This very spade, the digging spade, usually bought in this configuration:
42" D-handle, and its companion hand tools the spade fork, the digging fork
and the garden spade, were first imported into the USA by Smith and Hawkins
Tools. These were the most often used hand garden tools by the emerging
organic gardening community, Alan Chadwick and his students and followers
....and clones. Living back to the land, homesteading, practicing organic
agriculture and permaculture? These were the tools most often used. Add
Japanese and German eyehoes, Austrian scythes, seeding rakes from Holland
and Germany and of course more Bulldog tools and you have the full array of
the best tools for the job if you're an organic gardener. I now call it
natural gardening.