Bulb Planting Tools

Planting bulbs in your garden is an effort that is rewarded in spring and summer when the blooms begin to unfurl but it can be punishing and slow work. The right tools can ease the stress, speed up the planting process and help ensure that each bulb is planted at the ideal and uniform depth in the soil.

Dibble

Use a small pointed cone-shaped dibble with a T-shaped handle for planting small bulbs such as muscari and gladioli corms. Puncture the surface of the soil with the point of the dibble facing straight down. Make a small circular motion with your wrist the tool will make a perfect round small hole. Place your bulb in the hole, brush over the soil and move onto making the next hole.

Hand Trowel, Bulb Planter or Shovel

Create individual planting holes for larger bulbs with a hand trowel or a bulb planter that punctures and lifts the soil out at a uniform depth. Excavate larger planting holes or troughs with a shovel and place bulbs en masse shoveling the soil over and using the back to tamp down the soil .

Motorized Augers

Use a 3-inch diameter auger attachment for your hand drill to quickly create multiple bulb planting holes with little effort. Auger attachments are long so the hole digging can be accomplished from a standing position. Augers are also helpful in making neat linear rows of holes or patterns.