A chat with a retired guy at the hardware store changed my mind about post holes

I was picking up some brackets in Springfield last week and got talking to this older fella in line. He said he used to run a crew back in the 80s. He asked what I was working on, and when I mentioned I was using a power auger for a cedar fence, he just shook his head and said, 'You know, sometimes the old spade is faster than fighting that machine in rocky soil.' I've been using the auger for everything for years, but his point about wasted time resetting it in tough spots hit different. How do you all decide when to go manual versus machine for your holes?

3 comments

3 Comments

elizabeth_king18d ago

Wasted time resetting it" is exactly why I switched back to the spade for most holes.

young.drew2mo ago

Honestly, what kind of soil are you mostly dealing with? I read a thing from a landscaper who said he keeps a manual post hole digger on the truck for any spot with more than a few small rocks. He said once you hit a real rock shelf with an auger, you've wasted more time than just digging the whole thing by hand from the start.

shanel132mo ago

But have you tried a good rock auger bit, @young.drew? In my rocky ground, it powers through shelves way faster than I ever could by hand.