Back in May, 2011 I built the beginnings of a wattled fence for the garden. It started out quite nice and I thought it had a lot of potential. Everyone I showed pictures to liked it. Neighbors who walked by liked. Seemed like such a great idea. Here's what it started out looking like:
The idea was to continue adding branches over time and make a nice solid fence. This kind of fence has been known to last many years, and as it seems I do a new fence every year or two - this seemed a great idea! You know the old saying, "...best laid plans," ? What I didn't plan for was this:
Then it was time to do a rough fit to see how it would look. Thaaaaat's right! The wrought-iron looking fence! I thought it would be a nice contrast to all the wood going on in the back yard. We let it sit for a couple weeks to see if the layout was going to work for us.
Turns out, the layout worked just fine. So I removed that bit of grass that was on the inside of the fence, then dug a trench for that plastic border stuff that helps keep the grass from growing back into the garden.
Oh, and for the first time I added a little 4'x4' raised bed to the garden. We have pretty hard soil so I thought this might give some of the root veggies a little better chance!
Thaaaat's right...you fell for it didn't you? I can hear it now...awwww he's so cute! What a sweety! He's so adorable! Well, all those things are true for sure...but what you don't know is this adorable representative of the Man's-best-friend club made an absolute mockery of the wattle fence! Oh he wasn't vicious about it or anything. As a matter-of-fact, soon after it was built I found Linus in the garden. I couldn't believe it! I went out and looked and couldn't find one stick out of place! It took a few days before I actually watched him - he simply nudged a brunch up, and gingerly stepped through. Good grief! What is his fascination with that garden??
So what now? A new fence! I belive this must be at least the fifth version of a fence for the garden, I'd like it to last awhile! Here's the simple requirements: 1- It had to be durable, 2-it had to look good and 3- it had to be Linus-proof. That's it...nothing special. I started thinking this through last fall. A million trips to Lowes and Home Depot and considering all kinds of options later... the first order of business was to remove the wattle fence. Good-bye formerly great idea.
Then it was just a matter of getting it all lined up.
There you have it! 2013's iteration of the garden fence. And look at those strawberries coming in!!