Sitting inside, snowbound into inertia, I'm mulling over last month's gallop of outside work. We are in mid-renovation our small town garden. What began last year at a decorous pace, not too intrusive, has upped its hum to the roar of engines.
The puppy's arrival acted as a catalyst to sort out an ill-defined boundary. We needed to agree who owned what and keep animals in and tourists out (there is a meadow for overspill parking to a castle above our house). One Sunday morning we met with the neighbours and, armed with string and canes, agreed the line between us. As for the meadow above, our hedge had grown into scrubby trees swamped with ivy and bramble. We have cut the trees (mainly hawthorn and field maple) back hard for regeneration. The fattest branches were taken back lower, some to the ground to encourage strong regrowth.
Since then contractors have come and gone. First the fencing lot came to quote. It proved to be a complicated job as the division between the two gardens weaves about, is not accurate on a plan and includes a few unstable banks made up of tree roots and old milk bottles. Four different fencers had four different ideas: in the end we went for chain link dug in 15cm deep and with a wooden top rail. Aesthetics have bowed to the practical as we will plant hedging to disguise the hardware.
First some ground preparation. We dug out old roots and laid into ivy as thick as your wrist with a pickaxe. But the weighty mass of old tree stumps remained - eight sitting directly in the fence line. This called for a stump grinder, a machine that shreds wood to sawdust with the ease of an aardvark scooping out termites. I rang Paul Chandler of Stumpbusters. "Yes, no problem but it does weighs one tonne and is 8ft long" and by a cat's whisker, it fitted down the alleyway into the garden. This only after a recommendation by a neighbour led me to Reliable Rob, who came and dismantled our side gate and door frame.
Robert and Dan arrived the very next day to start digging in the fencing posts. Four working days later, the job was completed just before the weekend's snow and iron hard ground. Constructed to last and keep dogs and chickens in and rabbits and foxes out, we at last have our fence.
Catharine Howard is a garden designer and a freelance garden journalist. You can read her personal blog here.
