Selecting and Purchasing the Right Garden Tools

Choosing and Buying Large Garden Tools

Gardeners and growers cannot manage their garden care without certain tools. The market offers a very diverse palette of all kinds of types and varieties of different tools, but how to choose? For basic soil cultivation, we use a spade or digging fork, for hoeing and weeding various types of hoes. For final soil preparation and lawn care, we use rakes.

Choosing a Spade

We use a spade for basic soil cultivation - digging, and for planting trees and shrubs. The choice of spade type depends on the size of the plot the grower intends to work on, as well as the type of soil on the plot. Furthermore, it's necessary to consider your own physical capabilities, as working with a spade is one of the most demanding tasks in the garden. While treating a few square meters of flower bed doesn't show much difference when working with various spades, it can be said with certainty that this no longer applies when the treated area is much larger.

Blade Size and Shape

This needs to be chosen with regard to the soil we need to cultivate through digging. The blade size should be proportional to the soil firmness and the gardener's physical abilities. Work is more demanding on heavy and compact soils, so it's easier to work here with a spade that has a smaller blade. Conversely, on sandy soils and soils with good structure, work will progress faster with a larger blade.

Blade shape can be evaluated both by the blade tip (straight, round, or pointed) and by the blade profile. The choice of tip shape depends on the rockiness of the soil. In rocky soils, it's easier to work with a pointed spade, which is however less practical for stone-free soils. Blade profiling is important in terms of the blade's resistance to the force exerted on the spade during work. The blade of modern spades, profiled into an arc shape, allows for weight reduction while maintaining the same mechanical properties.

Digging Fork

Essentially, what has been written about spades also applies to digging forks. We use them for loosening soil and harvesting root vegetables and potatoes. Digging forks are gentle on the roots of woody plants where we're loosening the soil.

Spade Handle

The spade handle should be sufficiently strong and durable. Previously widespread ash and elm handles have now been surpassed in many ways by metal or plastic handles, typically in a combination of both. These also allow better handling thanks to their shape. The handle length should correspond to the size of the person for whom the spade is intended. With a handle that's too short, a person must hunch over, while a handle that's too long gets in the way with its length. For wooden handles, it's advisable to treat the surface of newly purchased spades with sandpaper to prevent splinters.

Buying Your Own

If you're unsure about choosing a spade, it's recommended to try working with different types if you have the opportunity. The price range for available spades varies from 250 CZK to thousands. However, low investment costs are offset by greater effort and relatively quick wear. This may not be noticeable on a small plot, but if you use a spade more frequently, it's advisable to choose a quality spade. A larger investment doesn't hurt as much when you realize that such products come with a 2, 3, or even 5-year warranty.

Choosing a Hoe

Although a well-known Czech proverb claims that "when God allows it, even a hoe can mess up," we won't rely on that and would rather choose quality tools that will be good and long-lasting companions.

We use a hoe for loosening soil and removing weeds. According to blade size, hoes are sometimes called "ridging," "planting," "weeding," and "multi-tined – cultivating."

Ridging hoes are characterized by a relatively large blade, often profiled to make ridging rows easier. This feature proves very useful, for example, when planting potatoes.

A planting hoe belongs to the category of smaller hoes, is typical for its small handle, and we usually work with it bent over or kneeling. It's particularly suitable for planting smaller plants in a bed. When selecting one, we don't need to focus on any special technical requirements; what's important is that it feels comfortable in your hand.

For another type of hoe (the so-called "weeding hoe"), it's important that it has a wider cutting part, with which we cut weedy plants just below the soil surface. Here, when choosing, consider your physical capabilities; generally speaking, the larger the blade – the greater the effort!

The last type of hoes are cultivating hoes, also known as multi-tined, which we reach for, as the name suggests, when we're planning to loosen soil and break up soil crust.

Hoe Handle

Handles are most commonly made of wood, preferably hard and flexible. It depends on the manufacturer, but in any case, it's better to treat a new handle with sandpaper. We choose a handle long enough to work comfortably with the hoe. Today, multifunctional handles are also available.

Rakes

Rakes are a versatile helper in garden care; we use them especially for final soil surface preparation.

Metal Rakes

We use this type for final bed preparation for sowing, when sowing and caring for lawns, and for raking leaves. The ideal rake width is 30–40 cm. Rakes should be lightweight but resistant to bending when tamping the surface.

Spring Tine Rakes

We appreciate spring tine rakes for lawn care; we use them for raking leaves and old grass. Some types have adjustable spacing between tines. Today, rakes with hardened plastic fingers are becoming widespread. Metal handles feel cold to the touch, and given that we put down rakes quite often, other materials for handle production are more suitable for rakes.

Development Trends in Large Garden Tools

In recent years, wooden handles and some working parts are being replaced by modern ones made from plastic, metal, fibreglass or carbon. Their advantage is durability and the possibility of anatomical handle shaping – especially for spades. There is also no risk of splinters.

Depending on the material used, the weight of garden tools also changes, becoming lighter compared to previously manufactured ones. Various aerators and rotary aerators have been created through modifications of rakes, utilizing pulling energy.

The latest innovation is multifunctional handles on which individual heads in the form of hoes and rakes can be quickly and easily attached and removed.

Purchase and Maintenance Recommendations

As with spades, the rule applies here too that higher quality tools are more expensive, but the money invested will return in the form of saved effort and longer product durability. However, even the best tools must be handled with care if they are to last a long time. When using a spade, we dig appropriately sized pieces of soil so that when levering them with the spade, excessive pressure is not placed on it. For easy work, it is also advisable to sharpen spades and hoes and to oil the metal parts during the off-season.