Gardening tools: part one

Some of the most important things in my gardening arsenal are my tools.

I don’t hesitate to spend good money on my tools. I take good care of them and they last longer than many of my plants. I don’t buy them at big box stores and I don’t lend them to friends.

Last summer, I lost a favorite small hand-tool in my garden. It took me months to find this tool and I was depressed beyond words until I found it.

Garden tools should last. They should be built well, handle the chore they’re designed for and they shouldn’t break, though they may wear out. Yes, a handle will break; it can be replaced. Yes, a blade will dull; it can be sharpened. But there’s nothing quite as frustrating as pushing your trowel or shovel into the ground, pushing back on the handle only to have the handle or blade bend because it’s a cheap piece of $#@&!

The way in which the head of a tool is molded to and attached to its handle has a big effect on the strength and durability of the tool. Most shovels and spades are now made with an open-socket construction. The metal for the head is rolled in sheets, die-cut, then shaped to conform to the pattern desired.

This type of construction, although easier and less expensive to make, leaves the handle constantly exposed to water, mud and wear at the base of the shank. With a few exceptions, open-socket construction results in tools which simply don’t hold up to regular work, even if it’s just on weekends.

Solid-socket and solid-strapped tools are forged from a single bar of steel and fully enclose the bottom of the handle in metal. Very few solid-socket tools are made in this country. And with the exception of one company, virtually no solid-strap tools are made at all.

The advantages of solid-socket and solid-strapped tools are their strength and toughness under all conditions. With these type of tools, it’s more likely that you’ll hurt yourself from trying to do too much rather than damaging the tool.

There are more than 15 types of spades to consider when in the market, but the most popular is the simple garden spade. The late Jim Crockett (The author and original host of “Crockett’s Victory Garden” on PBS, not the wrestling guy.) said that a good gardening spade is used for just about everything, including: transplanting, cutting heavy weeds, slicing and tamping sod, prying up rocks and stones, edging lawns and garden beds, splitting small pieces of wood, hammering stakes, cutting baling wire and chopping winter ice.

A good garden spade should have a straight and sharp edge, as opposed to a crinkled cutting edge, and should be sharpenable. Spending about $30 to $40 will get you a good tool in this group. But keep in mind that a diamond-steel spade will run close to a $100.

In this group, there is also the border spade, double century spade, the all-metal nursery spade, solid-strapped garden spade, long-handled nursery spade, tree-planting spade, grafting spade, cable-laying spade, Irish garden spade and the Dutch draining spade, among others.

Shovels, which are not to be confused with spades (it’s like calling a ship a boat or a rifle a gun) are basically put into three categories: grain shovels, round-point shovels and the square-mouthed shovel.

There is a wide range within these categories. It seems there is a shovel made for every imaginable digging chore. UnionTools (www.uniontools.com), one of the oldest garden tool companies in this country, lists 130 shovels in its catalog.

Grain shovels are very lightweight with oversized heads. These tools are used for moving grains, sawdust, light composts, mulch and snow.

The round-point shovel is probably the one you’re most familiar with and is actually an American hybrid used mostly for digging. The better types have a turned-back tread for the foot for pushing the tool into the soil and they are available in both long and short shafts and several handle styles. The most recent variation on this theme is what I call the “poachers shovel,” which has a very short handle and a downsized blade. It can be carried in a backpack, in the trunk of your car or in the back seat. It comes in real handy when you spot that one-of-a-kind plant that needs to be spirited away in the dead of night (which of course, I’ve never ever done).

The square-mouthed shovel is used for heavy loading, lifting and shoveling things like compost, sand, rock, dirt, asphalt and concrete. It has an oversized head, but not so large as the grain shovel.

Another type of digging tool is the trowel. Not to be confused with the construction or masonry trowel, the garden trowel is a small shoveling and digging tool that can also be used for weeding. As opposed to a shovel or spade, the trowel is a single-handed tool that’s usually used to plant or dig small plants or in small spaces. It can be short-handled or it can have a handle up to 16 inches long.

My favorite trowel is called the nursery trowel (Uniontools #60342) which runs about $20. It’s incredibly well-made with a forged steel head. Mine is at least 10 years old.

You can buy cheap stamped-steel types, but you get what you pay for. The cheaper ones bend and break easily when used regularly.

Everyone knows what a pitchfork is, but few people know that there are more than a dozen types of “garden forks” available and each has a specific function. The heavy-duty garden fork is really the multi-purpose type. It has a short handle— about 48 inches long—and four tines.

This fork is used for digging, loosening and general soil preparation. Cheap forks of this type will bend at the tines with little effort, while the better types of solid steel construction up to the shaft will not bend or break.

In this family, there are also spading forks, medium garden forks (lighter than the heavy-duty type), 
border forks, nursery forks, double-century forks and diamond-steel forks. It’s the diamond-steel fork that will set you back a 
hundred smackers, but you’ll 
be able to will it to your children.

Next week, a few more tools and my “on the road collection” of small hand tools.

Keep growing.