Our Garden Fence & Rustic Gate

Last year, we had dastardly little critters come into the garden and nibble on our freshly sprouting veggies, so this year we decided to build a fence around the entire garden with a rustic entry gate.

It's a basic fence using pressure treated 2x4x4s for posts, pressure treated 1x2x8s for the rail, and 1" chicken wire ( ' = foot and " = inch).  Mountain Man made a pointed end on each post, dug a 12" hole, secured the post into the hole with clay soil and rocks, then screwed a rail to the top and bottom of each post.  This went around the entire garden except for where the rustic gate is.

He then stapled the chicken wire to the first post and began wrapping the 50' piece of chicken wire as far as it would go (we used 170' total), stapling it to the top and bottom rails, leaving a 2" - 3" flap of wire on the bottom to keep the animals from digging under the bottom rail.  The chicken wire was cut to end at a post and each new section began at a post. 

You know all those weeds you see?  Have no fear, they are being removed.  I have hoed them and am going to get them out of there as soon as the soil dries enough for it not to be mucky...remember, the garden is filled with horse manure...I can do dry manure, but the wet soggy stuff is yucky muck.  Then I'll be making mulch out of all the smaller tree branches we have from the trees we felled recently, and putting that all around the edge of the garden and between the rows to prevent further weeds from growing.

Once the fence was all the way around the garden, it was time to build the rustic gate.  Mountain Man used Locust logs (Locust is a very hard wood), securing those posts 20" into the ground.

The gate itself was connected together using homemade dowels.

The handle is a piece of rhododendron, attached with two nails...

 ...Johny drilled the hole first to be sure not to split the wood...

 ...when he inserted the nail.

 I love it!

The primitive latch is made from 3 pieces of scrap wood, 1 for the "hook" so to speak, and 2 pieces for the "holder", one to create space between the post and the holder which also provides a place to stop the hook from opening downwards, and the other for the holder itself.

The hook is connected with a long screw that has a portion that is not threaded so the hook can swivel and Johny put a few washers as spacers and each side of the latch to help it swing easier.

It works like a charm!

The sign was made by our good friend and neighbor Ron...he will be so pleased (and surprised, he didn't know we were going to hang it here) to see it welcoming everyone into our garden.

And this is the finished fence (well, almost finished, a few more details to complete it but overall, the garden fence with rustic gate project is complete)...

...this is the view from the SE...

...and the view from the NW.

All of this is completed in the nick of time, because we have our very first sprouts peaking through the soil...radishes!

If you have any questions about building your own garden fence or rustic gate, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at liseslogcabinlife at gmail.com.

Visit the Homestead Barn Hop for more posts about homesteading activities.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise