With Home Depot's Electric Garden Tool, You Can Skip Breaking Up Soil By Hand

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No matter how many shortcuts or genius gardening hacks you find, eventually most gardeners come to terms with the fact that it's a hard, messy job. When it comes to back-breaking work like digging, some people love the repetitive motion and the feel of metal slicing into the earth, and they don't mind the soreness and stiffness they feel the next day. But if you'd rather skip the dirty work and get straight to planting, a small electric cultivator like the Sun Joe 6.3 inch 2.5 Amp Electric Garden Cultivator is the way to go.

Currently available from Home Depot for $103.77, this small cultivator has a telescoping shaft, which makes it adjustable for your height. The small size makes it easier to store in tight spaces than a regular-sized gas or electric tiller. You could even make your own DIY outdoor storage cabinet (which can double as a potting bench) to keep it in. It's electric powered with an instant start, so there are no messy fuels or smelly fumes. Just clean and store it after each use. At only 6.3 inches wide, the steel tines on the Sun Joe model TJ599E cultivator don't eat up a huge path, so you can easily maneuver this approximately 10-pound tool in between rows, along borders, and in raised garden beds. Even though it only tills to a depth of 6 inches, that's really all you need to take care of surface compaction anyway.

The main purpose of tilling is to create pores so that air and water can more easily move through the soil, which improves drainage and plant health. You can ask any farmer: timing matters when you're tilling soil, even when you're using a small, electric hand tiller like the Sun Joe Electric Garden Cultivator from Home Depot. Ideally, your soil should be slightly damp and crumble when you form a ball in your hand. Avoid tilling when it's too wet, which can make compaction even worse. 

However, you'll find a use for this gadget almost any time of year. Seeds do best when they have direct contact with loosened soil, so this cultivator is also a good choice when directly sowing seeds or filling bare patches. Till the soil in patchy areas before reseeding your cool-season lawn this fall. A wildflower meadow also needs the soil tilled to about 6 inches before planting in spring or fall. Another handy seasonal use for the Sun Joe cultivator is to churn leaf litter into your flower beds, which adds organic matter and further improves the soil structure and drainage.

Most reviewers on Home Depot's website found that it performed as needed, but others reported that it seized or even broke while working in extremely tough soil, so you might want to try these tips to easily break clay soil first. It also must be plugged into a outlet, so remember to choose an extension cord that's rated for the outdoors. You'll need a 16-gauge extension cord to carry it up to 50 feet, or a a 14-gauge extension cord if you want to walk up to 100 feet away, per manufacturer's guidance.