Why a garden fork beats a spade for lifting root vegetables

September 17, 2025

Why a garden fork beats a spade for lifting root vegetables

You grow carrots for four months and then wreck a third of them in the ten minutes it takes to get them out of the ground, which is a rotten way to finish a job. Same with spuds. You put the spade in, feel it go through something, and pull up a potato in two halves with a clean cut across it.

The fix is not technique so much as the tool. A spade has a blade, and a blade cuts whatever is in front of it. A fork has tines, and tines go around things.

What a garden fork actually does differently

A fork is built to lift and loosen rather than slice and scoop. Four or five thick tines go into the ground with far less resistance than a flat blade, and when you lever the handle back the soil breaks up and lifts instead of being cut into a slab. The vegetable comes up in the middle of that loosened soil rather than being sheared through.

The other thing it does is treat the soil better. A spade compacts the ground either side of the cut as it goes in, and a fork opens it up and lets air into it, which is worth something to the worms and to whatever you plant there next.

How to lift a row without damaging it

Put the fork in about 10 to 15 centimetres out from the base of the plant. You are loosening from the side, not going down through the middle of the crop.
Push the tines down with your foot rather than jumping on it. In a bed that has been dug and kept mulched it should go in with very little effort.
Rock the handle backwards and forwards to lift and break the soil. That is the whole trick, because it creates space underneath and the vegetable stops being gripped by the ground.
Pull the plant up by the base of the tops, not the leaves, once the soil has let go of it.

If the ground is heavy clay or it has gone hard on you, water it the night before. Damp soil comes apart. Dry clay does not, and forcing a fork through it is how tines get bent and backs get sore.

Which crops it matters most for

Anything you are trying to get out whole. Potatoes are the obvious one because a cut spud will not store, and carrots, parsnips and beetroot are all long enough to be in the way of a blade. Garlic and onions too. Radishes you can usually just pull, because they sit shallow and come away easily.

Where a spade still wins is edging a bed, cutting a clean trench, moving soil from one spot to another and slicing through turf. Both tools have a job. The mistake is using the one that is leaning against the shed rather than the one that suits the task.

A note on looking after it

Knock the dirt off the tines before you put it away, because damp soil left on steel is what turns a good fork into a rusty one. A wipe with an oily rag every now and then does more for a garden tool than anything else you can do to it.

Shop related products

D.T. Brown Carrot All Season Seed. A main crop carrot that suits a long bed and stores well once it is out.
D.T. Brown Carrot Topweight Seed. Long tapering roots, which is exactly the shape a spade tends to ruin.
D.T. Brown Radish Cherry Belle Seed. Quick globe radish, and the one root crop you can lift by hand.
D.T. Brown Spring Onion Seed. Quick growing salad onion for the gaps between the slower rows.
Brunnings Garden Compost with Seaweed 25L. Dig this through before you sow, because loose soil is half of an easy harvest.

Did you know we stock garden forks in store, and they are not on the website. There is a Cyclone forged garden fork with a poly D handle, Gardenmaster forks in both the D handle and the long handle, a landscapers fork, a mulch fork and a couple of hand forks for the tight work. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf, or come and pick one up in the garden centre. There is more of the garden gear in the garden range online.

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Why a garden fork beats a spade for lifting root vegetables