Backyard Garden Fence-In Progress

The fence is looking good!

Whew, it has been a busy week. Last Saturday was the Oregon State Science Olympiad competition, and we were really busy. So busy, I could hardly tell if I was coming or going. Because of that, we stalled out on our new garden area. We did get some work done before that, so I thought I would write up a little blog post showing off our new fence for our garden area. It’s so gorgeous. I love the clean look of the red cedar. I am going to leave it that way for now, and when it grays out, I will whitewash it so it looks fresh again.

Here is the garden after we ripped out the shed.

The plan has been to put up a fence around our garden area to keep out our puppy Tesla. We also wanted the fence to really “make” the area and define it.  Here is a picture of the area after we cleared out the old shed. You can read more about that in our past post.

Hard at work!

After the shed was cleared out, we set out to create a fence to keep the area safe. We used cedar for it longevitiy. Rather that buy pre-made fence pieces, we decided to go with a make it our self approach.

Showing off the hardest part of the job.

We used 10 foot long cedar 4 by 4's for the main posts. We cut all but two of them in half to support the fence. We left two of them tall to act as the entry way. We sunk each post down two feet and anchored the middle and end posts in concrete. 

Our messy work area

Corner Post

We attached the long boards with brackets and long 2 by 4 cedar pieces. We wanted cedar as it does better in our rainy northwest and won't leach out nasty chemicals like the pre-treated boards will. To get the fence level, we leveled every board. That was by far the hardest part!  After the cross pieces were in, we put up the cedar boards. We spaced them with the width of a cedar post between them. Since the space was not an exact fit, we would start at both end of each section and then "eye-ball" it to make the spacing work out. It actually looks great, and you ca't tell the difference in the spacing on the whole fence. My husband did not want the corner post sticking out, so he cut a fence picket in half and nailed it on.   It looks nice, and helps the eye look at the whole piece without noticing anything sticking out. 

Entry way

Our next step is to hang the door that we made and put up a small arbor over the entry way. We have a small wisteria that we have been taking care of for two years that will grow well over that spot and make it look nice and green.  So that's the progress of or garden fence for now. I have included a lovely picture of our huge cherry tree to show off that Spring is coming!