Fence Ideas, Tips & Guides

Clematis have done really well here this year, despite a slightly later start for some. C ‘Duchess of Albany’ (above), flowering for the first time, is a real beauty and I welcome her with open arms.

As humans, we are omnivorous and eat a host of foods. And our furry and feathered friends seem to enjoy a similar diverse diet. It is not unusual to check the vegetable patch and find some gnaw marks in our food, especially squash. What animals eat squash? The answer is as varied as our wildlife.

The list of to-dos when it comes to selling your house might already seem daunting, but there’s one place where sellers should pay particular attention if they want to grab the attention of prospective buyers—and it starts with the yard. “When it comes to selling a home, first impressions matter,” says Realtor.com Executive News Editor Clare Trapasso. “The front yard is generally the first thing that prospective buyers see when visiting a home, so sellers should make sure that it oozes curb appeal.” That means a freshly cut lawn with trimmed hedges and weeded flower beds. Dead plants and spent blooms should be removed so all that’s left is a neat and welcoming home with a yard that doesn’t scream money pit.

When I was younger (so much younger than today), I learned how to ride a motorcycle. Whilst discussing the effects of weather on road conditions, my instructor said, “the most dangerous effect comes from a type of weather you can’t see. What is it?”

We finally have a date for the paving – 22nd June, weather permitting. It has taken a long time to get one, and I have been going a bit crazy without a proper garden. In the meantime, we have been doing a lot of work in preparation for the paving, including taking out the shrubs along the fence. Getting their roots out was fun, they’d lived here longer than we have! And that has given us the opportunity to start painting the fence. The lefthand side of the garden now looks quite different.

Work started on the garden yesterday, and involved digging out where the paving will go, and removing the soil. The paving blocks were delivered and the spoil (very stony soil, I am keeping the best stuff to reuse) has been removed. Two fence panels and the gate have been removed temporarily, for access. The terrain looks very different now.

Growing vegetables is one of the best ways to use your garden because you can save yourself a lot of money, reduce your impact on the environment, and the produce that you grow will be a lot tastier than anything that you buy in a supermarket. A lot of people are put off the idea of growing vegetables because they think that it’s incredibly hard but that isn’t the case at all. While there are some varieties that are difficult to get going, there are plenty of vegetables that are really simple to grow at home.

What happened to my allotment is a reminder that it’s not just animal and insect pests we have to worry about in our gardens – humans can be a problem as well. Bob Flowerdew refers to such anti-social individuals as ‘two-legged rats’.

As 2016 draws to a close, my garden looks a lot different than it did last year. For starters, it has 12 raised beds now, instead of 6. There’s a small shed for storage, and a log store. There are gardener’s paths, an improved fence with fruit-training wires and small raised beds in the extra garden strip. I would not have got this far without Ryan’s endless energy and enthusiasm, his practical skills. And his dad. Whilst I am Head Gardener, Ryan is the garden’s Chief Engineer.

This year is the first I have ever planted my potatoes on the traditional planting day of Good Friday! They almost got the traditional addition of comfrey leaves in the planting holeas (which would have been another first!), but in the end I decided to leave the comfrey flowering for the bees. They need food more than my spuds do, at this time of year. Although, in the end, the spuds got something better…

The latest addition to the garden is a Gardman poppy bird feeder. I’ve popped it in the border and filled it with seed for the moment, but it can be used as a water dish in the summer – it’s made from painted cast iron. I was given mine by Gardman for review purposes, but they’re being sold to raise money for The Royal British Legion, as part of their annual poppy appeal. Gardman want to raise £200,000 for the charity, and 50p from the sale of each feeder will be donated. There’s a special bird food range to go with it, also including a donation to the poppy appeal.

With the UK battered by one winter storm after another, it has been hard to find time to get out in the garden. If it isn’t peeing down with rain then the ground is still sodden from the last time it was peeing down with rain. We hadn’t been making any progress on finishing the garden. This weekend was different, and I spent a couple of hours moving forward in the extra strip of garden that accompanies this house – since it faces west I have christened it the Sunset Strip.

It has been rare this winter for free time, spare energy and decent weather to all come at once. Yesterday Ryan and I had a day off in the sunshine, so we made as much progress in the garden as we could (bearing in mind it is still waterlogged!).

I’ve talked before about how much Ryan and I enjoy watching the various birds that come into the garden, and we feed them to encourage them to visit. At my last house, I had house sparrows and starlings along with wood pigeons and blackbirds and robins.

Ryan and I have been planning some major changes to the garden for about a year now, and this week they finally got underway when we had the fence replaced. On Monday it looked like this:

We had plans for the Bank Holiday weekend. The first thing on the agenda was finishing the mini polytunnel. That went out the window when we realised we didn’t have enough netting, and we would have to order some. It’s on its way, together with some ironmongery to make a door.

