Will_Heath

Yes, I dig holes to sink them in. I cheated and rented a power post hole digger from Home Depot and had them all in withing a few hours. Note, I have a total of 26 Monkey Poles scattered here and there around the yard.

As has been said you must get them at least as deep as the frost line or you'll have heave from the freeze/thaw cycle which will push them up and tilt them at angles. I went 42 inches deep here in Michigan. I do not concrete them in as I have a way of changing my mind often. Tip: they are removed easily with a car jack and a piece of chain, just wrap the chain around the post and hook it to a good car jack and jack them out.

That being said, I recently installed a group of five monkey poles outside of the family coffee shop for a display of bonsai. Not wanting to go through the effort of digging holes for a temporary display I came up with a unique solution that I may very well use at home in the future.

I purchased some 1 inch diameter rebar and cut it into 4 foot sections. I took a long shafted paddle bit 1 inch in size and drilled 1 foot deep holes into one end of each 6x6. The rebar fit very tightly, so much so that I had to hammer it into the 6x6's. I then placed the 6x6's where I wanted them and using a small sledge hammer, beat the remaining 3 foot of rebar in until the 6x6 was flush against the ground. Afterwards, I screwed the top bases on and presto, I had 5 monkey poles that were amazingly sturdy for a display.


Will