Best answer.
It must depend on soil type.
The OP made no sense to me having dealt mostly with virgin red clay.
Try it with that.
It's exactly the opposite.
Around here you see people using tampers to get it all back and packed in.
What dirt there is.....if you want to call it that...is of a sand-silt nature.
When I was in AZ we had a clay based soil. Had the same problem there. Can't spell what local folks called it but digging in it was a nightmare, had no rock to speak of but when hit with a pick you would get sparks...and a bouncing pick...lol...