What about berming or mounding? If you are carving holes out of compacted ground and planting in those the plants probably won't like the still-hard ground around the holes either.

I use a pickaxe with the other end having a thick point. Don't swing it in rocky soil, just drop it.

Dan

ROFLOL - if you only knew.

I don't know what its' called, but the best "tool" I have purchased in the last couple of years is about 8 feet long and is a heavy bar. One end is shaped like a pencil point and the other has a wedge end.

After shaking like a bowl of jello trying to drill holes in some of our rocks to try to pry them out, a friend told me about this pry bar thingie, and it has saved me literally hundreds of hours of digging!

The other best digging tool I have is a 2 or 3' piece of steel rebar that I ground to a rounded point and a small baltene hammer to break through the ground enough to pry.

Then to plant, I dig the hole as about 3 times the size of my root ball or container and fill with topsoil and composted material. Eventually the roots make it around the remaining rocks and I don't know what the long term holds, but the plants and tree's I have put in the last couple of years are doing well.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Hope this helps!

Oooops, left out the easiest part. As I am digging the holes out, I fill will water and leave it overnight to see if it will:

1) drain out (so I know whether the roots will have a way and place to go) and

2) to soften whatever soil there might be to make the digging easier.