1704. The garden-trowel is a tongue-shaped piece of iron, with a handle attached; the blade or tongue being semicylindrical (fig. 313.), or merely turned up on the sides. It is used to plant, or to take up for transplanting, herbaceous plants and small trees. Trowels are also used for loosening the roots of weeds, and are then called weeding-irons. Sometimes they are used for stirring the soil among tender plants in confined situations. Wooden trowels, or spatulï¾µ, are sometimes used in potting plants to fill in the earth; but the garden-trowel with the edges turned up is the best for this purpose.
