Tend Your Garden With Ease With the Best Bulb Planters

We should all be gardeners, maybe not as a profession but at least as a hobby. The benefits of this age-old activity are well documented. There is something comforting and enormously satisfying about tending to plants and seeing them sprout and bloom over the years, through thick and thin. And as a species, we owe this debt to the environment that has supported us so well over the years. Without the right tools, however, gardening can be a tedious and frustrating experience. For it to be as rewarding as we all know it can be, or at least as we’ve seen it depicted, we need to stock up on the right gardening tools. One of those tools you need to be a successful gardener is a bulb planter. This buying guide shows you what it takes to choose the perfect bulb planter for you. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

What Is a Bulb Planter?

A bulb planter is an essential gardening tool used for conveniently digging holes for planting bulbs and other plants. If it’s equipped with a soil-release feature, you can also use a bulb planter to put soil back into the hole you’ve dug after you have planted your bulbs. Most bulb planters also feature depth markers to accurately determine the depth of the hole you have dug. The best bulb planters are easy-to-use tools that don’t require much of a learning curve and can be used by amateur gardeners and professionals alike. Bulb planters can be manually operated or can come with electric or battery-powered drills attached. Bulb planters can also be long- or short-handled.

Long-handled vs. Short-handled Bulb Planters

Both the long-handled and short-handled manual bulb planters work similarly. You exert a measure of force to drive the tool into the soil/dirt, twist it, and pull it out. The difference between these styles is the length of the handle attached. With the short-handled planters, you have to bend to reach the soil. With the long-handled models, however, you can reach the soil and operate the tool without bending as much. This results in a lot less strain on your back, saving you a great deal of effort, pain, and making your gardening experience that much easier. To enjoy the full benefits a long-handled model offers, though, you need one that’s well constructed. The higher torque generated around the neck could mean a poorly constructed long-handled bulb planter would snap far more easily than one with a shorter handle. Also, short-handled models are better suited to more compact soil as they typically let you apply more force more comfortably.

Manual vs. Electric/Battery-powered Bulb Planters

Bulb planters are traditionally spring-loaded contraptions that you operate by manually pushing into soil, and these usually come in various shapes and sizes. These work well enough, but you have to expend a degree of energy to operate them, especially with dense/compact soil. These days, with our good friend technology, bulb planters with electric or battery-powered drills are available. The downside to these is that these electric or battery-powered models can only work for as long as there’s a source of electricity or power in the battery. This could mean a limited range of use, and it could also mean that you have to deal with progressively declining battery life over time. These models are also significantly more expensive, predictably.

What Are the Important Features To Look For in a Bulb Planter?

This section covers those features you need to consider when shopping for a bulb planter. Since the manual models are by far the more common ones, a lot of the information available here would apply more intimately to these models.

Construction material

Most of the best bulb planters have bodies made from stainless steel, carbon, or boron steel, and these are usually coated and treated for rust resistance. They are also designed to prevent soil sticking so soil can fall back into the hole you have dug very easily when it’s time to fill the hole back in. The material your planter is made from determines how much work you can get done with it, how easily you can work, and what sort of soil you can work with. If your soil is more compact, like clay, you need to get the strongest models, as most common planters may not work great with this.

Another thing to pay attention to is what your bulb planter’s handle is made from. Bulb planter handles can be plastic, wood, or metal. The sturdiest option would be a model with a continuous metal handle that’s made of the same material as the body of the planter. But these can be uncomfortable to use, so some people prefer plastic or wooden handles.

Handle design

Asides from what the handle is made from, what the handle looks like is also an important consideration. Standard handles are usually small, granting you easy access to all parts of your garden space. But this often means you’d have to be crouched over when working, which isn’t ideal for your back and neck. Longer handles sort this problem but may not grant you the precision the standard handles provide.

Dimensions 

Bulb planters come in various sizes. To choose an appropriately sized planter, you need to pay attention to what you would be planting, how big the holes you intend to plant, and the size of your garden. You should consider parameters such as the diameter and depth of your bulb planter before making a choice.

Depth marker

Bulb planters with depth markers make it very easy to determine the depth of the hole you have dug, giving you more precise control over your planting.

Soil release 

Planters with adjustable soil release make it very easy for you to fill holes you have dug. It is not an essential feature, but it is one that could markedly improve your experience if present.