You can then sit a bulb in the hole that you’ve just made, before holding the bulb planter over the top of it. Squeezing the handle is easily done, and sees the soil plug fall neatly out of the tool and into the hole. Firm it down and then move on to the next! Most of the bulb planters that I reviewed were pretty versatile, but this one takes things to a whole new level. The ProPlugger couldn’t get much easier to use. All you need to do is place the tool over the area of soil you want to dig (after sliding on the appropriate depth ring), step down onto it, give it a twist, and pull it up.

It may be lightweight but this well-designed tool means that you shouldn’t have to use much force to get results. It easily cuts through grass and mulch, although it does struggle in heavy and wet soil. It’s not a great one for stony ground either – it’s most effective on soil that’s soft and fluffy, which I found out when effortlessly planting tulip bulbs into a compost-filled raised bed. There’s nothing complicated about using this bulb planter. Simply place it onto your soil and then step down onto the foot treads, twisting the tool as you do so. As it digs into the ground, the soil that it removes is held within the planter’s conical head – once you lift the tool out, you’ll see the plug. The Draper 3082 Bulb Planter may be lightweight, but it feels like a durable tool. It’s made from chrome-plated steel and is fitted with a green plastic handle with a button that can be squeezed to trigger the tool’s soil-release feature. The tip is nicely pointed, which seems to come in handy for breaking hard ground. Plus, it also comes with a small hole punched into it – this enables you to hang the drill bit when storing it away, which is pretty convenient. In terms of size, the drill bit is 22 cm long and 4 cm wide , which gives it the potential to be used for a variety of different bulbs.It measures 96cm long, and so is slightly shorter than the Kent & Stowe model, but it’s not really enough to be noticeable. At least not by myself anyway. You won’t need any instructions for this bulb planter (which is a good thing since there aren’t any!) – it really is very straight forward to use. Place it over your chosen area of soil and then step onto the foot treads. Twist the tool as it makes its way downwards, and it should neatly slice into the soil, collecting the plug into its conical head as it does so. Digging holes in hard soil is never an enjoyable task, but this Garden Auger Drill Bit was created to take the hard graft out of a challenging job. It claims to be able to dig hundreds of holes in just minutes – fortunately, I had hundreds of spring bulbs to plant around my farm, so I was more than ready to put this promise to the test. There are a couple of ways to get around this, with the first being to tone the power down. You could also try putting your drill into reverse . I did this by accident at first but found that it created a beautifully neat hole, so this is how I ended up using the tool when planting 250 crocus bulbs in the hard, stony soil underneath my lawn. Although simple to use, how easily it works will de pend on the type of soil. I struggled to use this bulb planter in heavy and stony soil – it required a fair amount of pressure to get to the appropriate depth, and there were some parts of my garden where I couldn’t get the tool in more than a couple of centimetres deep.

If you do an online search for the ‘best bulb planter tools’, you’ll likely come across products from several different brands that look exactly like the WOLF-Garten FHN Bulb Planter Hand Tool. However, with WOLF-Garten being a brand that’s known for their innovation and quality, I was hoping that their version of this classic bulb planter would outshine the rest and make it easy for me to plant a variety of spring-flowering bulbs around my farm. The thing is though, you will need to apply quite a bit of force to make this long-handled bulb planter cut through the soil, as for some unknown reason, the makers of this product decided not to make the end serrated, or even that sharp. I fixed this by grabbing my trust angle grinder and sharpening the bottom edge and after that, this tool worked marvellously. No matter the type of soil you use it in, it produces a neat, conical-shaped hole that’s perfect for small bulbs. I found it to be most beneficial when planting garlic, onions, and small flower bulbs such as crocuses. The hole that it created wasn’t quite deep or wide enough for the tulip bulbs that I was planting – I ended up using a different bulb planter for these. At 1.8 kg, it’s relatively light, yet still has just enough weight behind it to mean that you shouldn’t need to use too much force. That said, if you’re using it on harder ground, extra pressure is definitely needed. However, unlike the Kent & Stowe bulb planter, the handle on this one feels as though it’ll hold up to being used in a slightly rougher way.If you’re heading out in search of the perfect long-handled bulb planter, here are a few things to consider before parting ways with your money. What soil are you going to be working on? Theoretically speaking, this auger drill bit should have been extremely simple to use. After all, just point it at the ground, turn your drill on, and hold on tight, right? This would be the case if you’re working with soft soil; although, chances are that you wouldn’t need such a savage bulb planting tool if your soil fits that criteria. The WOLF-Garten FHN Bulb Planter Hand Tool performed exactly as I expected it to. It’s not a planter that I would recommend to anyone that has overly hard or stony soil, but, for everyone else, this clever little tool will make the bulb planting process so much faster. If, like me, you’ve wasted countless hours struggling to plant bulbs into hard ground, then this auger drill bit will be a huge game-changer – I’m surprised it took me this long to try one out! While this planting tool may not be quite as easy to use at first as some of the others out there, things go much smoother (and faster) once you develop a technique that suits the soil you’re using it in . Once you’ve worked this out, the tool becomes much easier to use than the others – it requires the least amount of effort and force to dig a hole , even in hard ground.

