Bracing and the Rapid FP222 hog piers (with 1000+ hogs) it is, onopordum :-) Cheers! :-)
Raisingirl - You've sold me on 3m spacing - less cost and less holes to dig. Regarding the wire, I'm starting to lean towards using 2mm galvanized garden wire and vine eyes. I've got plenty of these and I can't see why it wouldn't adequately support chicken wire. It would save me around £30 in wire, tensioners, couplers etc... What do you think? Thanks for the suggestion of timber btw! It would save the need for other bits, but I've a feeling we're talking £50+ for just 36m of 2x4; also I like buying versatile re-useable tools, and the hog pliers seem to tick that box, so the timber approach has an uphill battle to fight :-)
Fair enough . Chicken wire isn't especially saggy so I don't think it needs a lot of support to keep it reasonably upright as long as your posts are in firmly and don't wiggle too much. Try it. The tension wire is not the hardest bit to replace in a couple of years if your fence starts to sag. The main thing is to get the horizontal 'foot' to the chicken wire and your posts in straight and firm. Those are the things it's hard to change later
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Solid, vetical posts... horizontal chicken wire footing... I'll see what I can do. I'll report back soon with an update (and potentially photos, if I'm not too ashamed of my work :-) ).
Huge appreciation to all those who took the time to share their knowledge!!
While you can see this isn't round a vegetable garden it sounds about what you want. that stands around 1.5m tall, taller than you want, but it needs to be able to stop foxes and determined chickens. the finer 25mm mesh at the bottom is burried around 10cm deep and angles outwards, around 30cm, the posts are 1.8m tall (before being dug in) the smaller ones are 7cm and the larger are 10. The piece of wood infront of the door moves so a wheelbarrow can get in and out. but it fills in the clearance under the door!
We have had attempts to dig through it but none have managed. I would recomend you use 25mm mesh not 50mm 16 would be great if you can find it
There is no wire on here, it self supports just fine, there's wire built into the mesh anyway.
That's really useful information, thanks! Also, the picture helps alot. As you have done, I will try without strainer wire and will see if the chicken wire is sufficiently supported. I've spaced some of my posts 3m appart, and possibly don't have the same gauge of chicken wire as you, so I'll just have to see.
I've put the posts in and dug the trenches (I do love my mattock! :-) ) and am hoping to make a start on installing the wire in the next couple of days. I'll keep you all updated on my endeavours. Hopefully it may be of value to others - in a good or bad way ;-)
That's really useful information, thanks! Also, the picture helps alot. As you have done, I will try without strainer wire and will see if the chicken wire is sufficiently supported. I've spaced some of my posts 3m appart, and possibly don't have the same gauge of chicken wire as you, so I'll just have to see.
I've put the posts in and dug the trenches (I do love my mattock! :-) ) and am hoping to make a start on installing the wire in the next couple of days. I'll keep you all updated on my endeavours. Hopefully it may be of value to others - in a good or bad way ;-)
Excelent! I'm making myself a new area right now for my ducks, unfortunatly part of the fence has to go through a privet thicket, which is making digging the trench very hard work, I wish I had a mattock.
After accepting the offer of a mattock from my - probably highly amused and entertained - next door neighbour when I was struggling to channel some paths into super-flinty ground with a spade, I would never be without one. They are so versatile and make fairly light work of digging into most soils, included those cluttered with fairly substantial roots. I wasn't aware of them before this event, and get the feeling they just aren't part of the 'British gardening toolkit', but I have since seen them used quite extensively in the likes of Spain. I think it would help you with your privet predicament, although it sounds like it would still be painful work, so you have my sympathies.
