Fences and more for Free: The Wattle-Fence-Club

[AnnaWolf]

In my country we use lots of these. I'm from the Netherlands and we call it a takkenril.

The idea is you can keep filling it and evrything fits.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

That is something different! It is called a »Dead Hedge« in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_hedge
Also a very interesting fencing method, but it consumes way more material and space than a woven-fence, but is also a great habitat for useful critters.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Do you know that you can build your own fences, raised beds, shade-panels, trellises and much more for little to no money? If you have shrubs and/or trees on your property you already have the required building material in your possession to build wattle-fences, for example.
What is a wattle-fence? - Pretty simple: You turn the garbage from the last pruning into fences by weaving the most straight twigs between posts, made out of thicker branches. The result looks something like in the picture from Wikipedia below:
View attachment 2553608
I have started to build my first wattle-fence around one of the veggie beds to keep the ducks out and i will update this thread with more pictures and text later. Just wanted to get this thread started!
Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences!

Ive actually been planning on making this kind of fence around part of my garden. I didn’t have the supplies this year but I’ve been working on a sort of temporary fence.

The boxes in the background were being used to cover my strawberry plants during the last dip into the teens.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I'm just wondering how that will hold up to the wind? I'd hate to do all of that for it to just blow down. Ask the little pig that built his house out of sticks!

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I'm just wondering how that will hold up to the wind? I'd hate to do all of that for it to just blow down. Ask the little pig that built his house out of sticks!

I would think it would actually hold up fairly well depending on how tight it’s woven. There should be plenty of air gaps. I’ve seen them at historical sights and they seem to hold up pretty well.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I'm just wondering how that will hold up to the wind? I'd hate to do all of that for it to just blow down. Ask the little pig that built his house out of sticks!

Wind shouldn't be a problem at all as there are plenty of gaps in the fence. My fence wouldn't stop any predator, but if will keep the veggie-thief's (aka Ducks) out. No trampled Zucchini this year!
In the End it all depends on the posts, as with every fence. The woven stuff is remarkably strong! I think sturdy fence posts and carefully woven branches would even stop an angry steer. This fence is elastic and can absorb and stop a lot of energy.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Update on the fence progress: Bad luck, i couldn't weave as much as i had liked today, the wife wanted to go grocery shopping and needed a coolie.…
But i made a lot of progress! A very time-consuming part of this is to de-twig the branches that you want to use for weaving. I've collected all the little side-branches and twigs in a mortar bin, so that i can throw them into the compost later. Her you see Katharina Duck checking out the bin, she wouldn't believe me when i told her that there's nothing to eat in there:

Here is the pile of branches for weaving after the de-twigging:

This is how its done: You start with the thick end of the branch and weave it between the posts, pushing it down from one end to the other:

After about 30cm of woven fences, i noticed that the end-posts were slightly leaning outwards. The pressure from all those twigs was forcing them out. As a counter measure i spanned some bale-wire between both end-posts to stabilize them. I know, professional fence weavers chew on the branches to soften them, so that they can be wrapped around the posts, but ,hey, i am an amateur, so i am allowed to use shortcuts:

​

Won't that wire rust away? - For sure, it will! But hey, i'm building a fence here, not the Egyptian Pyramids…

This is today's result:

What i like the most about this fence is its ability to handle uneven ground! You can see that the fence is a little bit taller on the right than on the left due to my veggie bed sitting on a slope.

 

[Sally PB]

I love this! My only question is, what do you do when the posts rot in the ground or at ground level? I have sticks a-plenty for the wattle part.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

As with all fences: It is all about the posts!
This this little fence is planned to hold up for just a few years and if the stems i use as posts rot away i might even be able to re-use most of the weaving material with new posts and rebuild the whole thing with less work.
The weaving part is easy and you make quick progress. But i have underestimated how much work is in the preparation: Cutting the branches is about 25%, selecting the sticks for the posts and preparing them 15%, preparing the branches for weaving is 50% and the weaving is just 10% of all the work. The de-twigging consumes a lot of time, i am looking for a tool for this.

 

[DukesDucks]

I am so impressed and inspired. I have an endless supply of twig material here. Question about the posts. Are the end posts buried in the ground? Are the other posts buried? If I wanted to do a fairly long fence, how often should I be burying a post?
Now I really wish the snow would disappear but nothing stopping me from collecting materials.