Abstract: A hand-held tool for not only placing granular materials such as grass seed, granular chemicals, or a combination thereof into soil but also aerating it and detecting near surface rocks and the like. The tool includes a hopper, a shaft which terminates in a soil-piercing spike, and a spring-actuated sleeve slideably mounted on the shaft. The shaft defines a partially hollow bore and an orifice, the orifice being disposed on a sidewall of the shaft distal from the hopper and proximate with the juncture between the shaft and the spike. The bore and the orifice fluidly communicate with each other and with the hopper. The spring-actuated sleeve normally blocks the orifice, so that seed and/or chemicals cannot spill out of it. Granular materials are dispensed by dropping them by gravity out of the orifice whenever the spike can be driven into the soil far enough.

Abstract: A hand-held tool for not only placing granular materials such as grass seed, granular chemicals, or a combination thereof into soil but also aerating it and detecting near surface rocks and the like. The tool includes a hopper, a shaft which terminates in a soil-piercing spike, and a spring-actuated sleeve slideably mounted on the shaft. The shaft defines a partially hollow bore and an orifice, the orifice being disposed on a sidewall of the shaft distal from the hopper and proximate with the juncture between the shaft and the spike. The bore and the orifice fluidly communicate with each other and with the hopper. The spring-actuated sleeve normally blocks the orifice, so that seed and/or chemicals cannot spill out of it. Granular materials are dispensed by dropping them by gravity out of the orifice whenever the spike can be driven into the soil far enough.