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. 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. 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. Ease of Use: If the tool was easy to use with little effort needed on your part, even in tough soil, then it was rated much higher. This included bulb planters with longer handles, as this made them more accessible to all; you don’t have to bend down to use them, and they require minimal effort, meaning they can be used for long periods. If anything on it was adjustable (like the planting depth), we assessed how simple and easy it was to adjust it. If it did not have adjustable planting depth or at least planting depth markers, it scored lower because these required much more effort to assess the depth yourself. We also gave the bulb planter tool better scores if it collected multiple soil plugs or if it only collected a single soil plug, whether it was easy to pop out and could be used to refill the holes once the bulbs were planted. The hole that it created wasn’t quite large enough for the plants that I had, but I got around this by digging a second hole right next to the first, which therefore doubled the size of the first hole.

Draper is a British brand that’s loved for its extensive range of hand and power tools. Some are innovative, complex, and powerful, while others are simple classics, like the 3082 Bulb Planter. You’ll see many similar versions of this bulb planter around, so I was curious to see how Draper’s model would compare.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.

Although the handle and shaft are made of metal, they are only thin and so a little care needs to be taken or you could end up bending the bulb planter out of shape. There is also no rubberised grip part for comfort when holding the tool, but a good pair of gardening gloves will make this a non-issue. I used this bulb planter to plant a variety of spring bulbs, including anemones, tulips, daffodils, and crocuses. Its 6 cm diameter made it suitable for all of these bulbs, even though there was a significant size difference between the tulips and the crocuses. I used the Draper 3082 Bulb Planter to plant a selection of spring bulbs, including Russian snowdrops, tulips, crocuses, and wild garlic. Its 6 cm diameter was perfect for all of them. I did also give this tool a go when planting onion sets, but the hole that it created was too large. 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. Storm 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.

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I couldn’t see any bulbs in the holes (I’m hoping they were further down) but I re-covered the holes anyway and have my fingers crossed for spring! Since these were pretty extenuating circumstances, I haven’t detracted any points from my scoring of the product, but it’s worth a mention for those of you who live in storm-prone areas. The end of the planter cone is serrated and designed to cut into the soil easier, and if used correctly, it does the job well. However, like a lot of these lower cost tools, they aren’t built to cut through dense clay soils, or straight into lawns, and should be used on a well-watered bed or similar for best results. When it comes to emptying the soil out of the tool, you have two options. Either turn the tool upside down and let the soil fall neatly out, or dig another hole. The soil that the tool collects from this hole will push the old soil out of the bulb planter and leave it neatly on the ground, ready for you to re-fill your first hole with. If you’re planting a lot of larger bulbs, use a bulb planter hand tool that removes plugs of earth . This tool creates uniform holes, and fills them in again, in two simple steps. Look for a width of around 60 mm, and depth marking on the side – something that can be really useful when planting different types of bulb.

The ProPlugger is clearly a tool designed for larger-scale plantings – it’s the best bulb planter for large quantities of of bulbs. However, it’s not really worth the money if you only have a handful of bulbs to plant. 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. Quality-wise, it’s about what you’d expect for the price and will last as long as you take it easy and don’t try slamming it into hard soil or stamp on the foot rests too hard. 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?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.

I used this bulb planter to plant a variety of spring bulbs, including tulips, daffodils, anemones, and snowdrops. Some went into raised beds, others went into hard and uncultivated soil, and several went into lawn. At the present time, the three long-handled bulb planters above are probably your best options unless you really want to dig deep and spend a lot on a top—tier gardening tool from a specialist supplier. For most people though, either the countryman or Kent & Stowe models should do the job just fine, as long as you use the right tool for the right type of soil. If you have dense soil, like clay, you’d better go for the countryman long-handled bulb planter, but for softer soil types, the Kent & Stowe will do a great job. Long-handled bulb planter- buyer’s guide The only real downside to this tool is that it doesn’t have any depth measurement markings on it. This is something that most bulb planters usually have, and it does make life a little easier when you’re planting a variety of bulbs that need to go in at different depths. However, if you’ve planted plenty of bulbs before, it’s easy enough to estimate how deep you need to push the dibber in to obtain your required depth. This WOLF-Garten bulb planter is extremely simple to use. All you need to do is place it down onto the soil, and then twist and push it in until you’ve reached your desired depth. Then, lift it out and you’ll see the soil plug held between the tool’s circular blades. 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.

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As mentioned, the Draper 3082 Bulb Planter has a very similar design to its competitors. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it’s clearly a reliable design, and there were no immediate flaws that I could see. 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.