Shovel

The shovel, obtained at the end of Level 1-4 of Adventure Mode in Plants vs. Zombies, and is used to dig up plants. Before the mini-game of Level 1-5, Wall-nut Bowling, starts, Crazy Dave will have the player use the shovel to dig up three Peashooters planted on the lawn so the Wall-nuts won't hit them. In order to replace or remove plants, the player will need to dig them up with the shovel, except for Wall-nuts, Tall-nuts, and Pumpkins after purchasing Wall-nut First Aid from Crazy Dave.

The player cannot get the shoveled up plant back in any way. They will also not get the sun back (Last Stand Puzzle Mode excluded), so if they want to use the shovel, they should make sure they want to get rid of the plant in the way. Also, only get rid of the plant if you need room for another plant.

A disadvantage is that sometimes the inconvenient placement of the shovel causes players to dig up the wrong plant accidentally, especially in the DS version, where it is placed right next to two squares on the lawn. However, the plant that will get dug up on many versions will be highlighted, making mistakes harder to make.

General

 * While playing a Last Stand level on either the original or It's About Time, any plant you dig up prior to sending zombies will give back the full amount of the plants cost.
 * There are only 2 exceptions to this rule, and the both apply to the original game. The first is when playing the mini-game version rather than the puzzle series. The second is when digging up an upgrade plant or mushroom in Last Stand: Endless, in which case the game will negate the base plant/Coffee Bean (i.e. 200 for Winter Melon instead of 500/75 sun for Fume-shroom instead of 150).
 * When playing It's About Time and you have a shovel bonus, part of the returned sun cost will be in units of 5 sun.

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time

 * Tutorial day 3 is the first level the shovel is used, where the player must dig up 3 Peashooters that are facing backwards.
 * This level starts out as "Ready...Set...WAIT!!!", where "WAIT!!!" is shown as tutorial dialogue.
 * Once the Peashooters are removed, the level is restarted with "Ready...Set...PLANT!"
 * When using a shovel bonus, you will get 25% of the initial planting cost back. This number is based in sun units of 5 and varies depending on each specific plants' cost.
 * Since there are several shovel bonuses available, the percentage can be combined (i.e. 25% becomes 50%).
 * If you use a shovel on an endangered plant during a Save Our Seeds level, it still says "The Zombies Ate Your Plant", and the "Nnooo!" is still played.
 * However, the partially-eaten brain is not shown like it does in other levels.
 * So far, it is only possible to achieve a 75% shovel bonus: as an in-app purchase (the price may vary, depending on the app store used), after beating Pirate Seas Day 12, and after beating Wild West Day 11.
 * While the effect remains the same, each of these occurrences is named slightly different: the purchase is "Shovel Bonus", the Pirate Seas reward is "Shovel Boost", and the Wild West reward is "Shovel Perk".