Hedgerow Update: S and SW boundaries


Looking from the gate to the SW corner, which still had its pile of sticks when I took this a few days ago. As far as the central path, there's a path made of some crumbly kind of concrete. Not being one to look a gift path in the mouth, I was inclined to keep it, but no, it's got to go.

The boundary here is double pallet height, about 8ft. Long story short, I do not enjoy cordial relations with the users of the plot on the other side of the boundary. They've been piling up heavy metal trestles against the pallet fence, and whilst it still seems solid, in no imminent danger of collapse, it's leaning inwards to my plot.

It would also be an easy task to climb over this fence, its height notwithstanding, there being plenty of hand and foot holds on upright pallets. I'm pretty sure that's the route taken on at least one of the occasions the plot's been burgled

I've put some scraps of barbed wire along the top for now. But the answer is: brambles. I need to grub out the silly concrete path, and plant good old R fructicosus along that line. The path from the gate to the middle will need to be a yard or so to the right, with a clear area for the gate to open. I'll train the brambles up the pallet fence. Once it gets ahold, it will be unstoppable, and a thing of glory, 10ft high, full of fruit and birds' nests.

Ivy also. I've planted some hardwood cuttings along the pallet fence, you can see them just by the yellow at-work cone in the photo. It will have a head start this year whilst I'm propagating the brambles. So the whole project of the S boundary is going to take a couple of years, but heigh ho, I'll be blocking out the irksome neighbours with a vertical nature reserve.

The SW fence, just out of sight beyond the orange plastic covered heap of oomska in the photo, is a rotten fence. Brambles will be trained there too, and, fingers crossed, will cover the fence before it falls down. That whole area is badly infested with ground elder and bindweed which the brambles will deal with.

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