My $40 fence post trick that saved me from digging 12 holes

I was setting up a vegetable garden border last spring in Phoenix and the ground was like concrete, so I tried using a metal stake driver on a 4x4 and it bent after three hits. Then I grabbed a long steel pipe from scrap, welded a flat plate on the bottom, and hammered that down first, then dropped the post in the sleeve. Has anyone else made a pilot hole jig for rocky soil, or am I overcomplicating this?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

sanchez.mary1mo ago

Two summers ago I used the same trick putting in a mailbox post in New Mexico, and that pipe saved me a whole afternoon of cursing with a digging bar. It seems like half of living in the desert is figuring out shortcuts for things that should be simple but turn into a fight with the ground. Once you make that pilot hole, everything else falls into place, and that little bit of planning makes all the difference.

6

viola_lopez301mo ago

Is that pipe trick worth the trouble if you're only doing one post, though? Honestly, @sanchez.mary, I tried it once in rocky soil and the pipe bent on me, so I gave up and just dug slower. Still, I get why it works for folks in sand, so no hate from me.

3