I was out in the potting shed yesterday morning and sowed the first seeds of my 2019 gardening season – sweet peppers, leeks, purple sprouting broccoli and some salads. They’ll all be inside for the next few weeks, as although the weather is unseasonably warm, it cannot be relied upon.

Fences might make good neighbors, but they render a boring view. When it comes to creating privacy, why not go green? Plants are perfect for space-making in the landscape, whether you want to establish a solid wall of separation or create a more subtle sense of seclusion. And unlike fences, plants have a soft touch in the landscape, adding texture and color to your garden rooms. The best plants for privacy include a mix of shrubs, vines, and tall grasses that complement your garden aesthetics while screening views.

We’re visiting with Keith Irvine today, who gardens in chilly Zone 3 in Oxdrift, Ontario. We visited Keith’s garden before (Keith’s Zone 3 Garden).

Several times a year someone sends me a photo of a tree they believe to be an American chestnut (Castanea dentata, Zones 4–8). Frequently what they actually have sent is a photo of an Asian chestnut species or Allegheny chinquapin (Castanea pumila, Zones 5–9), another species native to the eastern United States. From time to time, I have seen the sprouts of a true American chestnut tree in the wild. American chestnuts have three nuts per bur and canoe-shaped leaves with deeply toothed margins. Their buds are smooth, brown, pointed, and usually askew on the twig. However, the sprouts I’ve seen pale in comparison to what once dominated our eastern forests. The American chestnut once thrived throughout the forests of the eastern United States, leaving its mark on both the landscape and lives of the people who inhabited the region. This tree played a crucial role in the cultural, economic, and ecological tapestry of the South and southeastern United States, making it an integral part of our region’s history. Trees were huge, straight pillars like our native tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera, Zones 4–9)—and on a massive scale (from 50 to 100 feet tall). Learn more about the history of this magnificent species and the current state of American chestnut tree conservation efforts here.

Using wood from a section of our fence that fell in a wind storm, I built a bench to encircle our large maple tree in the back yard.

Undeservingly overlooked when it comes to hardscaping, the old window box is a fantastic exterior design feature that can add a unique touch to your home and make heads turn. It really is a thing to consider if the best-looking house on the block is what you’re going for. Here’s why:

We are happy to announce that your favourite Fantastic Gardeners site has a new design. Our website now boasts a fresh new look and even more fantastic features that you get to enjoy.

If you’re anything like us, then you love your dog and want to include them in as many of your daily activities as possible. Every dog owner has experienced the joy, frustration, and laughter caused by our four-legged friends who decide to help us complete a task and, in most cases, create even more chaos as a result.

Are you dreaming of an exotic garden full of flowers with hard to pronounce names that will awe your guests? An understandable dream. But most tropical green life are not meant to grow in the weather conditions that the UK offers.

Everyone wants to have a place of peace and silence where they can be alone with their thoughts or even not think at all. And what better spot than a calm, beautiful garden.

Since Doris blew our expectations for a “windy day” away, here in London the demand for fence panels at our office skyrocketed: Seeing the destruction it has caused we feel slightly obligated to talk some fences, moderate winds and hurricanes.

As the country begins taking stock of the damage caused by hurricane Ophelia and works to restore power to much of Scotland and Northern England, gardeners throughout the country are lamenting the destruction of their gardens.

Outdoor Christmas trees can be stopped from blowing over through various means, like planning the tree’s location to securing it in its position. Keeping the tree as stationary as possible without it toppling over will help it remain pristine and gorgeous throughout the holiday season. 

Transform your outdoor space into a festive wonderland with the best outdoor Christmas lights of the season. Discover the best outdoor Christmas lights to create a festive and magical atmosphere. 

Also called the weathering steel, cor-ten steel is maintenance free. It is developed to eliminate the need for painting. It is a group of steel alloys that form a stable rust-like appearance if exposed to the weather for several years. Read more about corten steel on Wikipedia.

Willow can be grown as a crop and used for many purposes. It is not a garden crop as it needs a lot of water and can be a bit of a thug as a tree.

A very distinctive and primitive tree. Legend has it that the tree sprang up from the spot where a dragon and elephant spilled blood and battled to death.

There are several annual plants I would recommend to new gardeners who want to cover an unsightly mess but do not want permanent plants that could impede house maintenance.

Many plants have dangerous components, leaves, seeds and roots. Some of the most dangerous must be grown under government license. Below are notes on just a few plants to avoid eating.

Last fall I made the tough decision to sell our hot tub. After it was removed, we were left with a big ugly hole in the deck! But I thought maybe this space could make a nice backyard lounge area?