Shovel or spade, and how to pick one that's kind to your back

September 24, 2025

If your back is sore after an afternoon in the garden, there's a fair chance the tool had something to do with it, and the difference between a spade and a shovel is one of those things that nobody ever actually sits down and explains.

A spade digs, a shovel moves

A spade has a flat, fairly straight blade with a sharp bottom edge, and it's made for cutting into the ground. Digging over a bed, cutting a clean edge along the lawn, slicing through roots and making planting holes are all spade jobs. A shovel has a dished blade with the sides turned up, and it's made for scooping and moving loose material, so soil off a pile, mulch, sand, gravel and the like. You can dig with a shovel and you can move dirt with a spade, and both will feel like hard work, because each one is fighting its own design.

Round mouth or square mouth

Shovels come in two main shapes. A round mouth shovel has a pointed or rounded tip, so it pushes into a pile or into firm ground more easily, and it's the better all rounder for the home garden. A square mouth shovel has a flat front edge and it's the one you want for scraping up the last of a load off a concrete driveway or the back of a trailer, which a round mouth just skates over.

The handle matters as much as the blade

A long handle lets you stand up straighter and lever the load rather than lifting it with your back, so for shovelling a pile of mulch or soil it's usually the kinder choice. A short handle with a D grip on the end gives you more control in a tight spot, so most spades come that way, and it suits digging where you're pushing straight down with your foot. Timber handles are the traditional choice and they're comfortable to hold, while fibreglass is lighter and won't rot if the tool ends up living outside.

Using it so it doesn't hurt

Take smaller loads than you think you can manage, because a full blade of wet clay is a lot heavier than it looks. Keep the load close to your body and bend at the knees rather than the waist. When you go to tip it, turn your feet to face where the load is going instead of twisting through your back. On a spade, use the flat tread on top of the blade and put your weight through your boot, so your legs do the pushing instead of your arms.

Keep the edge sharp

A blunt spade bounces off hard ground and makes you work twice as hard for the same hole. A few strokes with a flat file along the cutting edge every so often, filing in one direction on the top side only, keeps it biting. Wipe the dirt off before you put it away, and it'll last a lot longer.

Shop related products

Hand tools. The hand tool range, for the bits that sit alongside a spade and shovel.
Garden products. The soil and mulch you'll be moving with it.

Did you know we keep spades and shovels in the shop rather than on the website, including Cyclone and Gardenmaster garden spades with D handles, Cyclone long handle square mouth shovels, a compact shifting and digging shovel, trenching shovels and post hole shovels, plus flat files for sharpening them. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

The rest of the garden range is in our garden centre, and if you bring in a description of the job, we'll point you at the right tool for it.