Building a Wattle Fence

 

We’ve been planning on building a fence around the garden for some time. Style and pricing materials always stumped us! Then we found a free source of kiln dried hardwood.  I scoured Pintrest for cute garden fence ideas.  My husband pitched the wattle fence idea to me.  I viewed multiple pictures and fell in love with this fence!

History of the Wattle Fence

If you had lived in Colonial America, chances are you or someone you knew, would have had a wattle fence .  The beauty is achieved by weaving branches, or for us kiln wood strips, in and out of stakes placed around the perimeter.  This gives it a basket weave look that I adore.  Very charming with a cottage feel.

Wattle fences were built to keep livestock fenced in or around gardens to keep small animals out.  The fence can be as tall or short as you want it.  They are very attractive around garden beds, roughly 2 foot high.  Historically, made with willow limbs to last longer.   Because the wattle is built with decaying material it will need to be replaced every few years.  I am hoping to get at least 10 years out of ours.

Building the Wattle Fence

To begin, we went around the perimeter of the wattle location hammering stakes every 3-5 foot.  From there, it’s just around and around weaving the wood in front and behind the stakes.  It is tedious, but the result is such a beautiful primitive looking work of art! Having a Post driver made putting in the upright posts much easier. This one is well worth the investment.

The weaving is easy enough for an older child (tween-ager) to help out.  Light on the back.  The major drawback to building this fence for us, IT IS VERY TIME CONSUMING!  At first, everyone was helping do the laps around.  Then, the new wore off I guess you’d say, and I was solo.

We are very pleased with how it turned out, has that old look I was going for.  I wanted something that looked like it had been here for decades…think cottage primitive and that’s me.  This year Shaun built teepee trellises for our green beans in front of the wattle.  Once the vines took shape on the teepees, I knew this is the summer view I’ll be repeating for years.

I plan to put a bench inside the wattle.  I’m looking forward to sitting down with a cup of chia tea while watching, and praying for, our garden to grow.

Making an Entrance 

Lastly, the entrance to our wattle fenced garden had to be an arbor!  Using our free wood (hallelujah!) Shaun built the arbor about 10 feet tall.  It’s a simple design with slats of wood running across the width of the top.  He ran out of time to build the gate, so guess what is on his “To Do List” come Spring.

If you enjoy natural inexpensive design consider adding a wattle fence to your landscape!

Check back this Spring when I include pictures of the arbor and gate! 

Until next time, have a lovely day.

Alisha