A new fence

In February my husband gave the huge rambling rose on our fence a really good prune. This rose was already in the garden, and well established, when we moved in ten years ago. It does provide a good screen between us and the neighbours but it is very fast growing and lethal when pruning.

Behind it the fence panels and posts have rotted away. My husband gave it the hardest prune we have ever given it so that we could see what was going on with the fence. The rose had blown over into the neighbours garden in the winter and we had to go round and push it back again. My husband attached some poles to the fence to tie the rose to, to keep it from blowing over again.

The rose has a hard prune

The rose was up to the top of the remaining pole and it’s pruning has left the garden very open and overlooked. The fence is rather low and is in worse condition than it looks in the photo.

The poles and broken trellis are removed

A few months later

The rose is growing back

It is actually our neighbours fence but they have a young child and are now paying for child care so Mum can go back to work and money is tight. We have talked to them about the fence and have explained that we are happy to pay to have it replaced as it would benefit us both and as we have a wall on the other side of our garden we haven’t had to pay for any maintenance of our boundaries (except for the fence at the back behind the chicken shed). They reluctantly agreed.

We have been waiting for the last two months for our usual guy, who did our chicken run and back fence, to fit us in, but he is snowed under with work. We had a brainwave and asked our other neighbour, all round handy man, if he would be able to do the job. He quoted us a price and we agreed for him to do the work.

Our plan was to make the fence a bit higher than before by putting gravel boards in first and then the fence on top. Then we would tie the rose to our side of the fence making it easier to manage and easier to keep on our side.

On Monday morning work began. The old posts were taken out and the old panels removed. It was odd seeing it so open.

The old fence panels are removed

The holes were dug out for the new posts. Today the new fence panels are up.

The new fence panels are up

The rose is tied back to the fence once more

We are really pleased with this. We now have more privacy from the neighbours and we will be able to manage the rose and to keep it on our side. Knowing how vigorous this rose is we feel sure it will soon cover the fence once more. A job well done and an improvement for us and the neighbours.