The Fence Task Was Completed

It’s been a long time since the last post and it’s not because I didn’t want to post anything, it’s just that the weather and other commitments have kept us away from the plot. If your not from the UK you might not have know that it snowed here recently and us British people don’t cope well with snow at all. Everything comes to a complete stand still and due to all the snow, there wasn’t anything that we could have got done on the plot if we wanted to.

We were lucky enough to be able to get up there for a few hours a few Sunday’s ago the fence task was completed. I have wanted to get a fence up for a quite awhile due to making the plot more secure and also I needed the fence to be completed before I could make my new base for my shed. Getting this fence erected wasn’t an easy feat and where it is there was once a huge butterfly bush (Buddleja Lochinch) tree, yes I said tree not bush like it’s suppose to be. It was a lovely flowering tree but unfortunately it was right in the way of where we needed the new fence to be, so it had to be removed so we could put the new fence post in. Removing the tree wasn’t an easy feat as it had very deep roots but John (another plot owner) was nice enough to remove it one night when he was up the plot and I was at home. It was a real shock when I went up the plot to check on it and there was a gaping hole where it was and the tree slumped up on the side of the plot, this really was a god send as I spent so many nights after work trying to remove the tree to no avail. 

(Buddleja Lochinch - left hand side of the photo)

Once we had moved all the mud and dirt back into the hole that was left from the tree, we started on cementing in the new fence post as there was too big of a gap between the fence posts that were already there. We dug out a hole deep enough to sink one third of the fence post into the ground and placed the post inside, using the level I had from home (which was way to big for the job) we made sure it was level and secured it in place with a support arm. The arm was hammered into the ground to hold the post in place while Michael attempted to knock up the cement, let’s just say he isn’t the best at doing it but we got there in the end and the post was cemented in. Night had fallen and all we had were the street lights to illuminate the plot, because of this we packed up for the night and headed on home.

A few days later we were able to pop up the plot to check on the fence post and it was still standing “Whoop Whoop.” For that whole day we both had a real sense of achievement as it was still standing, which was a huge shock. I am not the best at DIY but I am getting there and cementing a fence post which stayed standing is great.

The next step was to attach the new fence material to the posts, we spent a long time trying to work out what to use for the fence and we came to the conclusion to use PVC coated chicken wire. We chose to use this over a wood panel fence or normal chicken wire because it is safer for the animals, wildlife and also we would be able to grow some climbing plants up the fence. We attached the chicken wire to the posts using a staple gun and attached weed suppressant holding pegs to hold the bottom of the fence down. This will stop any animals getting into the plot and also stop Kiki from escaping out the plot when she comes up with us. 

(weed suppressant pegs to secure down the chicken wire) 

After all that we now have a new fence which makes the plot secure, makes it look a lot tidier (ish) and means another job is completed on the long list of things that need to be done before spring. Next we will be moving everything around and building the new base for our shed as we would like to move it across the plot, so stay tuned and will be updating you all again soon.

Michael & Dawn

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