Fence Fail (Again)

I had this great idea that if I wove thicker wire through the top of the existing fence Lloyd would no longer be able to crush down the chicken wire and jump into the vegie garden. Half way through the job, Lloyd casually jumped over the bit of fence that I’d fixed (left side of the photo) so he could check out what I was doing from another angle. Man that dog can jump! Now that I know he can jump it at its full, uncrushed height I guess I need a taller fence. It’s gonna be a pain in the bum to lean over anything much taller to tend to my vegies. And annoying cos I’ve got leeks ready to plant since I thought the fence would be a quick fix. As always, lucky he’s cute. 

Fence Saga (Part 2)

Thanks to all who gave advice about what to do with this annoyingly narrow strip of dirt we got as a result of the fence guys building our fence the wrong way around. Thought I’d update you with my latest thoughts and feelings on the matter.

The neighbours have built a courtyard kind of thing on the other side of the fence, which slopes towards our fence. We have a concrete footpath down that side, which also slopes towards the fence. As a result, this little dirt strip is a boggy, wet mess.

Funnily enough, you all advised me to plant some kind of plant in this strip (who would have thought that would be the response from people who follow a gardening blog ;)). I’m worried about this option now that I see how boggy this dirt strip gets. And our soil is on the clay side so it stays wet.

So my latest thoughts and feelings are this: fill it in with concrete when the concrete guys come to lay the slab for our shed. It’s not so pretty. But it’ll be better than dead plants and mud. Thoughts?

Fence Saga

Our side fence has been rather falling down for some time now (like, since before we moved here two and a half years ago), and has been getting steadily worse as the builders did their thing next door (constructing two monstrous two-storey town houses on our street despite its heritage overlay). It was finally time to construct a new fence. The owner-builder of the townhouses next door said he’d get some quotes. One day he called Adam to tell him that a fence man would be coming over the next day to pull down the old fence and start building the new one. No quote, no discussion about height etc, just facts. He said we wouldn’t find a cheaper price (but wasn’t sure how much it would cost himself), and told us it’d be 6 ft high the whole way along which we were happy with (our previous fence was shorter in the front section). We told him to go ahead but nothing happened. A week later we found out the guys he found turned out to be refugees without building permits. I guess that’s why they were so cheap!

Pretty soon he found another guy who was also cheap but incredibly rude and disrespectful of our property. Not only that, but he turned the fence around so we have the B side (posts) when we previously had the A side (palings). When we approached him about it, he made out that he was doing us a favour and that we were being ungrateful. We told him he should’ve asked us and that he wasn’t doing us a favour as we would have preferred the paling side, and expected to get the paling side as that’s what the previous fence had and that’s the pattern that went down our whole street. We could’ve made him change it but he had done over half the fence before we noticed and it does have some advantages in that we have a little more space this way. The main disadvantage is that our concrete side path no longer lines up with the fence and we have an 18cm dirt patch between the fence and the concrete. Also, there is now a gap between the side gate and the fence which we will have to fill.

So, what should we do with an 18cm wide dirt patch? Some options I’ve thought of:

1. Have a very, very skinny garden bed.
Problems:
It’s very skinny
Birds will kick dirt/mulch onto our path from it
It’s shady

2. Fill it with concrete.
Problems:
Won’t look like a perfect path
Expensive

3. Add brick pavers.
Problems:
Weeds will grow through the gaps
Will look a bit messy/funny
Unlikely to get bricks that are the exact right size (especially as there are variations in the width of the gap)

Any thoughts/feelings/questions/comments??

The Joy Of Builders

Our fence was never the sturdiest or straightest looking fence, but since our neighbours started building next door it’s looking a little more worse for wear. We’ve been waiting and waiting for the building works to finish so we can get a new fence. I’m glad we waited because the builders aren’t the most careful (as you can see from the state of our existing fence). Since they started building my brand new, very special and lovely blue Mazda 3 has received a dint in the front door and a broken bonnet protector. It may not have been the builders who did this of course, but the timing was very suspicious. Especially when you combine the fact that my other neighbour saw them trying to pick up a car with three of them lifting it from the front and a guy in a truck nudging it from the back. Yes, we live on a busy street and it’s difficult to find parking, but if you need to park a truck put some bloody witches hats out the night before!

For a while I was going outside with a hammer on a regular basis, knocking the pickets back in place after the builders have been a little rough with the fence, but now I’ve accepted its bedraggled state. It does look particularly ugly in this photo because the kick-board was pushed in along with a whole lot of dirt when the slab was getting laid next door so we’ve scored a nice long lawn along the fence. I’ve pulled out all the greenery now (a bin and a half later – like the rabbit on our bin??) so it’s looking a little tidier.

Once the builders finish wrecking everything we can get a new fence (and shed) and therefore a puppy! So look forward to seeing posts all about how our lovely bundle of joy has destroyed our garden next. Can’t wait! 🙂