On 4/15/08, ROGER MILLS <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> Technically (as I've learned in recent years of construction and
> yard-building activities with more-or-less professional assistance) there is
> a difference: A spade has a rectangluar blade, with straight easily
> sharpenable edge, short (maybe 3ft.) handle with hand-grip at the top. Pros
> use it to dig smaller holes (for planting things e.g.), for cultivating and
> for edging. The best ones are imported from England-- that nation of
> gardeners knows its tools!
Sounds a little like a trenching shovel. Although trenching shovels
usually have a narrow blade with a sort of V shape to it.
I usually use spade to refer to the small hand shovel used for
planting small plants like bulbs and plants in quart pots.
> A shovel has a more bowl-like blade with a
> curved edge and a long straight handle, and is used for digging big, deep
> holes; the long handle gives better leverage when you're trying to remove
> dirt from a deep hole, especially if you the digger are down in the hole.
I have two types of shovels at home. One is the type you describe
which I use for big jobs (planting gallon plants or bigger) and the
other has a square blade that I use for severing thick rooted weeds or
cleaning the topsoil of weeds (it sort of scrapes like a weeding hoe).