Yes, soak it first as socalgal says. Remember if that area doesn’t get water you’ll have to keep up the watering for whatever you plant. Be careful digging with a hand trowel in hard soil because you can injure your hand, as I have done. Maybe loosen a bit with a cultivator or shovel. Have fun.

Because I plant ca natives and drought tolerant my soil is usually hard and dry. I call it like granite. I too water the day before when planting anything new.

It's called Adobe soil: hard as a rock when dry, and quite good when damp. This is very typical of California soils that haven't been amended.... a lot. My lot is totally adobe.

Thank you all, very very much!!! This is very encouraging - I will try watering first.

Thanks!!!

Where we lived, out in the country for 33 years, we had adobe soil. In the summer, total concrete! You could dig out a bit, fill with water, dig a bit fill with water..........for ever! Winter, you could park a car on it and never find it again!

The trick to adobe is to find that sweet 2 weeks after the rains have started, before the mud takes your boots off to dig your holes....and make them WAYYYYYY bigger than they tell you to at the nursey! With adobe it's best to plant in the fall so the roots have a chance to penetrate the surrounding soil.

The other time is in the spring....after the rain has stopped, but before the adobe starts to harden. Again, about a 2 week window.

A couple of times we planted trees in the spring, a little late, and the ground hardened into a bowl of cement that the roots couldn't penetrate and we only found out a few years later when they died from the roots being impacted!

Anyway, compost, compost compost! will eventually soften your soil.

We had very soft soil in Venice, compared to what we have in Westchester, and so it depends on the neighborhood and also whether you are on a hill or in a valley.