Digging a trench

[Jim K..]

"Offset boom"

[Jim K..]

How long is this hedge to be?

[fred]

I want to plant a bare root hedge. This will entail digging a trench 18? deep alongside a flower bed. Can a mini digger excavate a trench without the two tracks straddling the line of the trench ?

[dennis]

Some can move the arm to one side on rails.

Why not just plant smaller plants and use a spade to dig smaller holes?

Most grow quickly anyway.

[John Rumm]

I have used some of the 850kg class machines that can pivot the main arm at the point where it joins the body of the machine. That allows you to dig a straight trench at an angle to the body of the machine - so in effect you could dig it from mostly one side of the trench (although it would be harder to see what you are doing)

[nightjar]

There is also more risk of the weight of the machine collapsing the side of the trench if you have to work close to it.

[Brian Gaff]

Maybe with a lot of tooing anf froing, but are you saying you cannot move the flowers and put them back afterwards? Brian

[Brian Gaff]

And not to slide into the trench and look like an idiot. Waterlogged earth is very heavy and the earth has to go somewhere while you are digging it. Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes, if you are good enough

[Tim+]

Why?

Just curious as we had contractors plant a hedge from bare root whips (3-4ft tall) and they used nothing more than a spade. Hedge has grown really well.

18? maybe a counsel of perfection but unless your bare root stock is very large it seems like overkill (and a lot of extra work).

Tim

[newshound]

+1, could you not just do it manually with a 6 inch auger for each one? Or a 12 inch power auger, either the "manual" type or on a digger hydraulic arm.

[fred]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The hedge will be about 50 yards long. I have no desire to start digging a 50 yd fence by hand. The ?flower bed is actually a bed full of shrubs and moving them would be slightly impractical. This bed is to one side of the drive so threre would be sure footing on that side of the proposed hedge. I like the idea of the augur, I bought a hand operated 6? one recently to sink short legs for a greenhouse and found it very easy to use and very effective. It?s a way off yet as it?s too early for whips

[Jethro_uk]

Some sort of propping then ?

[Andrew]

As long as you don't mind one set of tracks flattening the flower bed.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Correct. If you do it in the winter when the ground is damp all you need to do is ram a spade in, lever a slit, cram the roots in and wait till spring

[John Rumm]

Indeed, although I am guessing the OP is not planning on digging that deep for a hedge.

[nightjar]

Even 18" deep could be enough to topple a mini digger sideways.

The answer, of course, is to work with the digger on the part of the ground that has yet to be dug and working away from the trench. It is just not something that everybody would realise is necessary.

[tabbypurr]

Whatever you plant, make sure it provides nice food. Preferably a variety of.

NT

[John Rumm]

If you swing the boom, then you have the digger body almost perpendicular to the trench - so no danger of toppling.

I was thinking of something like:

spin the body so the boom is the opposite end to the dozer blade, then pivot on the lower hinge, you will then have 90% of the body on solid ground.

Indeed, although tricky to do close to a line of shrubs, unless you can dig at an offset.

[Andrew Mawson]

Why dig a trench at all? I've planted hundreds of yards of bare root hedging, usually native species such as white thorn, black thorn, crab apple, dog rose etc. and I've never dug a trench. The sequence is: Spade in to full depth , wiggle spade, drop bare root whip in already wearing an anti-rabbit wrap, carefully insert cane down into wrap avoiding the root, press spade cut back together with boots, move on to next. After about 2000 plant have a shower and several cans of Old Speckled Hen. Process has worked for me over the years !

Andrew