we now have a thatched fence

OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration... we have a garden edging made out of sticks that is about a foot high. This is what we did last weekend and it took nearly 8 hours(!)



Doing this served several purposes.

First and foremost, it provided a way to use up all the branches and trimmings leftover from the "great cherry tree pruning" done at the start of November. We had this done professionally as the tree was so big and, perhaps stupidly in hindsight, I asked them to leave all the branches in a pile so I could use them in the garden. The tree is still huge and so I can't quite believe how much was left. The pile was fence high and engulfing an entire section of lawn! It couldn't remain so we had to get busy.

We invented this notion of fencing on the fly. We used some bits as pegs, to mark out an area for the sticks to go in. Then we put down some of the bigger branch cuttings to form the framework. Finally, we threaded through smaller twigs etc to create a kind of layered thatchy stick effect.


I'm really happy with how it turned out. Not only did it use up all the cuttings, it'll be great for insects, stop the C's from rampaging (hopefully) and it helps to make the back part of the garden have some more structure. It was looking particularly dreadful this year since the grass had turned into mud so there were no defining features. (I'm not panicking about the grass yet - we reseeded and top dressed and aerated but then it didn't get a chance to grow properly before it got suddenly cold so we're stuck with a mess for winter!) By having these little fences, not only are the garden bed shapes outlined, but it'll make it easier for Dave to mow without fear of destroying plants.