Using a petrol post auger near hedge, bad idea?

[Muzz]

Next to my house I had an 18 metre long section of mature beech hedge, probably 3-4 metres tall. It was growing through the mesh fence which forms my boundary. The council own this hedge as it was on their side of the fence.

They never maintained the hedge, i did it, which worked out ok. However, further along a section on a neighbours boundary had grown quite tall so they called the council up.

Result, council have come along and "pruned" it back to about 1.5 metres tall.

Now I have no security or privacy on that section as the other side of the hedge is a public foot path.

I'm going to pull down the mesh fence and replace with a wooden fence to regain my security/privacy.

I've calculated I'll need to dig about 11 holes and am wondering if a petrol auger would speed things up or would be more hassle in my situation being so close to the hedge

I've done some research on using one of these and realise the tree roots may be a problem, but will they be so much of a problem to render it pointless hiring one?

Anyone got any actual experience of doing this?

 

[r896neo]

For 11 post holes its not worth it unless you have a bad back or are physically not up to it.

You heard right they don't deal with large roots well and depending on where it catches the auger bit it can be quite jarring. Beech also typically have shallow roots making it even more of a problem.

 

[Arthur2shedsJackson]

The roots are going to be a problem when you're digging as well.

I've used the petrol augers and found them very good, if you haven't got a bad back, you soon will have after digging holes with a spade.

Try one of the manual Augers, if you're bothered about the petrol one jamming on roots, you can always use the spade to break up the roots as you go, using either type of Auger.