We thoroughly researched and tested multiple different bulb planter tools to offer you our recommendations on the best bulb planters available to date. We assessed their design, ease of use, effectiveness at planting bulbs, and value for money. Here are the factors that we considered when evaluating each of those features: These tools come in a variety of materials, but the most common is either fully metal, or a metal head and wooden handle combination. Wooden handles are usually more comfortable to use for extended periods than metal ones, but they can be prone to snapping if the wood is cheap. Metal can be extremely durable, but if it is too thin, or low quality, it will bend under a bit of strain. You also have to be careful of rust and corrosion with metal, so look for something that is coated with a rust resistant material. LengthStorm Arwen Update: Storm Arwen battered my farm, and while trees and sheds went flying, I didn’t expect it to affect the bulbs that I had planted a couple of weeks previously. However, I was wrong – the next morning, all 250 holes that I had dug for my crocus bulbs were uncovered. I didn’t have this issue with the bulbs that I planted using any of the other bulb planters, so I’m assuming it was because the auger compacted the soil into the sides of the holes to such an extent that the new soil I added in never properly merged with the old soil. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find a single thing that I disliked about this dibber. It may be basic compared to some of the other bulb planting tools I tested, but, sometimes, that’s all you really need. Overall, I’d say it’s the best dibber tool available. At first glance, this bulb planter looks pretty impressive. It’s 109 cm long, made from stainless steel that has been fitted with a wooden T-grip handle. On closer inspection, I suspect that this may just be a wood veneer (although I can’t say for sure), as it doesn’t seem quite as heavy or tough as pure wood. Nevertheless, it still feels pretty sturdy for the job in hand. Another thing to note, is that there is some extra weight that comes with the solidity and sturdiness of the countryman long-handled bulb planter, and this might make it a good choice only for people who don’t mind a bit of workout for the arms and shoulders. Bulb planting tools are a great way to not only lessen the manual labour involved, but to also speed the process up. And if you’re not one for spending time on your knees or stooped over, a long-handled bulb planter is probably the type that you want to spend your pennies on. For more details please see: How to use a bulb planter

The exception would be if you’ve been struggling to dig through hard ground – this tool makes that effortless. The base of this bulb planter is serrated, which should help it easily slice into a variety of terrain types. The foot treads that sit above this are relatively wide – even if you’re wearing chunky wellies, you should still get a good grip. I also used it for a while when planting wild garlic, but ended up going with the dibber instead, simply because the soil in that area was too hard for this tool to work effectively. I would also avoid using this tool in wet soil – it ends up wedged into the head, and you’ll need to use your hands to push it out each time. The type of soil that you will be digging into should certainly affect your buying decision. Most low budget long-handled bulb planters work just fine if you have nice, soft soil, but will struggle, or even break under the stresses of trying to work in clay soil.

This was one of the most comfortable bulb planting tools that I tested. Its padded handles are appreciated when using the tool for extended periods of time, and the fact that you can stand up and work, rather than having to constantly bend over, is a big advantage. Anyone who has spent time planting bulbs in the ever-dropping Autumn temperatures will tell you how tiring it can be. That is, if you do it the old-fashioned way and dig up an entire garden bed. But what if I was to tell you there’s a much easier way to plant those bulbs? We know how important your garden is to you. We've listened to our customers and introduced a new improved speedy delivery service, meaning Express deliverycomes as standard. I also appreciate how versatile this auger drill bit could be. It claims to also be helpful when it comes to planting bedding plants, mixing soil/cement, and digging holes for other purposes, and I can clearly see how this would be the case.