Rock-laden soils of South Central Texas can present a unique challenge for gardeners — unless you have the right tools.
When planting, you’ll often hear the best practice is to dig a hole twice as wide as the diameter of the pot. But the packed clays and rock-laden soils of South-Central Texas mean business, and they can present a unique challenge for gardening (and gardeners!)
If you’re taking up a landscape project this spring and reaching for a shovel, be mindful of the type you select. Sometimes starting with a hand spade or square-point shovel can make the task much harder than it needs to be — and there are much better tools available.
San Antonio’s soil types vary from north to south, so it’s worth digging a small test hole to learn which you’ll be dealing with. If a quick test hole reveals deep loam that can be cut like butter, no problem.
But if digging that test hole was a terrible chore, you may need to add a few of these essential tools to your gardening arsenal just to break into the soil.
Digging bar
In San Antonio, if you’re digging anywhere north of, well, Hildebrand, you’ll need leverage. With a drop forged steel bar, the flat and chiseled tips at either end can break up stone and concrete — perfect for what lies beneath the typical Hill Country backyard. A digging bar is one step short of a jackhammer, but it’s much easier to use. Just don’t drop it on your feet.
Sharpshooter
This long-bladed shovel with a rounded tip can easily be mistaken for a trench shovel, but the footrest allows extra leg power for piercing straight into rock, clay and roots. And the rubber handle absorbs recoil. There’s not much that beats it. Once you’ve tried it, you may be tempted to dispense with the pointed digging shovel and rely on sharpshooters for any planting.
Soil knife
In Japan the sansei was considered a knife for leisure, but the translation (“mountain vegetable knife”) gives you an idea why these can be indispensable in a San Antonio landscape. They’re great for cutting into the same tough, rocky soils as a sharpshooter. The stainless-steel blade with serrated edges makes it useful for weeding, dividing, cutting and slicing — as well as for planting anything smaller than 3 inches. Get one with a good hand guard and get it with the sheath. It’ll be at your side all the time.
Talache
A typical mattock combines a pick with an axe, great for chopping into clay or rock. (There’s an axe-headed version for cutting roots.) A good talache is an impressive tool: it assumes the user has the upper body strength to swing a 7-pound head.
Just to be clear, when shopping for shovels at a big box store, you’ll often run into rows of square point and round point shovels, and these can be handy too — but they’re not always the easiest for starting a dig. They’re often designed for moving soil (and other materials) once it’s been loosened.
There are some planting jobs where you may use all six tools — a testament to the diversity of local soil types, and the resilience of plants capable of thriving in them.
