Victoria Clare wrote:
Chris Bacon wrote:
If you're putting a gate in a hedge, then if you connect the
top of the poles, you won't need to go deep at all; you could
put some sort of decorative top on:

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OK, that might work. How deep roughly would my hole-pounding need to go
roughly, do you think?

You've still got to stop it falling flat on its face, or, erm, the
other way. Backwards. I should have thought 18" would be enough,
if you're ramming in stones or filling it up with concrete....
In really stony ground I have resorted to making a hole only a
little bigger than the post, using a pointed bar, and vacuuming
out the debris. I've seen a grave dug, in North Cornwall, that
seemed to be in solid rock-as-you-describe. I don't know how they
dug it!

I guess if I put a paving slab or something in the archway (currently just
soil) that would help give the structure some rigidity too.

The thort strikes me that you could either use four posts, and
add some trellis as decribed in another thread, for a "doorway"
effect, or have some angled bracers near the bottom Depends on
the hedge, I should thing.