Badger proofing

The hum of happiness. And then the groan of aches and pain. I love that feeling when you get into bed at night and try and go back through your day pinpointing just where you might have done too much.

Something tells me the carrying of the pallets down to the stables might have been the culprit. Preparation for a new compost bin.

That was my blissful day – doing too much outdoors, in the sunshine, on great projects. With weights.

Well, one main great project. I hadn’t realize how much I had been worrying about badgers coming marauding into my new garden until this fence went up.

And with heavy wind and gales in the past week this work couldn’t have come soon enough.

Before. The temporary fence was at the base of the steep bank.

Now it’s up the top. Thanks to Nicolas giving me a day’s work.

It frees up the flat of the terrace to show off the plants rather than a rickety fence.

We had to roll up the fence. (I put buckets over the precious plants so we wouldn’t step on them during the delicate but heavy procedure.) And then out came the new 18 chestnut pickets (piquets) which had to be spaced two metres apart all the way along the top road.

I had to make space for horses riding on the edge of the road, so the fence is positioned right beside the oaks and quinces at the top of the bank.

And after a bit of head scratching (we are short of a few metres of the roll to do the whole area) we decided that I needed to make a gate right beside the guesthouse so you can walk down from the top to the garden.

Luckily I had plenty of skinny straight sticks to hand. But dare I admit the whole thing took hours?

It took so long that I completely missed the great moment when Nicolas managed to stretch the whole fence and manage to enclose the steep slope as well.  He was very pleased with that. We had to do the whole tour even down the steep steep slope.

But I couldn’t stand long basking in the glow of creative fence building. I had to finish mine before it got dark.

Now that I have done two long metres of the gate I think I have the hang of it now.

Which is good as I have about 20 more metres to make at the top potager. I have half the place fenced with the expensive chestnut stuff to keep out deer. But the two other sides need closing up to keep out deer. I tell you it’s all wild animal management around here.

I just need to find some spare time. I asked Nicolas to hammer in the chestnut stakes just before he staggered home. He had been hammering them in all day, what’s a few more to his huge tally?