Pam\/Digging<\/a> came to the rescue. When I met with R. I was impressed by two things: he was attentive and he was observant. He listened to what I wanted and he looked at the site. He paced back and forth as he imagined the process of putting up the fence and as he mentally discovered issues asked me questions about how I’d like them handled.\n<\/p>\nPrepping the Garden<\/h3>\n
\nI had known this fence was going to be replaced for years, so I had already moved the bulbs that were originally there. The English ivy smothered everything else. The most difficult plant to deal with was the ‘Mermaid’ rose which had threaded itself through the fence and trees. ‘Mermaid’ is one prickly rose! I cut off an older section which was tangled in a crape myrtle that was going to be removed. I moved all the new canes over to one side and tied them out of the way. I flagged the whole rose with ribbons of orange construction tape–not so much for the protection of the rose but for the protection of the workers.\n<\/p>\n
\nOne thing I’ve learned about workers: they’re efficient because they’re focused on getting their job done. That focus is so narrow they don’t “see” a garden. So I marked off the path through the garden beds with more orange construction tape. This is an edging that speaks to construction workers: it says, “Don’t take a shortcut through here. Don’t dump materials here. Don’t pour cement here.”\n<\/p>\n
The Process<\/h3>\n
![\"Zanthan](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/fence2.jpg\")
Robert Frost might have wondered if good fences make good neighbors. I don’t.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nThe fence came down quickly. The bigger part of the job was hacking out of the ivy and removing a few spindly trees (hackberry, redbud, and crape myrtle) growing up through the fence. As you can see in the photo above, what I took for saplings were actually the suckers from the stump of what had once been a huge redbud. Unfortunately, this stump was where an old post was and where a new post hole had to be dug–a lot of hard work for the crew. They dealt with it without shirking.\n<\/p>\n
After further consideration, we agreed to leave the largest hackberry. I’ve tried for years to remove it from my side and what’s left is a rather large tree overhanging my neighbor’s yard. To cut it down now would require professional tree people and consultation with my neighbor who wasn’t around. Besides with all the little trees around it gone, it now looks rather graceful.\n<\/p>\n
![\"Zanthan](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/fence1.jpg\")
After the post holes were dug and the posts set in concrete.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nThe next day, the fence took shape. I am so impressed at how straight and true all the lines are. My yard slopes from the SW corner to the NE. A horizontal line is such a relief.\n<\/p>\n
The Result<\/h3>\n
\nI had an unusual requirement. Both my neighbors on this south side are uphill from me. A line of huge blocks of stone divides our properties. I wanted to be able to see the stones under the fence. I wanted air circulation so to prevent plant diseases. And I wanted to have access all the way to the stones so that I could cut out any seedlings that the birds and squirrels and wind plant there.\n<\/p>\n
![\"Zanthan](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/fence6.jpg\")
The hackberry that grew up in the fence line and the beautiful old stone boundary marker.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nThe solution was to make the top of the fence horizontal and let the bottom be open. This way the height of the fence matches the height of the fences each of my neighbors built.\n<\/p>\n
![\"Zanthan](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/fence3.jpg\")
I hope my neighbor is pleased with how well the new fence matches his.<\/i>
\n![\"Zanthan](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/fence5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFrom my neighbor’s side, the fence is the standard height. From my side (downhill), it appears taller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![\"Zanthan](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/fence4.jpg\")
The new fence. And a new bed to plant. Notice that it does not slope with the ground. Why is revealed below.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5042,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4014\/revisions\/5042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Zanthan](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/fence7.jpg\")