Abstract: Planting mounds for afforestation purposes and the like are formed by an apparatus wherein a device having at least one mound-forming and compacting body is provided on a movable support arm or boom of a carrier vehicle adapted to be driven along the ground. The body has an elongate, longitudinally concave soil-pushing front surface of shape and dimensions suitable to define the upper surface of a planting mound, and preferably has digging teeth or the like at its lower forward edge. The body is supported for pivotal movement relative to the arm or boom and may be pivoted by a piston-cylinder assembly or the like. For mound formation, the body is placed in a digging position with the soil-pushing surface facing in a first direction substantially parallel to the ground.