PRogress-wise, I've now done a first pass of nailing the wire in place and burying it. I've not yet put a door on, but have temporarily overlapped posts that will act as the door posts on either side with wire netting, have buried the tails of the netting as for the rest and have 'stitched' the overlapping netting together. It takes me a minute to undo and I will put a suitable door in as soon as I have the timber and bricks to construct it. My parnsips and I are resting a bit more restfully now :-)
All sounds good . We have a mattock - very handy for digging in stony ground (which some of ours is) but I seem to be able to hit my foot more than the ground with it so have been banned from using it
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Posts
Hi again all! :-)
Bracing and the Rapid FP222 hog piers (with 1000+ hogs) it is, onopordum :-) Cheers! :-)
Raisingirl - You've sold me on 3m spacing - less cost and less holes to dig. Regarding the wire, I'm starting to lean towards using 2mm galvanized garden wire and vine eyes. I've got plenty of these and I can't see why it wouldn't adequately support chicken wire. It would save me around £30 in wire, tensioners, couplers etc... What do you think? Thanks for the suggestion of timber btw! It would save the need for other bits, but I've a feeling we're talking £50+ for just 36m of 2x4; also I like buying versatile re-useable tools, and the hog pliers seem to tick that box, so the timber approach has an uphill battle to fight :-)
Fair enough
. Chicken wire isn't especially saggy so I don't think it needs a lot of support to keep it reasonably upright as long as your posts are in firmly and don't wiggle too much. Try it. The tension wire is not the hardest bit to replace in a couple of years if your fence starts to sag. The main thing is to get the horizontal 'foot' to the chicken wire and your posts in straight and firm. Those are the things it's hard to change later
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Solid, vetical posts... horizontal chicken wire footing... I'll see what I can do. I'll report back soon with an update (and potentially photos, if I'm not too ashamed of my work :-) ).
Huge appreciation to all those who took the time to share their knowledge!!
While you can see this isn't round a vegetable garden it sounds about what you want. that stands around 1.5m tall, taller than you want, but it needs to be able to stop foxes and determined chickens. the finer 25mm mesh at the bottom is burried around 10cm deep and angles outwards, around 30cm, the posts are 1.8m tall (before being dug in) the smaller ones are 7cm and the larger are 10. The piece of wood infront of the door moves so a wheelbarrow can get in and out. but it fills in the clearance under the door!
We have had attempts to dig through it but none have managed. I would recomend you use 25mm mesh not 50mm 16 would be great if you can find it
There is no wire on here, it self supports just fine, there's wire built into the mesh anyway.
Last edited: 29 June 2017 16:04:20
Hi Skandi,
That's really useful information, thanks! Also, the picture helps alot. As you have done, I will try without strainer wire and will see if the chicken wire is sufficiently supported. I've spaced some of my posts 3m appart, and possibly don't have the same gauge of chicken wire as you, so I'll just have to see.
I've put the posts in and dug the trenches (I do love my mattock! :-) ) and am hoping to make a start on installing the wire in the next couple of days. I'll keep you all updated on my endeavours. Hopefully it may be of value to others - in a good or bad way ;-)
Kind regards
Neil
Excelent! I'm making myself a new area right now for my ducks, unfortunatly part of the fence has to go through a privet thicket, which is making digging the trench very hard work, I wish I had a mattock.
Hi Skandi,
After accepting the offer of a mattock from my - probably highly amused and entertained - next door neighbour when I was struggling to channel some paths into super-flinty ground with a spade, I would never be without one. They are so versatile and make fairly light work of digging into most soils, included those cluttered with fairly substantial roots. I wasn't aware of them before this event, and get the feeling they just aren't part of the 'British gardening toolkit', but I have since seen them used quite extensively in the likes of Spain. I think it would help you with your privet predicament, although it sounds like it would still be painful work, so you have my sympathies.
PRogress-wise, I've now done a first pass of nailing the wire in place and burying it. I've not yet put a door on, but have temporarily overlapped posts that will act as the door posts on either side with wire netting, have buried the tails of the netting as for the rest and have 'stitched' the overlapping netting together. It takes me a minute to undo and I will put a suitable door in as soon as I have the timber and bricks to construct it. My parnsips and I are resting a bit more restfully now :-)
All sounds good
. We have a mattock - very handy for digging in stony ground (which some of ours is) but I seem to be able to hit my foot more than the ground with it so have been banned from using it 
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Raisingirl: hope the ban ends soon! When it does, perhaps you could stand on one leg to reduce the chances of hitting your foot ;-)
That's why my wellys have steeltoecaps and steel plates underneath, for the inevitable errant nail. I'm also a clumsy gardener.
Sounds like your fence is going well and that's a lot to get done so fast, hopefully you'll get to enjoy all your veg after that's in.