by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Radius® Pro Lite Garden Tools
Spade – 1.23m (48½") H.
Lakeland Ref 51727 – Price: £28.99
Fork – 1.22m (48") H.
Lakeland Ref 51728 – Price: £28.99
I have being digging a new bed in the garden from ground that, basically, was grass (no, I could not really call it lawn) and the ground is full of roots from a Leyland conifer; one of the finest specimen I have ever seen. This bed is going to be for the growing of cut flowers in my garden, aside from the vegetable beds.
The spade performed extremely well, as did the fork in digging the clods over again. First of there was very little is any back strain. The long handles and the bit “O” grip saw to that and the spade cut through the turf where many another spade might have had problems, and this despite the fact that the blade is thinner than that of many another spade that I have used. Then again it may just because of this that the Radius® Pro-Lite spade performed so well.
Considering the state of the ground to be dug through – it wasn't a simple digging over – the spade outperformed any other, of that I am sure, and I would not have been surprised if I might have broken some other spade in that kind of ground.
I will say that I was worried more that once that I might harm the spade seeing what kind of work I put it through and the flexing of the blade. But it held and performed well and I take my hat off to it.
The long shaft especially and the “O” handle make the spade a pleasure to use and the leverage that can be applied due to the length of the handle is amazing, making digging and turning over heavy clods, such as those that came about during my digging work, very easy.
The fork stood no chance, really, doing the initial digging as there was just too much turf and way too many toots that were entangling its tines and were making extremely heavy work for me, as the user as well. Then again a fork is not the tool for the initial digging job that had to be done anyway.
In its proper setting the fork works well and I love using it with the raised beds too as I do not have to bend in any way and can reach from one side of the bed to the other when forking them over without having to step on them. It makes the work so easy without any straining to the back. The fork is also a great tool for turning the compost in my composters due to its long handle. No other can be used in there without me, normally, hitting my knuckles on the rims of the composters.
From where I am standing at the moment after having now used those two tools for a while I can but say that I am happy to endorse them and recommend them to any gardener, hobby or professional.
While the price of £28.99 is not the cheapest for a spade and fork respectively most of the cheap ones for less than £20 or even less than £15 just simply do not cut it and neither could they do the work in the same way as the Radius® Pro-Lite one can, I should think.
Use ratings are a definite 10 out of 10.
© 2011
