This morning my Dad and I set about constructing a stake and binder fence around the front edge of the new bed that Bertha and I worked on last week with a view to creating a deterrent for anyone trying to park on the fledgling meadow here..
Once completed it would also frame the area nicely and result in a ‘reveal’ when anyone approached to see what was on the other side as well as complimenting the laid hedge just beyond.
Although, quite late in the season, we actually tackled my own vigorous garden hedge last Monday as my Hazel has put on over 5m growth in just five years since we fully laid it and this provided us with enough material to produced 25 stakes and four bundles of binders.
It was quite a straight forward task to lay out the stakes at 18 inch (oh dear – mixing units again) intervals before using a straight crowbar to produce an easy pilot hole for each one.
Once these were banged in firmly we set about using the same four binder starting pattern as we would have used on the top of the laid hedge.
We did this three times with the hazel, tamping them down with the wooden mallet in between runs.
I had saved a lot of the willow wands from the wildlife garden following the pruning of several weeks ago and these proved in valuable for creating a thick multi-stemmed weave for the top section of the fence.
It was not started at ground level as it has no need to be stock proof and will also let light into the area behind and in any case the grass and other plants will soon grown up although the front strip will be mowed.
The tops of the stakes were sawn off to neaten things up and the odd wispy bits were trimmed and voila it was done.
We intend to manage the area behind as a mini meadow with a mown path and this morning in the rain I also planted out some Teasels from my own garden and about 20 more Primroses that I liberated (with permission) from my neighbours scrappy lawn before he gets the mower out this weekend!
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer