Fencing friends

Not the duelling type who charge at you wielding an epee in their hands; but the sort that  lower your garden fence so that finally, after 4 years, you can see right to the top of your garden. It's always bothered me that it's separated the garden so I asked my next door neighbour if he could cut it half way down.

Saturday provided good weather and after my neighbour set to with the jigsaw it wasn't long before I had a stack of sawn planks and a view up the field I haven't seen since before I moved in.  Once the fence posts have been cut down I can make a gate for the fence around the vegetable garden and use the cross bars as top rails for the fence. I'm also considering making an outdoor table from some of the leftover wood, and the rest will come in handy for something I'm sure.

Now you don't see it.......

.....now you do see it!

The veg plot feels enclosed and separated

Now it feels open and has views down as well as up the garden

I wanted to keep a small fence so that I can grow a few climbing plants along that border and still retain some sense of 'formal' and 'productive'.  They'll have to be plants that like partial shade as this border faces north-west and doesn't get any sun until late afternoon; even less in the winter time.  Perhaps an evergreen clematis and a jasmine? Hmmmm, further investigation is required I think.

So it doesn't feel right to call it The Field anymore. the garden not only looks but feels different, you can see the true expanse of it now.  Of course, it also means that I can see everything that needs doing every time I walk up there but that's not a bad thing.  It's been too easy sometimes to sit on the patio and not open the door to the 'Productive Area Formally Known As The Field', to ignore thoughts of strimming brambles, clearing piles of cut branches, moving heaps of soil and checking to see if the rabbits have tried to dig into the old warren. Now there's no avoiding it!

In the meantime, I've laid more straw around the veg patch as the weeds are starting to grow through last year's layer, and cleared the area underneath the Box that the 'THGT' (that's Tywardreath Highway Gardening Team for any new readers) cut back last year; making room for a bench this year. No doubt I'll be trawling the garden centres, DIY shops and online to find a lovely seat for this space...........then again, maybe I could make one.

On a plant-related note, my rhubarb is coming back lovely this year. As soon as I saw it popping through the mulch I placed a plant pot over it and over the last week or so it's really begun to shoot up.  The problem is we're in for some frosty nights this week so the plant pot has promptly gone back on for the time being!  This will be it's second year so I should be able to make some lovely rhubarb crumble later in the year and perhaps some rhubarb wine.......the possibilities are endless.