What Is a Shovel Used for In Gardening?

Whether you are a beginner or a veteran gardener, a shovel is a quintessential tool for your gardening needs. Its flat head design and sturdy handle make it a highly versatile asset for gardeners of any skill level. Being a multi-purpose tool, it serves diverse jobs at once – helps with digging, making shallow trenches, transplantation, removing soil, and similar gardening chores.

If you are on this page, you may be looking for different ways to create a perfect landscape in your garden with the help of shovels. Shovels come in different sizes and shapes and choosing the right one will help you work more effectively.

Let us get to know about various types of shovels and their uses.

Digging Shovels

They are the most common but versatile types of shovels that every gardener possesses. A digging shovel has a sharper tip with a centred handle which enables a gardener to do the digging task easily. A few common types of digging shovels:

• Square digger shovel – A flat shovel that is ideal for trenching, edging, and transplanting.
• Round digger shovel – It comes with a rounded tip which makes it the best for digging softer soils.
• Pointed digger shovel – It has a narrow tip which is excellent for digging rock-filled soils.
• Post-hole digger shovel – It is two shovels connected by a pivot. Post hole digger is majorly used to penetrate tilted soil.

Trenching Shovels

As the name suggests, trenching shovels are best used for making trenches. Trenchers come with a narrow blade that is curved sharply at the end to bore through any type of soil with minimum effort. Long handles and flat sides of the blade enable gardeners to keep their trenches neat and manicured. Their potential to work with any kind of soil makes trenchers very popular in the market all over the world.

Trowels Shovels

Provided with pointed tips, trowels are undoubtedly the most famous gardening tool and can be easily found in the garden of even newbie gardeners. They come with a small handle that easily fits into hands and makes them suitable to uproot small plants and transfer them to another spot.

Edger Shovels

These flat-blade shovels are very handy for gardeners for cutting through plants, roots, and offshoots to clear up space for new plants. They are also perfect for creating straight edges along a flower bed.

Drainer Shovels

This type of shovel has curved edges which enables gardeners to clear out trenches with the least possible effort. Drainers have been designed in a way to shift anything in a canal without disturbing the walls. Therefore, they are also very useful in transplanting. Their long handles make it easier for you to dig deeper and remove plants with long roots.

How to choose the best shovel for your gardening chores?

Here are some thumb rules:

• For digging purposes or small tasks that require precision, choose a round-pointed shovel with a short handle.
• For removing plants with deep roots or digging trenches for irrigation, use trench shovels.
• For moving soil/material, use a shovel with a square blade.
• For general gardening tasks, trowels are multi-purpose tools.
• For removal of weeds, use an edger.

The sheer variety of gardening tools can confuse even expert gardeners while making a purchase. However, choosing the right shovel is important to get your gardening tasks done effectively and produce better results. Hope this article answers your every question related to shovels.