Bury the fence.......tough in this soil.

[al6517]

I had the same problem and we have the same soil type, when I was doing my coop I wanted to bury my wire same as you, I wanted mine 8" deep and 2' out. Then when I was waiting for a perfect soil day to till the garden, it hit me. I used the tiller cranked that sucker up and held on, I till around the perimeter to about 4" deep and then easily scraped it away, made one more pass to another 4" deep and scraped again. I then layed the wire shoveled the dirt back over it and WA-LA done. I do know how hard this concrete we call dirt is but this worked effortlessly, so give it a try and save your back.

AL

 

[LynneP]

Keep drainage in mind when you decide.
Another option, depending on the base is pouring concrete in the hole to bedrock to anchor the bottom of your hardware cloth/fencing.

 

[WildBurroShirts.com]

Not sure this'll work but I might try getting the welded wire down as far as my back will tolerate digging, then pouring bags of concrete down and sprinkling with water and maybe troweling it a little smooth...I'm 'hoping' it'll make semi-smooth, semi-rough surface that is sort of bonded with the wire. Then I'll cover that with gravel.

Since my neighbor saw a mountain lion come down I've decided to hot wire as well though.