Like a gardening trowel, a hand cultivator is a handheld tool ideal for smaller gardening needs. This multi-pronged tool will easily break up tough soil and loosen compacted dirt and gravel. Hand cultivators are often available as a combination tool with a hoe (also called an adze) on the opposite side.
Pickaxe. This tool is a necessity when your soil is rocky or full of tree roots. Use the broad hoelike blade to pulverize small rocks and soil clods.
The soil can become like concrete. Add organic matter such as compost, peat moss or leaf mold when loosening the soil. Compressing soil because of weight. Vehicles parked or driven over an area, construction activities and even places with a great deal of foot traffic can become compacted.
Soil may be so hard that digging with a standard garden shovel is impossible. If this is the case, you can try to use a broad fork to lever the compacted soil apart or a mechanical rototiller. As you break up the soil, add in organic matter like straw or chopped leaves.
A shovel is used as a tool for lifting and digging soil. It also looks like a spade. The difference between a shovel and a spade is in the sharp edge of the shovel.
Garden Forks and Rakes
Digging forks or garden forks are the best digging tools for breaking up rocky or hard soil.
Definitely Yes! Jackhammers are specifically designed for doing heavy-duty jobs like breaking hard surfaces and digging the ground.
Digging with a sturdy spade is the best way, but using a rotavator works OK too. Be careful if you are using a rotavator, it's likely to bounce off the compacted clay until you get the hang of it.
Aerating the lawn around trees can help loosen the soil so their roots can penetrate further. In smaller areas, you may also bury your compacted soil or replace it entirely, but be sure to add 1 ½ to 3 feet in depth or your plants' roots won't be able to penetrate deeply enough to get available nutrients.
Gypsum (calcium sulfate) is known as the 'clay breaker' because of its ability to replace sodium with calcium. Adding a handful of gypsum per square metre of clay soil helps to improve the structure of the top layer of the soil.
Organic materials can include compost, manure and other natural decomposing material. Combining these types of materials with your clay soil will allow for better air and water flow, softening the soil.
Mattock. Are heavy-duty tools designed to dig through soil, rocks, and roots. There are two versions, but both have a 2 to 4 inch wide digging blade on one end for breaking up soil. A pick mattock has a sharp pick point on the back end for breaking and moving small rocks.
Adding compost will soften your soil and improve soil structure, compost also adds nutrients to your soil that your plants need.
The pick and mattock is for serious digging through hard packed soil and clay. The pick (pointed end) or the mattock (wide blade) is used to chop down into the soil, and the cradle design of the head can then be used as a lever to break open the soil or pry out rocks, allowing it to be shoveled more easily.
Rake is a tool used in digging and loosening hard and dry soil. It has a thin blade across the end of a long handle. Axe is a tool with a flat, sharp blade fastened to a handle used for cutting trunks of trees and their branches. Always clean or wash the tools before keeping.
PICK-MATTOCK is used for digging canals, breaking hard topsoil and for digging up stones and tree stumps.
Spades are useful for cutting and digging heavy soil, digging straight-sided flat bottomed trenches, or removing a layer of sod. Garden forks have thick tines and are used for turning soil and breaking up soil clods. Pitchforks have longer tines which are useful for moving light, loose material.
Use A Shovel To Break Up The Soil
Taking a shovel or a tiller, carefully turn over the soil, being sure to move rocks off to the side. Go slowly and be on the lookout for large stones to prevent damage to your tools.
A mattock /ˈmætək/ is a hand tool used for digging, prying, and chopping. Similar to the pickaxe, it has a long handle and a stout head which combines either a vertical axe blade with a horizontal adze (cutter mattock), or a pick and an adze (pick mattock).