Get a Handle on Key Tools for Fall Planting
A shovel is not a spade and gardeners frequently confuse the two, trying to prepare soil with a shovel or dig a big hole with a spade at this planting time of year.
A shovel is used for lifting and moving quantities of soil, especially if you are flinging the dirt over your head. A shovel has sloping sides that keep the dirt from falling out, and the curved leading edge is easier to push into the ground. (Another kind of shovel also has turned-up sides but a flat bottom and straight edge. It’s for scooping--not digging.)
You can use shovels to mix or move potting soil or cement, but a shovel will do a sloppy job of breaking up and turning soil.
A spade, on the other hand, does a precise, neat job of it. A spade is a gardener’s tool, not used by farmers, contractors or concrete guys; consequently they are a little harder to find at stores.
A spade has almost a flat face, and its leading edge is straight or slightly rounded, not sharply curved. A spade is best for heavy slicing action in the garden. It can shovel in a pinch, but it has more important tasks.
Soil preparation
To prepare soil for planting, push the spade in, lean back on the handle and flip the soil onto the side. The sharpened edge cuts into the soil and slices small roots that are in the way. Smash clods with the spade’s flat back side or slice them with the sharp edge.
Lots of gardeners don’t realize that when they purchase a spade, its leading edge may not have been sharpened (for safety reasons in shipping and handling.)
To sharpen it, take a “bastard file” and hold the blade steady--stand on it if you must--and file away until the edge is slightly sharp, like an ax blade. The sharpened edge is important so, if you can’t do it yourself, get someone to do it for you. Any hardware or home-building store should have the necessary files.
A spade has a close cousin in the spading fork. While the spade can be used to cut and smash clods, the fork is used to mix in the amendments. Spading forks have sturdy square or flattened tines, not rounded tines like pitchforks. Lean back on a pitchfork and it will bend; do the same with a square-tined spading fork and it will resist. You can work in the garden beds with just a spading fork, turning the soil and adding compost each time you replant.
Dividing
A spade’s sharpened edge has another important function: digging and dividing perennial and other clump-forming plants. October and November are prime planting months, and the second half of November and all of December are the perfect time to split apart overly large, clumping plants such as agapanthus.
Loosen and leverage the plant out of the ground with the spade’s flat blade, then use its sharp edge to cut the clump cleanly into smaller parts. Sometimes you can pry apart roots but more often it’s easier to cut them apart.
Many clumping plants, such as agapanthus or fortnight lilies (Dietes), should be divided every few years. Even bird of paradise benefits from division, though this can be an arduous job because they have a massive ball of roots.
You could divide perennial plants with a shovel, digging up the plant, then cutting up the clump with a serrated kitchen knife. But using a sharpened spade is so much faster: Flip the clump out of the ground and plunge the spade through the roots, splitting the ball in two.
English gardeners would never be without their spade because they grow so many clumping plants in their spectacular perennial borders--from asters to zephyr flowers. We grow many clumping plants in Southern California too, so every gardener here should have a spade and a fork, though too often we make do with a lowly shovel.
Quality tools
The English make the sturdiest spades and spading forks, but they may be a little heavy for some gardeners because they are forged from solid planks of steel. They are almost impossible to bend or break because there are no welds or rivets and the steel is so thick.
If you object to the weight, look for the so-called “border” spades and forks, which are smaller and easier to manage.
American-made spades usually are lighter than the English made, have rather short blades and do not take an edge as well. My own spade is American made, though the fork I use is an English border fork. My spade, which is seldom out of reach, is so worn that the blade is 3 inches shorter than when I bought it.
When you’re buying a spade, choose the handle that feels most comfortable; it has a lot to do with your height. Short D-handles may be easier to use; long straight handles may give more leverage.
In the Garden is published Thursdays. Write to Robert Smaus, SoCal Living, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053; fax to (213) 237-4712; or e-mail robert.smaus@latimes.com.
