4 Best Garden Spades of 2025

Finding quality tools at a sensible price doesn’t happen as often as it should. However, this  Spear & Jackson Digging Spade is both well made, and reasonably priced, which makes it a great addition to the garden shed.

This spade isn’t a budget item, but fits neatly into the ‘mid-range’ price category, bringing the quality you would expect as a result.

With a head made from mirror-polished stainless steel, it stands up to a lot of digging as well as all the other challenges you would hope for: hacking through shrub roots, working through rocky ground, and digging out small tree roots too.

The 70 cm polypropylene shaft is also strong, with a wide-grip handle that’s comfortable to hold. It’s relatively lightweight compared to a lot of garden spades, at 2.18 kg, as a result of the construction materials used.

There are some design features that receive mixed reviews: the spade has been manufactured with a tilted handle that helps with shallow digging, but this design can make it a little difficult to dig deeper than the top of the spade head. Also, the blade head may also flex slightly, if over strained.

However, overall, this is one of the best garden spades for standard gardening. It’s strong and comfortably designed, suitable for use over extended periods. The only thing to watch out for is to not push it beyond its limits: it’s a spade, not a shovel, after all.

Bulldog have a good reputation for creating heavy-duty tools straight from their forge in Wigan. Their Evergreen Digging Spade is a durable tool with several design features that help make it particularly strong.

Unlike a lot of spades, its head and socket are made from one solid piece of forged steel – there are no welds or weak points where the pieces join. This makes it more robust than other models where this isn’t the case. And, as a result, it can tackle tough soil and overgrown roots in the ground.

In addition, the spade’s ash-wood shaft buries deep into the extra-long socket. Again, this helps make it hardwearing; the join is strongly reinforced and less resistant to snapping.

It’s also relatively light weight, at 2.16 kg, and has a grippy D-shaped plastic handle making it comfortable to use. The blade head is coated to stop mud from sticking, keeping cleaning and maintenance to a minimum.

Whilst this is one of the best garden spades for heavier jobs, there’s no tread on the top of the blade to make it more comfortable to push down on, which means heavy-duty shoes also need to be worn if tackling tough terrain.

Nevertheless, it’s a great tool for any garden job, and has the strength to make tough tasks a lot easier. Plus, there’s the added reassurance of knowing exactly where it’s been made.

P.S. Did you know – Monty Don’s favourite spade was made by the Bulldog Foundry in 1990.

This Wilkinson Sword Digging Spade isn’t just aesthetically pleasing, even though the traditional wooden handle does make it a visually-appealing addition to the shed.

It’s also hardwearing and comfortable, with a stainless-steel head and lightweight 1.8 kg design. There’s no join between the shaft and the handle, as it’s all made from the same piece of weatherproofed ash, meaning there are no weaker areas in the wood.

In terms of performance, the mirror-polished blade slides easily into all types of terrain, working well in clay-based soil and heavy ground. Given that the blade head is relatively narrow, at 14 cm, it’s also useful for more precise jobs, like working in tightly-packed flowerbeds, as well as standard digging.

There aren’t many downsides to this spade, seeing as it’s well made to a high standard. However, some gardeners may find the handle a little narrow, especially for larger hands.

In fact, this is a relatively petite spade overall, not just in terms of the handle but also in terms of length as it measures 96 cm long in total.

This makes it the shortest option featured on this list, but it’s lightweight as a result. This also means that it’s one of the best garden spades for people who want something a little lighter and more compact, without losing out on quality.

With a head made from carbon steel, instead of the standard stainless-steel construction, this Kent and Stowe Digging Spade is a particularly strong tool to use in the garden.

Not only do the properties of carbon steel make it stronger than stainless, but the way this spade has been manufactured also adds to its durability. For example, Kent and Stowe have included a long socket for the handle, which has been welded closed, keeping the shaft firmly in place.

There are several small features that help boost the quality of the spade further, including the tread on the top of the head, and the extra bolts on the shaft and under the handle to make it stronger. There’s also a ‘dent’ whittled into the handle that will stop it from coming loose and twisting over time.

The ash-wood components are made from FSC approved timber, which reassures that the wood has been responsibly sourced. The handle and head are both strong enough to complete a lot of challenging work like tree stump removal, moving heavy soil, and shifting gravel.

All in all, this is one of the best garden spades in terms of quality – it is clear that a lot of thought has gone into the design and the result is a high-quality spade. It’s also quite reasonably priced, based on its performance and the cost of similar models currently on the market.