No More Random Digging: The Amazon Find That Keeps Seedlings Consistent

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It's not always easy to guess just how deep you need to dig a hole for your seedlings. This might mean that you plant some too deep or have to keep enlarging the hole for others. You may find that with all this random digging, there will be no consistency in your seedling planting and so the final results will vary. But don't worry. If you're tired of guessing how deep you should make each planting hole, there's an Amazon find that is going to help tremendously: The Haliaeetus widger seedling tool.

If you decide to invest in this tool, and it's fairly inexpensive at around $18, you'll probably wonder how you ever did without it. It's something like a skinny trowel but with depth markings on the stainless steel digging section. These allow you to be pretty precise when you're making holes for seedlings or transplants. The measurements also make it useful for spacing individual seedlings correctly, which will help avoid one of the mistakes gardeners make when transplanting seedlings: Planting them too close together. The tool looks fairly sturdy and has a pleasing wooden handle, so it feels comfortable in your hand. Customers have given the widger a 4.5 out of 5 rating, with many even finding it handy for seed sowing and bulb planting. The length and slender shape of the trowel section also make the widger good for digging up weeds with long taproots, like dandelions. There were only a couple of customers who found that the tool was just a little too large for them to hold comfortably.

To find out how deep you need to make holes for seedlings, take one and hold it against the gauge on the trowel so that the roots are at the bottom. Then take note of the depth marking that's right at the base of the plant. This is going to be how far you need to push the trowel down to make the hole and excavate the soil. Then use the tip of the widger to gently guide the roots right down without handling them too roughly, also ensuring they don't have any kinks.

For planting bulbs or seeds, especially those you want to direct sow in your garden, simply push the trowel down into the soil to the correct depth marking, wiggle it around a bit to create a hole, and drop in your seed or bulb. Gently lift the widger back out and push the soil back into place before pressing it down by hand or with the tool. You'll probably find that more of your seeds will germinate because they're planted at the right depth and the little shoots can easily make their way through the surface. If you're not sure how deep you should be planting seeds, look carefully at the pack they came in, as this should tell you. Or, as a general rule, plant them at a depth that is two to four times their width. The widger is also just the right size and shape for gently lifting and scooping young seedlings out of the ground and transplanting them elsewhere. This would be particularly useful if too many seeds have germinated and you don't want to waste all those tiny plants.