Yard Butler Roto Earth 18” Auger Drill Bit, IREA-4 - Digging Tool for Effortless Bulb Planting - Multi-Use Drill - Heavy-Duty Garden Equipment - Power-Coated Steel - Rust-Resistant

When I bought this it was $17. This is not a $50 or $150 dollar tool, and I set my expectations accordingly.It worked very well for me. So far I have 3 holes drilled that are 24" deep in some terrible dirt. I'm hoping to get another 8-10 holes done, but even if not, this thing has already paid for itself.A few tips for using this effectively:1. Go slowly. This is a huge drill bit for a household drill and it puts a lot of stress on the drill and you. Ease it in, don't lean on it, and back it out every couple of inches to ensure it's clearing debris out of the hole. I set my drill to the slower speed and then turned it very slowly. It's not a race and you're not drilling a 1/4" hole through a 2x4. Give it a chance to work and move the dirt.2. Try to keep the sides of the hole straight. I let it wobble around on my first hole so the inside of it was lager than the bit. It can't move the dirt out if the hole is too wide. Slow and some care are require to keep the sides straight.3. Gravel is a real pain. I have 1/2" to 2" gravel buried all over my yard. I had to abandon some holes when I hit a larger rock. You can you 1" gravel up, but you need to ensure it dislodges it. I let it "bite" into the dirt around the gravel and then pulled up on the drill gently. Then I slowly pulled out the bit while rotating it to get the gravel out. You can't expect it to to just fling out big pieces of rock.My trees are going to be so much happier that I can get them some deeper watering. Plenty of other uses for this as well.

I just finished a yard construction job where I, as a homeowner, needed to drill holes about 12" deep to drive steel tubes down into the ground to function as leg supports for a wrought iron trellis. This auger drills 1.25" holes into soil. It worked perfectly. I am not a construction worker and I am not building skyscrapers. This inexpensive tool is spectacular for its purposes and price. I cannot believe some reviewers whine over its quality. It is quite fine for its purposes. It's fabricated as one might expect and works well. I did lots of online research and also drove to several gardening and farm supply stores. NO ONE offered a 1.25" diameter garden auger. I then went home and despite some of the complainer-reviews I ordered this product. The project is complete. The auger is excellent. If your soil hard-packed, perhaps wet it awhile, first. But I had no problem at all.

I bought this to drill holes in the ground to put up my parasol. For this purpose it does the job very well.As for its sturdiness, I am wondering, if the welding is durable enough: there are only three points of welding that attaches the spiral--top middle and bottom. I am hoping it is strong enough to last a long time.As far as function is concerned, it does the job very well. The diameter is 1.25 inches, so it keeps the pole steady. My other auger is 1.5 inches in diameter, and it is just too wide to hold the pole steady.

Just used it to plant 200 daffodils! Wonderful. All done (including raking mulch away & restoring when done) in a couple of hours or so. I was afraid this might be too narrow for the high-quality daffodil bulbs, but probably 90 to 95% of them slipped right in; the remainders were often a bulb and a second 'bulblet'. Broke the apart, and all planted. I was afraid of how big of a chore this would be - now I wish I'd ordered 500 or more bulbs!I planted beneath crepe myrtles, an oak, a maple, a pine, and a redbud. Only occasionally hit a root, and usually it was just deflected a little and kept digging. It's narrow enough it can find its way around most, I guess.I used a cordless drill with the clutch set a few settings below maximum. That way when it did hit something, it merely 'clutched' rather than wrenching my wrist. Worked great.I did go ahead beforehand and grind off a rough hex pattern at top of shaft, so I don't know if the round shaft would spin or not. Mine never came loose.

The Yard Butler IRD-2 20 inch Auger is good but not great.Pros: epoxy paint covering held up better than expected to abrasive soil. It works with normal drills and chucks - its not some 1/2 square fitting that needs pro sized tools.Cons: Only spot welds hold the screw. The welds held, but I have my doubts they would hold in denser or soils with high clay contents. I would want more spot welds or a continuous weld. The auger tip is not a screw, it is just a point, so it doesn't break into tough soil. My soil is river bottom so its a bit clay heavy and dense. The auger was only able to penetrate about a foot before it's stopped cold. If you have loose garden soil that's well aerated this works fine. If you have a lawn don't expect much.My intent was to drill a 30-ish inch deep hole into my lawn and place a deep water fixture for a tree. That way I can water the tree and not the lawn/weeds during this terrible California drought. For that use it failed, but perhaps I expected too much.

We bought two bags of bulbs at Costco, totaling 250 bulbs. To speed planting, I got this Yard Butler auger to use in my cordless drill.We planted about 70 bulbs in part of the yard that has landscape fabric, and that made it more tedious to use the Yard Butler auger. I couldn't just drill through the landscape fabric -- that caused a twisted mess to wrap around the auger. I had to cut the fabric in each spot a bulb was to be planted, and that was time consuming. At the other part of the yard, there was no fabric and I could use the auger directly. It made the job go amazingly fast, especially where there were no rocks or roots. If it's just soil, this thing will have you in and out in 2-3 seconds -- nice!The drill I use is a nice quality Hitachi cordless drill, for which I have two batteries. The first battery ran out about halfway through and the second one finished it. It was easy with this auger bit, and planting that many bulbs would have been an ordeal without it. The picture shows the bulbs we planted, the drill and auger bit... after the job was done.

Tough to hold the drill in clay, though.

I have some disabilities (knees and carpal tunnel) which make it difficult to do some gardening tasks but I refuse to quit gardening. Instead, I look for aids, tools, and equipment that will assist me so that I don't have to quit.This auger came highly recommended by the very popular YouTube channel Garden Answer and since I highly respect their referrals I bought this auger.It does work by digging a hole for my tulip bulbs. I did find pushing it down into the soil helped with the drilling and that I could pull it straight out but it was far easier on the hands to reverse the drill out of the hole. I then dropped in some bulb fertilizer and then the bulb and covered them over. This auger, of course, drills one hole at a time so it's handy when wanting to make a hole in small areas.Highly recommend and it really helps reduce the effort on hands and wrists.

Hole circumference not more than 1/1/2" (38mm) might be suitable for crocus and bulb size under that,the shaft will just slip round in drill chuck in when in use I will make some amendments to the designand drill holes in the lawn for drainage

Works as intended.

A bit smaller than I expected but still quite useful. This size is handy for larger flower pots. Would have preferred something about 50% bigger to use in garden beds