I’m working on a project in my garden. It started with a wild hair to do something for free using local natural and abundant resources- a woven, or wattle fence. It’s an experiment as most things I do are. And wow. This is turning into a fascinating art project / rabbit hole. I’m going down it, y’all. I can’t resist.

Experimenting with a Wattle Fence

It all started with a little test to see if it would be something I could actually do by myself. Plus, I wanted to see if it would enable me to use an otherwise almost unusable spot. Wattle fences are an ancient technique that I’ve long admired and I wondered if it could work for me.

There’s a narrow bed at the base of a 6′ or so bluff, with a little space behind that bed but a nearly vertical wall of clay, sand, and rocks behind it.

Everything I’ve tried planting directly into pockets in the wall have died. Weeds thrive. But the peonies are doing fine, so I’ll divide my mother plant and put more of those in some spots.

A potato project

I’m going to plant potatoes behind my little fence. As the potatoes grow, I’ll make the fence taller and add more straw to cover the potatoes so they’ll continue to grow taller.

Anyway, while what I have now doesn’t look all that impressive, it has sure given me encouragement enough to do more. Here’s the small bit of fence I have done (excuse the feed sacks, that’s going to keep the weeds down and will eventually get covered with straw):

Wattle Fence Projects Galore

I’m going to start working on fencing my entire garden this way now. And I’m going to try putting a clay/daub mixture on the fence to see if it holds up even through our rainy seasons.

My garden is on the hill behind our house. I use the rocks to make retaining walls and terraces, stone stairs, and walk paths. While it’s a work in progress it looks pretty messy, but once I’m finished it should be beautiful.

It’s like doing a painting, really. Starts with an idea, gets to looking terrible, and then finally pulls itself together to look great, lol.

Now I have plans to finish the potato wall/fence, start on the perimeter wattle fence, and even build a little garden shed with the same design, although I’ll put a tin roof on it.

Practical, Beautiful, Free Materials

What could be better than building practical, beautiful things using only locally abundant natural resources that cost nothing but time and two other simple tools already on hand? Nothing beats that.

And now I’m thinking along the other lines of possible use for this wattle fence technique. I saw pictures of small houses made like this, so that led me to thinking about a garden shed.

Ideas are Generating

And then I started thinking… I bet I could make some interesting art framing or backers, or something to substitute for traditional frames. I have ideas spinning and I have to slow them down before it drives me mad.

So I’m writing it all down here, and that’ll be enough to save it until I get a chance to explore. Who knew that playing at making a wattle fence would spill over into a garden art project that could also benefit my painting art projects? There isn’t enough time in a life to do everything, and that’s the only downside to having so many ideas.