Hand fork;
This is a diminutive edition of a digging fork, small but sturdy.
Not an essential tool, but a useful tool to have for for general gardening and cultivation, particularly in confined areas where a larger tool would not easily fit.
It is ideal for thinning out and transplanting seedlings in both the ornamental and vegetable garden.
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Basic advice would be; 'buy the best you can afford'
Things to look for;
The head and neck / tang should be forged in one piece for maximum strength.
The tang should be inserted into a solid handle.
The handles can be of wood or plastic,there is not much to choose between either type, so purchase one that feels most comfortable in your hand.
Hand trowel;
Unlike the flat bladed trowel used by builders, the garden trowel is scoop shaped.
Some would consider this digging tool to be as essential a tool as the spade, and like the spade; good quality should be your guide when buying one
Like the hand fork the metal work should idealy be forged from one piece of steel, although many will have the tang welded on.
Never buy a trowel where the tang is rivetted on to the blade as this can often be an inherent weakness.
The hand trowel; is generally used to excavate holes in well cultivated areas for; planting out plants, bulbs and tubers etc.
The hole should always be deep enough, and wide enough, to take long roots without them being bunched up, or folded.
Sometimes; depending upon what is being planted, it may only be necessary to sink the trowel vertically into the soil, then ease it towards you then drop the seedling / bulb in the gap formed.
The the trowel is then carefully pulled out from the soil to allow the retained soil to trickle back around the root ball.
This works well in light soil, but it might be found necessary to adopt the scooping method, in ground that is heavy or sticky.
Note; Quite often a hand fork and trowel are sold as a matching set which is a good thing in so far as; sometimes you may need a fork in a situation where the trowel is unsuitable.