When is a good time to redo a fence?
blue rose
Posts: 34
When is the best time of year to redo a fence? My husband put our fence up 5 years ago. The problem was that it's a 6ft fence and the posts (metposts - not concreted in) were put in every 12 feet. Then we had storms, the garden flooded and now the fence is leaning over badly. The whole thing needed new posts the problem is that since then I've planted up a border. I'm very keen and I've filled the raised bed with cottage garden style plants including geraniums, hebes, salvia, aliums, phlox, naepta walkers low, campanula's, russian sage, asters and penstemons.
I'm worried about losing all my plants. I guess in spring I could dig up all the perennials and put them in pots, the shrubs should be established? There are quite a few bulbs also. Or would late autumn be best when everything is dying back?
Posts
If the fence is in otherwise good condition and it is just the posts that have rotted could you prop the fence up vertical and cut the post off to sound wood, then dig a hole under the position of the post and screw and concret a short stub post in to take the weight of the original spike. The spacings of 12 ft between panels seems to be a bit excessive but rather than taking the whole thing down and starting again this may be a solution.
Metposts are notorious for losing the plot in strong winds and 12' of panel is far toomuch to expect them to support.
I suggest installing new posts in concerte filled holes at 6' intervals. Do it in autumn when your plants are dormant but the soil is still warm enough for any you need to remove, stash and replant to grow a new root system over winter so they get a good start the following spring.
If you can't wait, do it as soon as possible so the plants can benefit from the spring surge of energy without check.
We were thinking would take the fence down and then put in new posts at 6ft and concrete them. The spikes were metal but we think the ground moved with all the wet weather, winds and floods
I have around 80 plants in the border and so I'm thinking late autumn would be best? I'm quite a new gardener but went a bit mad in the border.
The plants will only be disturbed every six feet, not all along the length of the fence. They would be fine, and will race away in a month or so. It would be better done now, lose a few now, rather than lose all of them with the fence down.
Hello had a problem with rotten fence posts and panels blowing out
So got somebody to put in a new fence with concrete posts and concrete gravel boards and wooden panels in between , it was much Cheaper to get somebody in than buy all the material and do it myself , also they took all the rubbish away
I took out as many plants as possible and just replanted , surprising how resilient plants are , after about a year you would not known what had been done
Just bite the bullit , there is never a good time
best of luck whatever you decide
Try Fence Fins (steadypost.co.uk) they are as strong as concrete (much stronger than Met posts) and allow planting all along the fence.
Traditionally fencing is a winter job. Probably because you can't get on and do much else. So if you can get on it during the winter why not? The plants will all be dormant. We redid some fencing this year in the winter, you don't get cold doing it, I can tell you that much.
Get on and do it now. You need a fence. Your plants will recover if they are accidentally stood on as they will not be showing too much growth as yet. Go for it.
"it was much Cheaper to get somebody in than buy all the material and do it myself"
That cannot be right as most of the cost of fencing is the labour costs in my experience.
Now is a good time to fix a fence. I would fix a fence immediately regardless of time of year.
The fence is leaning, the damage is more cosmetic than anything else. I would rather get someone in as when the fence was put up it was a rainy weekend and I think my husband took short cuts to save himself doing the manual labour!