Planting fifty tubestock natives with a trowel is an afternoon on your knees and a sore back the next day. With this garden auger in a cordless drill it is twenty minutes standing up. Squeeze the trigger, the spiral bites in, the soil lifts out of the hole and you move to the next one. The hole comes out round, clean and the same depth every time, which is exactly what young roots want.

It suits anyone planting in quantity: a veggie patch going in for spring, a hundred garlic cloves in autumn, a row of hedging plants, bulbs through the front bed, or a nursery run of tubestock. Three sizes are available so you can match the auger to what you are planting rather than making every hole the same.

Why It Stands Out

• Turns a drill you already own into a digger — there is no motor, no fuel and no charger to buy, because the tool is the drill in your shed, and this auger drill bit is what makes it dig
• Plain 8 mm round shank — it fits any standard keyless chuck, from a small 10 mm drill up to a 13 mm one, so there is no special fitting to check and nothing exotic to match
• Three sizes to match the plant — 40 mm for bulbs, garlic and tubestock, 60 mm for punnet seedlings and small perennials, 80 mm for potted colour and larger nursery stock
• Consistent holes, every time — the auger cuts the same diameter and you control the depth, so a whole bed goes in at a uniform planting depth instead of the guesswork you get with a trowel
• Lifts the soil out instead of compacting it — the spiral carries the soil up and out of the hole, so you are not pressing the walls of the hole hard and glazing them the way a dibber does in clay
• Welded steel spiral — the flight is welded to a solid shaft rather than pressed from thin sheet, which is what gives it the stiffness to drive through firm ground
• Works standing up — no kneeling, no crouching, no trowel. For anyone with dodgy knees or a big planting job, this is the difference between doing it and putting it off
• Doubles as a soil loosener — run it into a compacted spot without planting anything and it breaks up the pan, which helps water get down instead of running off

Where to Use

• Veggie patch planting — punch out a whole row of holes for tomato, capsicum and lettuce seedlings in minutes before the heat of the day
• Autumn garlic and bulbs — Australian bulbs go in from March to May, and a hundred holes at even depth is the difference between a good display and a patchy one
• Native tubestock — grevilleas, banksias and correas come in narrow tubes, and the 40 mm auger makes a hole that fits them exactly with no wasted digging
• Hedging and screening runs — lilly pilly, murraya or viburnum down a boundary is dozens of identical holes, which is precisely what an auger is for
• Raised beds and planter boxes — the auger goes through bought soil mix easily and lets you plant a whole bed without disturbing the rest of it
• Opening up heavy clay — water the area the day before, then bore a few holes around an established plant to open the soil and let water and compost get down to the roots
• Drainage in pots and beds — open up a spot where water sits after rain instead of soaking away
• Nurseries, landscapers and community gardens — if you plant in the hundreds, this pays for itself the first afternoon

How It Works

1. The shank grips in the chuck — the 8 mm round shaft tightens into your drill's chuck like any other bit.
2. The point starts the hole — the tip bites into the soil and pulls the auger down under its own screw action.
3. The spiral lifts the soil — as the flight turns, it carries loosened soil up the shaft and out onto the surface.
4. You control the depth — stop when you reach the depth you want, lift the spinning auger clear, and the hole is done.

How to Use

1. Fit it properly — push the shank well into the chuck and tighten it firmly by hand. A loose bit will slip and chew the shank.
2. Use drill mode, not hammer — set your drill to normal drilling, never hammer mode, and do not use an impact driver. Those will damage the auger and the drill.
3. Hold it with both hands — one on the trigger and one on the body of the drill. On the 80 mm size, fit the side handle if your drill has one.
4. Water the spot the day before — this is the single most important step in Australia. Dry summer clay is like concrete and the auger will grab and stall. Damp soil cuts easily.
5. Go straight down and steady — start slowly until the tip is buried, then run at a steady speed. Do not lean your weight on it.
6. Back it out to clear the soil — if it packs up and slows, lift it out a little while it is still spinning to clear the flight, then go back down.
7. Stop if it binds — release the trigger immediately if it catches a root or rock rather than fighting it.
Tip: keep the drill clutch set low rather than locked on full torque. The clutch will slip before the drill can twist in your hands, which is the whole point of a clutch and the easiest way to avoid a sprained wrist.

Care and Maintenance

• Clean the soil off after each use — knock and brush the dirt out of the spiral before it dries on, because caked soil stops the flight clearing properly next time
• Dry it before storing — wipe it down and let it dry, since a wet steel auger left in a shed will show surface rust within a week of a humid Australian summer
• Wipe it with oil — a light coat of machine oil on the flight keeps rust off and helps the soil slide up and out
• Check the shank — look for rounding or burring where it sits in the chuck, because a chewed shank slips and gets worse quickly
• Keep it out of rocky ground — this is made for soil, and repeatedly hitting rock or buried rubble will blunt the tip and bend the flight
• Do not use it as a lever — never lever the drill sideways to widen a hole, because that bends the shaft and it will never run true again
• Store it hanging — hang it on the shed wall rather than leaving it loose in a toolbox where the flight edges get knocked about

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Garden auger drill bit in the size you select
• Drill not included

Which size should you get? The 40 × 220 mm is the one most people want: it suits bulbs, garlic, strawberry runners and native tubestock, and any drill will turn it. The 60 × 300 mm handles punnet seedlings and small perennials and is the best all-rounder for a veggie patch. The 80 × 300 mm is for potted colour and larger nursery stock, and it asks the most of your drill — an 80 mm hole in heavy soil needs a drill with decent torque and a side handle, so if yours is a small 12V model, take the 60 mm instead.

It fits any standard cordless drill you already own.