The cultivator end of the tool is used to aerate and loosen soil. This combo tool can also be used to remove weeds, pile soil around the base of plants and to mix soils with fertilizers and manure. With this tool in hand, you should make easy work not just of cultivating, but also hacking away at hard-packed earth as well. A cultivator is good for loosening the soil in an existing planting area, weeding the area during the growing season and mixing compost into the soil. Cultivators are smaller and easier to maneuver than tillers.