Garden/Contractors fork recommendations

[MattF]

but you know what horsey girls are like.

Any ladies, not just the horsey type. Their will is absolute.

 

[Greeves246]

How about a couple of goats?

 

[badabec]

Once the horses are in there it will become a sea of mud anyway.

 

[MattF]

Once the horses are in there it will become a sea of mud anyway.

He'll get far trying to use logic in the discussion. Someone will lose the will to live.

 

[Smallfry]

How about a couple of goats?

Nope. No goats. Don't like their eyes.

They are the ultimate escape artists though, make deer look like amateurs, so I'm not sorry about that.

Doesn't like donkeys either .........

 

[Smallfry]

He'll get far trying to use logic in the discussion. Someone will lose the will to live.

No point in arguing. Even if she says she sees my POV, will do whatever she wants anyway.

To be fair I am much the same

 

[MattF]

Don't like their eyes.

 

[dave h 2]

I find the flames and trident more of an issue.

 

[oldbikedavey]

Any ladies, not just the horsey type. Their will is absolute.

And its sway to be avoided like the plague.....

 

[Dapph2]

Long handled shovels are good if loading loose material from a stock pile but they can't compete for proper digging. Even loading a mixer you will do it quicker with a short handled shovel as you have 2-3x as much material on them. It is just more comfortable to use the long handled one.

I've surprised many a brick sh*thouse built builder by me making 30 or 30 barrels of mortar or 6 to one concrete a day with my ladies border spade on a pitch for shaft . For 45 years I've been disabled in my left side I just learnt to adapt and get on with it .
My spades full are a fraction of the weight of a full sand shovel so not a bit tiring as I don't bend or lean forward to fling stuff in the mixer .

Same with digging I usually dig to 15 to 1 inches deep but only have a spit 3 inched thick by 5 inches wide by 5 or so inches deep , Guys can't believe how fast and deep I dig .

 

[oldbikedavey]

I've surprised many a brick sh*thouse built builder by me making 30 or 30 barrels of mortar or 6 to one concrete a day with my ladies border spade on a pitch for shaft . For 45 years I've been disabled in my left side I just learnt to adapt and get on with it .
My spades full are a fraction of the weight of a full sand shovel so not a bit tiring as I don't bend or lean forward to fling stuff in the mixer .

Same with digging I usually dig to 15 to 1 inches deep but only have a spit 3 inched thick by 5 inches wide by 5 or so inches deep , Guys can't believe how fast and deep I dig .

It's all about gearing.
Once you've used a proper French louchet digging spade, you'll never use another type.
The ergonomics are sublime....
That's on decent soil, though.
Around here in this part of Essex, you're dealing with the most unforgiving soil substrates imaginable.
Not quite clay, not quite stony, just enough to give you false hope ....
Rather like one of Gary Larsens cartoons of a cafeteria in Hell.....

 

[Onoff]

What soil have you got there @Smallfry ?

Clay, flint and chalk like me?

 

[Agrismith]

It's all about gearing.
Once you've used a proper French louchet digging spade, you'll never use another type.
The ergonomics are sublime....
That's on decent soil, though.
Around here in this part of Essex, you're dealing with the most unforgiving soil substrates imaginable.
Not quite clay, not quite stony, just enough to give you false hope ....
Rather like one of Gary Larsens cartoons of a cafeteria in Hell.....

I have never found spades much use for digging, don't know many blakes who use them either, I certainly never have had one in the truck when I was on the tools. A cable laying shovel, a trench shovel and a long handled graft are the best tools for for digging, although a few gangs are starting to carry round mouthed shovels.

 

[DanZac]

I have never found spades much use for digging, don't know many blakes who use them either,

I think this comes down to the old "right tool for the job thing".

In my experiance a spade is designed and used, to dig a wide section of land to make it ready for planting in the winter (as you would plow a field), the land is then broken up by digging with a fork in spring pre planting (Harrowing). Both tools are excellent at doing these tasks.

