The invention discloses a method for restoring cadmium-polluted cultivated land by applying attapulgite materials and belongs to the technical field of cultivated land cadmium pollution treatment. The method comprises the following steps: 1, screening out the cadmium-polluted cultivated land; 2, measuring the soil pollution depth, the pH value, the cation exchange capacity and the like of the selected cadmium-polluted cultivated land, and calculating the earth volume of the cultivated land to be restored and the use quantity of the attapulgite materials which are prepared to be applied; 3, conducting cultivation on the cadmium-polluted cultivated land which is selected to be used for restoration tests, sowing paddy rice and wheat separately according to the timing sequence, applying the attapulgite materials before the paddy rice is sown, before paddy rice ears emerge and before the wheat is sown, conducting uniform sowing and application each time, and reserving vacant land for test result comparison; the pH value of the attapulgite materials is greater than 7.5, the grain size of each attapulgite material is smaller than 80 meshes, the cadmium content of the land is less than 0.15 mg/kg, and attapulgite CEC is greater than 250 mmol/kg. The method has the advantages of being low in cost, easy to operate, quick in effectiveness, great in practicability and the like; in particular, the problem of restoring cadmium-polluted soil in actual farmland can be solved.