Radius Garden 23011 Root Slayer Caprock Shovel XL, Root Slayer Caprock Shovel, Red

A short, heavy shovel. Blade is thick & heavy duty. But the twin fork prods in the middle point of the shovel may be good for cutting roots, but not good for shoveling & moving regular material like dirt or gravel or general debris. That fork is a weakness & limits the shovel's volume capacity & prying ability. Plus the twin points might be easily damaged when used like a regular shovel,... like prying up a rock or under an edge of a sidewalk or burried rock etc.. So this is more of a stomp & push cutter device. Unlike some claims, underground rock(s) stop penetration like any shovel. Rocky, stoney soil will quickly dull the cutting surfaces. As for the round handle, can't really experience any advantage to it,... more of a gimmick I'd say. Shaft is too short to bury the handle in my stomach & drive forward with the power of my legs. Shaft & loop handle are heavy & strong,... but needlessly heavy given the short shaft & vulnerable twin point are weaknesses that negate any advantages of the short, heavy loopy shaft.BOTTOM LINE: Earns ***THREE-3*** Stars.

So when I got it a little turned off. I forgot it did not have those foot placements that you see on other shovels. Besides that freaking awesome. If you have sturdy boots then your good. Def helps to clean a dig site. Clean sharp edges. Ibised it for so much. 2nd draw back is it needs to be sharpened. Not a whole lot but enough to give it a better edge. Besides that good shovel. I use mine to lever off land and for digging water lines. It also has some weight to it. Kot a flimsy tool. I will keep yall posted with new review after few months.

Very strong but heavy shovel. As far as cutting through roots I wasn't inpressed.Tried to cut through a pencil sized root and it just pushed it under the dirt in the hole I was digging. I will try sharpening the notch in the shovel and see if that helps. Great for digging and prying up trees for transplanting. Handle wont crack like my wooden handled shovel.

Good quality throughout. Main negative (and it's fairly substantial) is that there is no bend in the top of the shovel head for your feet to strike. You need to wear boots or shoes with a thick/stiff sole so it doesn't hurt. I looked at their pictures before buying this but could not tell if the top was bent like the other ones. Well it isn't.

This review is for the drain spade. - Great for cutting through roots and digging a trench in root filled soil. Poor for removing soil from the trench. Would be so much more useful, if the handle was full length, allowing it to be used to scoop soil out of a trench without constant bending. - I found it works best to dig the trench with this, and then use a standard long handled trenching shovel to scoop the loose dirt out.

I was looking for something to make light work of taking out Coyote Bushes... granted, the soil is hard this time of year but I didn't really notice any real benefits over a stranded spade except within 5mins of use I had a massive blister almost across my entire left had from throwing the pad down and trying to cut through roots !.I will keep it as a utility spade but have to rethink the roots !

I have replaced all my older shovels with this line and brand. I live in Oklahoma and we have hard clay red dirt. The shovel makes it so much easier to dig which I do a lot for my own therapy and without much help from anyone else.....like say my husband.There really are no negatives I can think of .......

This is a beast. Very well made and finished and super sturdy. I have been transplanting wild shrubs and small trees (holly, cherry laurel, nandina, magnolia) from deeper woods to more prominent places in the landscape. Great leverage and cuts through roots vey well.

Easy to grip and definitely a strong piece of kit, fairly getting through any roots in its way but it’s way too heavy. My other one wasn’t a third of this weight. Mind you it wasn’t as sturdy and broke after a couple of years. I think this will keep going for years. Only hope my back lasts as long!

This spade was recommended by my 80 year old mother! We have just moved house and the garden hasn’t been tackled for some years. This spade makes light work of digging through the roots, it’s not light to handle but it is so sturdy and I love the circular handle allowing you to pick it up with two hands and drive it into the Earth. Not cheap but Highly recommended.

Well worth the money, transformed garden spade work, dealt with roots etc without issue

Bought the shovel style head instead of the original narrower transplant style head, the overall weight is heavier compared to my other shovels from Lee Valley, the steel the shovel head is made of is heavy gauge, seems like it would be very hard to bend it or damage it, used it on some tree roots in the garden and no problems, would recommend for heavy duty garden duties.