Whilst both are useful for digging holes, trenches, shoveling rubble and pulling out tree roots, thats not their designed purpose and therefore they break.

For shoveling use a shovel.
For digging up tree roots its a mattock or digging bar.
For digging foundations and trenches, get someone else to do it (or a digger).

 

[Dapph2]

I think this comes down to the old "right tool for the job thing". You usualy dig with spade inlate autumn so the winter weather can break / crum the soil then fork it over priot to sowing planting etc with a fork to aireate it

In my experiance a spade is designed and used, to dig a wide section of land to make it ready for planting in the winter (as you would plow a field), the land is then broken up by digging with a fork in spring pre planting (Harrowing). Both tools are excellent at doing these tasks.

Whilst both are useful for digging holes, trenches, shoveling rubble and pulling out tree roots, thats not their designed purpose and therefore they break.

For shoveling use a shovel.
For digging up tree roots its a mattock or digging bar.
For digging foundations and trenches, get someone else to do it (or a digger).

Surely you dig over with a spade & incorporate quality manure in the same time using a fork to move the manure to the trench in late autumn till the solstice ( 21Dec ) , let the winter weather & rains break it down /crumb it a bit then at the end of Feb fork the soil over to aeriate it and to help dry it out a bit before making seed beds and transplanting things in early spring usually after your last frost .

 

[oldbikedavey]

I have never found spades much use for digging, don't know many blakes who use them either, I certainly never have had one in the truck when I was on the tools. A cable laying shovel, a trench shovel and a long handled graft are the best tools for for digging, although a few gangs are starting to carry round mouthed shovels.

Best thing going, until about a foot down, then it's time to break out the fork.
Anything to do with hand cultivations is necessarily a lot more complicated than it may seem......
Lower Plastic Limit is worth studying in that context.

 

[Agrismith]

I think this comes down to the old "right tool for the job thing".

In my experiance a spade is designed and used, to dig a wide section of land to make it ready for planting in the winter (as you would plow a field), the land is then broken up by digging with a fork in spring pre planting (Harrowing). Both tools are excellent at doing these tasks.

Whilst both are useful for digging holes, trenches, shoveling rubble and pulling out tree roots, thats not their designed purpose and therefore they break.

For shoveling use a shovel.
For digging up tree roots its a mattock or digging bar.
For digging foundations and trenches, get someone else to do it (or a digger).

Even digging over big area a cable laying or trench shovel is more ergonomic to use. The are the same widths as spades but have a slight crank in the handle. That crank makes them far nicer to use at just about every task than a spade. They are easier to stand on to push into the ground as the handle isn't in your way. When you pull back to break out ground you don't have to bend as far pushing the handle down. If digging a hole you drop less material and don't have to bend as low. If digging a trench you don't have to bend as low or get your hands touching the deck. And when digging deep you don't risk smacking your knuckles as you dig.

Hawksmoor Cable Laying Shovel

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Bulldog 5TSAM All Metal Trench Shovel | Wickes.co.uk

Bulldog 5TSAM All Metal Trench Shovel

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[Smallfry]

What soil have you got there @Smallfry ?

Clay, flint and chalk like me?

Mostly a thin layer of poor chalky topsoil with some clay, underneath solid chalk and flint.

It drains well until you interfere with it. Once the chalk get compacted, it takes ages to drain. It is after all the main constituent of concrete.

 

[Smallfry]

Once the horses are in there it will become a sea of mud anyway.

I know, but she doesn't want them stubbing their little horsey toes on small stumps.

And they are a trip hazard. I have found that out already.

 

[Onoff]

I know, but she doesn't want them stubbing their little horsey toes on small stumps.

And they are a trip hazard. I have found that out already.

One of our neighbours employed a gang of what looked like Romanian peasant workers with baskets on their backs to scour her horse field to pick up the flints!