Garden fence build

[chris the wrench]

My garden is 90x90 and it's too small for my wife and I.

Pictures please! Sounds awesome. Sorry to totally derail this thread…

 

[pmsmechanic]

While there are some very good ideas here most have missed one major point. I rototill gardens for the neighbors in the spring. The nicest gardens to till are ones with no fence at all. I realize that's not practical if you want to keep animals out, at least make 2 ends totally removable or leave an area around the outside for tractor maneuverability. Obviously if you have raised beds or a walk behind rototiller this doesn't matter but it's amassing how many people plan for most things but forget about the guy with the rototiller.

 

[lman]

The only thing I need to keep out of our garden is the dog. He likes to lay in the soft soil, so we put up a temporary electric fence and remove it at end of season so I can till it with tractor and 5 ft. tiller. The dog does a good job of keeping varmints from getting to the garden.

 

[drumminj]

While there are some very good ideas here most have missed one major point. I rototill gardens for the neighbors in the spring. The nicest gardens to till are ones with no fence at all. I realize that's not practical if you want to keep animals out, at least make 2 ends totally removable or leave an area around the outside for tractor maneuverability. Obviously if you have raised beds or a walk behind rototiller this doesn't matter but it's amassing how many people plan for most things but forget about the guy with the rototiller.

This is a good point! In our case, we have raised beds (will need to build more), and/or use a walk-behind rototiller for anything sown directly into the soil since it's not that large an area.

 

[drumminj]

I think I have convinced myself to use screws instead of nails. The strongest argument being I can use a Kreg pocket screw jig for the rails to not have to worry about the angle or having any nail heads sticking out and getting in the way. And I don't have to worry about my compressor keeping enough pressure/driving some nails short.

 

[EddieWalker]

Pictures please! Sounds awesome. Sorry to totally derail this thread…

These where back in Easter when our Grandson was here to hunt Easter Eggs. I rarely go in there, so I never get pictures of what's happening in there. My wife is a Master Gardener, and she does all the work. The flowers where rescued from a place that used to be a nursery, but closed down. They where just pots of dirt with a hint of something still alive in there. Of the hundreds of pots that she brought home, something like 3/4's of them came back to life!!!!

 

[D&D]

I think I have convinced myself to use screws instead of nails. The strongest argument being I can use a Kreg pocket screw jig for the rails to not have to worry about the angle or having any nail heads sticking out and getting in the way. And I don't have to worry about my compressor keeping enough pressure/driving some nails short.

Rather than making fence panels, you could put up your posts then wrap a smaller opening wire around. Make some decorative 1x with the router to cap your posts.

 

[drumminj]

View attachment 1288595View attachment 1288596View attachment 1288597
These where back in Easter when our Grandson was here to hunt Easter Eggs. I rarely go in there, so I never get pictures of what's happening in there. My wife is a Master Gardener, and she does all the work. The flowers where rescued from a place that used to be a nursery, but closed down. They where just pots of dirt with a hint of something still alive in there. Of the hundreds of pots that she brought home, something like 3/4's of them came back to life!!!!

That is a seriously large garden! Like you, we have raised beds with walkways. Don't think we'll ever need something that large though -- there's only two of us. But if needed, we'll likely clear a separate plot that's not connected, vs taking down trees that define a nice perimeter around the 'house/living' space on the property.

 

[drumminj]

Well, as far as a project update (I'll keep this thread updated during the build) I spent yesterday and today grinding down stumps that are either inside the proposed fenced bounds, or nearby. So hey, this is actually tractor-related!

We had the area forestry-mulched when we first bought the property, and I subsequently felled some extra trees around the proposed garden area to get some more sunlight. Cleaned that all up now so I believe we're now ready for post hole digging. Livestock panels come in on Thursday supposedly.

Ordered the Kreg pocket hole jig and will grab a metric buttload of screws from Home Depot this week.

 

[deezler]

How did you attach the mesh to the welded panels? Zipties seem to last about 1.5 years in the sun around me. I might use hog rings, Ive used those on gabion walls, but seemed kinda overkill for attaching the mesh.

The chicken wire to the cattle panels? Yeah I used zip ties. Probably some of them are cooked by now, but between weeds/vines/corrosion, its all staying in place just fine.
You can buy more substantial quality of plastic zip ties, or even metal ones too. Good selection online with better quality than what you just find in the big box stores.

 

[drumminj]

I just did the math. 1280 screws!!! And that's using on 3 screws per 5' run of 'trim' against the livestock paneling.

 

[deezler]

Perhaps your fence design is a bit, uh, over complicated.

 

[EddieWalker]

When we first decided to fence in our garden, I looked all over Pinterest for pictures of how other people had made a fancy fence around their gardens. I was thinking that if it's going to be in the middle of our yard, and something we would have to see when we are sitting on our porch, I wanted it to be attractive.

The more I planned, the more complicated it got, and the odds of finishing it declined. Then I realized that if I built a simple fence, we could add flower beds to the outside of that area and make it really nice that way. Even better, my wife would do all the work on the flower beds!!!

Treated 6inch x 8 foot round posts in the corners. Another wood post mid way, and one on each side of the two 4 foot gates. Then T-posts every ten feed. It was still a lot of work because I didn't have all my fencing tools that I have today, but I was able to get it done with a pair of 2x6's bolted together to stretch the wire.

Now you don't even notice the fence, all you see are the flowers and plants in front of it!!!

 

[chris the wrench]

, but between weeds/vines/corrosion, its all staying in place just fine

Natures zip ties!

 

[chris the wrench]

will grab a metric buttload of screws from Home Depot this week.

Make sure you grab the exterior labeled box!

 

[drumminj]

Perhaps your fence design is a bit, uh, over complicated.

No....can't possibly be that! . Okay, maybe I'm a over-builder...a bit

 

[drumminj]

Welp, I've got all my posts, 2500lb of concrete and the livestock panels so time to start digging holes. Borrowing my neighbor's PTO post hole digger, though did go buy a 12" auger to use since biggest he had was 10".

Got a long way to go, but happy to finally get things moving. We have great weather ahead this week according to the forecast so should hoping to get through the whole thing. We'll see.

 

[dieselscout80]

Personally I’d rather just tamp the posts in tight using screenings (fines washed out when washing gravel).

This makes it easier to remove and replace wood posts when they rot and they will eventually.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Personally I’d rather just tamp the posts in tight using screenings (fines washed out when washing gravel).

This makes it easier to remove and replace wood posts when they rot and they will eventually.

I've used just plain 3/4" crush. No fines. No tamping either. Just wiggle the post a few times and the crush settles around the post and tightens it quite nicely. I learned that from watching power company's set posts.

 

[drumminj]

I thought about setting the posts just in gravel, but with our clay soil I figured that would result in a hole filled with water around the post, being very slow to drain.

Instead decided to set in concrete to help anchor and fill most of the hole with clay soil to avoid a bunch of water getting in and sitting in the hole, around the post.

Am I thinking about it wrong?