The spade is a gardener's manual tool used to turn and loosen the soil on small surfaces and in depth (about 35 cm), turning it over. This also allows to deposit manure to enrich organic matter. The spade, also called a spade, is made of a long wooden handle, which must be slightly curved for easier work of the earth, and an iron workpiece. Some spades end at the end of the handle to give more support and therefore more strength in the work.

The different kinds of spades

There are variants of spades like the "flat spade", made of a flat iron cutting edge sufficiently thin and solid. The spade iron has a variable height according to the intended uses. The "fork-spade" of which iron is replaced by teeth is used in stony soils or sticky clay soils. As for the "louchet", it is a special spade with a long spade that cuts the soil and roots to a greater depth than the spade. The pintail is used by nurserymen to pull trees and shrubs into the nursery.

Return the land with a spade

The action is to push the spade all over his body by pressing with his foot on the top of the spade iron (shovel part), when the iron is pressed, you have to tilt the handle back to the ground. Then the clod contained in the spade is turned over so that the earth below is on it and vice versa. Going here for more information about gardening.

Initially, by cultivating the man understood that seeds sown in a stirred soil grew better, he undertook to return the earth on small parts. For that, he used a stick of wood, "the stick to search" but whose efficiency was limited. Later, the very first gardeners came to the obvious that a larger tool would return a larger portion of land and better crumble it by lifting more easily. Often for lack of means, the gardener or farmer was obliged to craft his own spade. Subsequently, the discovery and improvement of metals has considerably improved the strength of tools especially with hot-dipped steel.

The fork is the complementary tool of the spade : the latter can dig a hole, especially for planting a rose bush or a shrub, but it is also suitable for turning the sandy soil, while the fork-spade, it, suitable for working on more sticky soil.

The benefits of the fork

Equipped with 4 (sometimes 5) straight teeth hardened steel, in the alignment of the sleeve, the fork spade can decompact the soil without turning it, dislocating the earth in depth. Thus, the earthworms are protected and the development of the microbial life of the subsoil is spared.