You are probably familiar with drills for metal and wood but are probably not as familiar with the soil drills known as garden augers. These valuable devices stand out in the ranks of specialty garden tools for the quick job they will make of many often encountered outdoor jobs.
You easily can find garden augers in a broad range of sizes. The biggest are intended for rapidly planting trees and even telephone poles. The small ones are for garden use, drilling smaller holes most for properly planting bulbs, seeds and smaller plants.
Garden
All garden augers will need a source of rotating power to use. For a very small auger this may be a hand driven drilling device. For the biggest garden augers a very powerful force is required such as from a tractor drive shaft. The most popular small sizes of garden augers are intended to work with variable speed electric hand drills.
Most garden augers are not intended to work in highly compacted dry, very rocky soil or gravel but in already cultivated soil an auger can greatly accelerate a variety of tasks.
Augers are generally used for all kinds of planting in home gardens. The very largest of augers require heavy duty motors to be effective but they are the only way to go when you have a big planting job. Some of these can drill holes many feet deep and six inches or more in diameter.
These big augers are also popular for placing fence posts. They turn a slow and back-breaking job into a very fast exercise. Only the hardiest of fence builders would consider digging fence post holes by hand when appropriate augers are readily available at most tool rental shops for very reasonable prices.
A really quick way to plant spring and summer bulbs in addition to many bedding plants and seedlings to use the auger to create the correct sized hole then place the seeds, bulbs or plants. The very popular garden augers varying from about three inches on down to under two inches are just right for this kind of job. You'll need a small, variable speed drill to power the auger and it can make holes from a few inches up to two feet deep to make really quick work of planting.
The things you can do with garden augers doesn't stop with planting though. Another great use is remove the roots of weeds that have long roots going deep into the ground and are extremely difficult to get out with other common garden tools.
Bushes and trees, in particular older and established trees and bushes, need regular deep fertilizing, aeration and watering. Many deep bores drilled under these plants will deliver nutrients, water and life-giving oxygen to the roots and will often bring back life and vitality to older plants. Use your garden auger to drill multiple deep holes under the trees or shrubs before applying fertilizer and then watering.
Any job that requires drilling a hole into the ground is probably a candidate for employing a garden auger. For example, you sometimes want to run PCV irrigation pipes under an obstacle including sidewalks or foundations. Outdoor electrical wiring is another obvious job for a garden auger.
My observation is that you should always buy from a recognized manufacturer. I've had great success with the Yard Butler Company of San Diego, California. This company uses tool grade steel making their augers, and used with care will not fail the first time you use them. Yard Butler has been manufacturing specialty gardening tools for over half a century and has earned an enviable regard among gardeners for building better tools.
I suggest you avoid purchasing the least expensive augers such as those mass produced in China and sold by the large garden and home supply chain companies. My experience shows that they instantly bend or break and end up costing more in the long run. Treated with care a quality garden auger will last for many years and prove a real time saver in your garden and around the house.
Garden Augers in Your Garden
Yard Butler quality, specialty garden tools for your garden.