Fences

There are two styles of home-made fence in the garden, the short and the tall. Both for the purpose of keeping puppy paws off compost and seedlings, but can also be tweaked for the function of corralling (staking en masse), penning your tall plants in, and stopping them from flopping over in the wind

The short fence is chestnut stakes chopped into shorter lengths. You can cut them at any height you like, if taller, then you might want to think about two levels of pea sticks around the sides. If they're kept quite short, its a simple mallet job to get them into the ground. Work out a place of where they'll be and how many you'll need before you start malleting. Then have a friend hold up the pea-stick, and at the points where it meets the stakes, gently (so not to split) drill a screw to fasten. That's it. So simple. So effective. Not only for keeping any enthusiastic canine out, for acting as support to plants within, but also to break up the space visually.

With the taller, woven style, work out where your stakes will be. I lay an average length peastick on the ground to help figure out the spacing. It was decided that approximately 2 ft would be best that day. Dig a nice relatively deep hole where each stake will be, the deeper it is, the more resilient your fence will be against the elements and collapse. Once the stake is in place, use a mallet to get it stiff into the ground before backfilling the hole. You want to pack in that soil tight to limit movement from the stake. You can use any kind of thing that's good at bashing- a mallet is probably still next to you, so you can use that, or a good stamp with the foot if you never had the mallet- just makes sure it's proper packed tight.

Once the stakes are in, find that friend again- you'll need them to help with the tension on the pea-sticks. Together, one person on each end of the stick, weave your stick through the stakes and push it down to be the lowest rung. Work your way up, then move down the stakes. you'll want the sticks to overlap ever so lightly to stop gaps forming.

Gates

For the gate, work out the design you'd like, measure, and cut to lengths, and gently drill screws in to fix. Here we used an old fence post, threading a thick wire through the post holes and looping the gate into it. It works really well and doesn't even need oiling.

Arches

For the arch, get your thickest pea sticks and get them as deep into the ground as you can. Best done in winter when the ground is still wet. You can also use the hold and pack method as with the fence stakes mentioned earlier. Have three or four on each side, in a tight pyramid for soundness of structure. Where they meet at the top, lash with twine, string, wire, willow, whatever you have lying about. For the top curve, you'll want bendable stems, like willow or hazel, twist them around each other before lashing to each side of the arch.

Top tip- you'll want to lash them to each side in three or four places, so make sure that the arch you make is longer that the curve will be. Then you can lash the ends down in three or found places down. I replace the curve each year, and if any of the pea-sticks are looking tired, I'll replace them too. Or add another for reinforcement.