out a hole about 60-90 cm (2-3 ft) across, removing the soil to a depth of about 25 cm (10 in).
2.
When the roots of the tree are cut by a spade or shovel in preparation for a move, a once large system of roots that fed the tree is now reduced immensely.
In early fall, lift a clump of herbs from your garden using a spade or garden fork.
With a sharp spade or knife, divide the clump into smaller sections.
Pot up each section in terracotta containers filled with indoor potting soil.
After watering, insert a spade into the lawn and tilt it forward to see how far the moisture has spread. If you are not getting adequate moisture into the soil, and you are not able to devote time and water to the lawn, do not water at all.
Dig down 1 foot with a trowel or spade and feel a handful of soil. An even easier way to test moisture is to use a sampling tube to "read" the soil.
Dig up plants, shoveling deeply with a spade or fork to pull up as many roots as possible. Each plant will have a separate crown and many entangled roots. Loosen the soil, or wash soil off the crown and roots.Carefully divide crowns.
1/ Dig a trench about 1 spade wide and the depth of one spade at one end of the plot.
2/ Put the soil dug out of the first trench into a wheel barrow.
3/ Spread about 3 inches of manure over the bottom of the trench.
For the second test, turn over some soil with a spade or trowel and see if you can find earthworms in it. These wonderful creatures are a necessity in a low-maintenance garden.
Dig out the topsoil to a full spade's depth, and loosen the exposed subsoil with a fork. Then spread a 15 cm (6 in) layer of rubble, broken bricks or similar hardcore, and tread or ram firm.
Allow them to have their own child-sized rakes, hoes, spades, and gloves. Other ideas may include large spoons for digging and old measuring cups, bowls, and bushel baskets or even a wagon for harvesting.
Remove weeds and spade in rich organic material. You'll have plenty of time to do this, since cucumbers are subtropical vines that prefer the sunny days and balmy nights of summertime.
A spade has a flat blade great for cutting edges, digging and dividing plants. The edge of a spade should be kept sharpened for clean and efficient cutting will cause the least amount of damage to plants.
Dig a spade or garden fork into the soil 6-8″ deep and cut around a circle 12″ from the stem. Rock the spade back and forth to "shake" things up a bit. Careful not to dig up the plant.
For a professional finish around trees planted in the lawn, loop a rope around the tree trunk and the shaft of a spade. Adjust the length so that the spade reaches to the drip line of the tree.
Define the border using a spade (figure B), and then excavate the soil to a depth of roughly three inches and about eight inches wide. Both the depth and the width of the footing depend largely on the height of the border wall.
To remove grass and weeds, the best bet is to actually dig-up the grass and weeds with a shovel or spade - following the hose layout (step 1).
Step one - With a spade or garden fork, gently lift the clump. Slide the fork into the ground far enough from the bulbs that you don't damage them. If you loosen the soil all the way around the clump first, it won't fall apart as you lift it.
Spit: The depth of one spade's blade.
Spore: The reproductive equivalent of a seed produced by ferns, fungi and mosses.
Sport: See mutation.
After spreading the material over the organic matter, work the soil about six inches deep. Using a spade or fork turn the soil and mix in the organic matter, but extra care is needed to break up clods sufficiently.
This method is a lot less work than sod removal. There's no need to get out the spade or cultivate the soil beneath the grass. But it takes patience. Don't plant too soon: the heat generated during composting can burn plantings.
FURROW: A depression in the planting garden either dug by a spade or a plow.
FUSARIUM: This fungal disease is soil borne and causes wilting and death mostly in herbaceous plants.
Reptiles Texas horned toad, Spadefoot toad, Collared lizard, Black-tailed rattlesnake, Salamander.
DOUBLE DIGGING: a method of digging a garden bed which involves removing the soil to the depth of one spade blade and then digging down an equal distance, breaking up and mixing the soil.
The materials are then tilled in with a hoe, spade, garden fork, or rotary tiller. Leaves, garden debris, weeds, grass clippings, and vegetative food scraps are examples of materials that can be easily tilled into the soil.
Double-dig-Method of soil preparation used by bio-intensive gardeners. Requires removing the soil to the depth of one spade blade and then digging down an equal distance, breaking up and mixing organic matter into the subsoil.
When digging planting holes loosen the soil with a small fork and then dig out the soil with a spade.
spit
in reference to digging, it describes the soil taken out of the earth to one spade or fork's depth.
And if you're really strapped for some stylish ideas, then pick up and peruse Kate Spade's Occasions book to make your party with your new parents a night to remember. Above all, enjoy yourself and converse with your company.
 See also: Plant, Soil, Water, Planting, Spring
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