• Fence Post Digging

  Filed under Gardening By Zones
  Nov 3

  I’ve decided to become a do-it-yourself-er and build a fence in my garden in an effort to keep the dogs out of the flower garden.

  The basic principles I’ve discovered are as follows:

  Plant your 4×4 vertical fence posts no more than 8 feet apart (6 is better so the railings don’t sag over time — plus 6 feet is easier to haul home from the lumber yard than 8 foot boards with room to spare for trimming the length).

  • Stay ipod

    Stan Helsing rip

  Measure out the placement of the fence post holes with stakes and a string to ensure you get the right distance, also be sure to keep the fence line as straight as possible.

  If you’re putting a swinging gate in, be sure to measure it large enough for a wheel barrel to fit through the gate. Typically this is 3 feet wide between fence posts.

  I opted to make two swinging gates one on each side of the yard for easy access. Most of the area behind the fence is going to be the garden and it helps to bring a wheel barrel in and out from two different entrances.

  Year of the Dog trailer In my case, I have a 6 foot yard fence between my neighbors and I — one across the back and two on either side. My garden fence is going to be a 3-foot high fence with posts 8 feet apart and a railing on the top and bottom (set horizontally or “on edge”) with wire mesh to keep the dogs out.

  I mapped out the fence line following the curved lawn edge, while sinking fence posts a little closer (3-4 feet in a few places) to get that “rounded” feel to it. The fence won’t have the same curvature as the bender-board that will be placed in-front of the fence, but at least there will be some shape to it besides a rectangle. Map it out on paper before hand so you get a good idea of what you’re doing.

  Doctor Dolittle movie

  Batman Begins hd

  On to the fun stuff — post hole digging! I’m not a professional, as I said before…keep your self well paced. I can dig 2-3 holes (2.5 feet deep) in a 2 hour period before my wrists and arms started to ache. Allow yourself a few weekends depending on the number of fence post holes you have to dig. I dug 14 fence post holes over the span of 3 weekends. It gets easier as you go, so don’t be discouraged if the first fence post hole takes you 2 hours.

  As for the fence post depth — for a 3 foot high fence it’s recommended you sink the post at least 2 feet — two and a half feet is better. I sunk each post 27 inches deep. Don’t go to deep…assuming you have a 6 foot post or 8 foot post you can have some extra room to spare. For a 3 foot high fence and a 2-2.5 foot hole, with a 6 foot 4×4 I will have an extra foot to work with when I start to sink the posts.

  As for buying a post hole digger, there are pretty much the same. The two things I noticed were whether the post hole digger had a ruler on it — I highly recommend getting the one with inches marked on the handles, up to 48 inches. It makes it rather easy to not have to stop and use a tape measure to find out how deep you’ve dug the hole. The other option available are the handle grips ( cushioned or no cushions ). The only post hole digger at Home Depot with the measurement markings had cushioned handles — about $30. It won’t make much difference if you’re using gloves.

  Before you start to do the actual digging, be sure you’ve marked out where all the posts go. Plant a stake in the ground to mark each post hole (leave about 8 inches in front of the stake for the actual hole). Then run a line of string from each stake, be sure to keep a straight line (go from one corner to the other corner, then sink a few stakes in between to mark where your holes go). Make sure the string is taught so as not to sag or otherwise leave you with a crooked fence line.

  When you’re ready to dig, be sure to use what’s known as the “spear chucker” method — where you lightly chuck the post hole digger down into the ground, letting go just before impact — this is critical to avoiding soreness later on. You don’t want your wrists and arms to absorb the impact with the ground so just let go as you chuck it down into the dirt. It will take some time to get the feel of it. You probably will never get one huge scoop in one shot. After digging a few holes I realized the deeper I got, the easier it became if I gently closed the post hole digger handles breaking up the dirt at the bottom of the hole without lifting out the dirt every time. Do this a few times before you pull out a scoop of dirt — you’ll exert less energy and will eventually get down to 2.5 feet without killing yourself in the process.

  That’s it for now on post hole digging. More to come as I progress through this project.

  VN:F [1.9.0_1079]

  please wait...

  Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)

  VN:F [1.9.0_1079]

  Rating: +3 (from 3 votes)

  Fence Post Digging, 10.0 out of 10 based on 2 ratings

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

  Tagged as: fence post digging
  
  No Comments

Leave a Reply