Need strong garden fork ....

shegar

Please can some one recommend a decent strong garden fork that wont bend..!!. Ive only been trying to dig out smallish shrubs and the tines keep bending , even on good quality forks ive bought, yeoman,spear & jackson, and kingfisher..........Thanks.

Sambucus_Nigra

Use a spade? Forks don't sever the roots so will bend.

I use short bladed spades that mean I can get a good sharp cut into the soil and sever the roots - dig round and then lever out.

Leif

A fork is not really for levering as it is not strong enough. You need to dig round and under the shrub, and sever the roots with a lopper. Any roots that are too large for the lopper can be cut with a saw. I hate removing shrubs and trees, it is an awful job. Especially since I have a very stony clay rich soil, and a spade is completely useless. By the way, in some cases you really need to remove all of the roots. I've had roses where I left a piece of thick root in the soil, and it sprouted and grew a new plant.

But if you still want a strong fork, I recently bought a Bulldog fork with a wooden handle, and I am impressed. It feels far stronger than the stainless steel ones I used previously, with far less flex in the tines, and the handle. Of course I've only had it a few weeks, and only time can tell if it really is stronger.

Yorkie1

Is it worth getting a mattock to do the really heavy duty chopping work, before going in with a spade as suggested above?

cyclonebri1

Yes a mattock sounds a good idea, I was thinking the same.

OP, you will bend or break virtually any fork on the market, they aren't meant for the real heavy stuff.

For shrubs, even large ones I have a steel pry bar. Bought for levering out concrete etc originally, but ideal for tearing out shrubs.

It's about 5ft long. tempered steel about 1 1/2" dia, with the aid of a timber block no shrub resists for long:eek: