Beginning the Garden Fence (Friday Free For All)

I’ve been busy this week.  I say that as if it’s something new but it seems like life is just a matter of varying degrees of busy.  Sometimes you’re really busy and other times less so but always busy!  This week I dove headlong into my latest project.  I’ve been talking about this one for years and I’m just now getting to it!  Those of you who have followed me over the years may remember the vegetable garden fence that hasn’t been built yet.  Well hopefully that project will be completed this year!  I’m working on the fence in phases.  The current phase is to build the front fence area.

When I’m done my goal is to create something like the picture below.  The grid pattern on the sides of the garden is practical for growing vining vegetables or flowers.  The arbor entry in the middle will also function as a trellis for two grape vines I have planted there already.  I’ll train them up the sides.  The arbor on the left actually is my gutter arbor that housed petunias last year.  The fence and arbor combination resembles a Japanese style to some degree. the open grid is good visually but won’t keep rabbits out.  For that I’ll have a second fence made from wire hidden behind the first with a tight enough mesh to prevent rabbits from gaining easy entry to the garden.

The total fence area is around 30 feet long.  The center gate has a 5 foot opening which gives me plenty of space for wheelbarrows and carts to come through.

I’ve been able to do most of this project with the help of Lowe’s Creative Ideas.  The theme this month is edible gardening and this fence is an important aspect of that for me.  Not only will it help me grow vertically but it will also help keep raiding critters (deer) from dining on my vegetable garden!  Below you can see the two new arbors being held in place while the concrete for the post cures.

Of course with any project there are bound to be things that go wrong.  Like my wheelbarrow for instance.  I loaded an 80 lb. bag of concrete into then heard a loud crunch.  There went the wheelbarrow.  Fortunately it was an old one and I already have a replacement made from metal and not wood.  I do like using the plastic wheelbarrow for mixing concrete.  I’ll either replace the base or just take the bucket portion off to use as a concrete mixing container.

I still have a lot of work ahead of me to complete this project but since Easter weekend is ahead of us I won’t have the opportunity to work on it until next week.  Once I have the front completed I’ll gradually piece together the rest of the vegetable garden fence with a few more sections every few weeks until it’s finally all done!