We’re building custom garden beds using an ancient technique—wattle fencing! Little Wife loves collecting sticks and branches, so we wove them together to create a sturdy, natural garden bed. This method has been used for centuries, and it still holds up today!
Follow along as we turn sticks into something useful and sustainable for our homestead. Would you try this for your garden?
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my wife likes to collect sticks so naturally I stripped the bark off the bigger ones and started pounding them into the ground next we take some measurements and pound some more now we snip the tips off the thinner ones throw them down pick them up and put them in this homemade bathtub thing next we weigh them down and fill it up I going in not going not going in next day we pound in the rest of the steaks take off the rocks and pull them out and finally it’s time to start weaving we slowly Bend each branch between the staks this technique is called waddle fencing and it’s been used for centuries next we do a happy little dance and roll out the rodent barrier it looked really cool in my head like you’re just going to like unfurl it like a big thought that’s what how it was going to work through then we pin it down and make a few final adjustments next we grabb some of these long reclaimed boards and slap them down a bit of screwing and cover the whole thing with these big old pieces of oak bark this one’s bigger than my wife next we grab a bunch of rotting wood some good healthy mud from the creek and a ton of wood shavings a bit more mud a lot more wood shavings and it’s time to dance faster and the first Garden bed is done now we just need like six more
45 Comments
No point in wasting $ and time on rodent barrier, they'll just crawl through the fencing
You actually start each row from the corners. It will give you a better finish.
Beautifully executed.
WOW! I love diy but never even thought of the use of sticks and brush. I just made mulch and fire wood all these decades. Id rather see no bottom for the roots and a shed with mud on the waddle. You know our ancestors had a waddle song or songs while they worked. Thats when birds trusted us.
Well done, but I think the rodent netting is a waste they will just go theough the sticks on the side, anyway you have cats for the rodents
What the reason for a rodent barrier on a bottom?
that rodent barrier isn’t doing much, if you want it to be effective it needs to go out further and down a few feet
> Now we just need like 6 more
Who gave you permission to just come out here and assault me right in the DIY PTSD like this?
Question – what are the shavings for?
Looks great. Unfortunately it wont last more than 2 years. Atleast mine didnt. Made a compost container like this. A fence i made lasted another year. So not really worth it I think
“Midnight going in!”
Your wife or your daughter? Lol. I'm joking, your wife is just that tiny it would seem
there's no way wattle is only "hundreds" of years old
Put your cats indoors
I was like "I wonder how that guy with the Hobbit wife is doing…" And this popped out 😂😂
Those wood shavings mixed into the growing medium will be locking up all the nitrogen for several years. By the time the wood chips break down enough for plants to have access to sufficient nitrogen, the wattle will start rotting out. You might end up with a decent hugelmound at that point.
A trough?
I like how your wife lives her life. She likes collecting sticks. That’s her thing, and you guys just roll with it.
😂 "now we just need like six more" LOL
Faster
👍 for the kittys!
Centuries? I think you meant millennia
I think those cats should make a decent rodent barrier
You still can find houses with fencing like this here in Ukraine, althought it's very rare outside of mountain villages in the West
This is phenomenal it's not hurting the ecosystem and it will return to the earth when you guys are long and gone this is phenomenal. ❤❤❤
I was expecting an animal pen or a house
I like midnight
It should be perfect about the same time your wife reaches adulthood. Maybe.
This is amazing, and a lot of work.
Love!!!! Amazing weaving!!!!!
What is that?
Christ, you married Mabel Pines
I get single mom and simp vibes. I hope im wrong though and theyre all his ❤️
It's been used for millennia, still being used, to build houses
20 more
Black cats rocks!!
And like 3 years of waiting for all that wood to be broken down. What in the f is that contraption?
Have fun eating food from that. 😂
❤
i use the wattle method to build forts in the woods!
Would bamboo work instead?
Love it!!!!!
Waddell fencing interesting Mahalo for sharing
That bed will have a nitrogen imbalance for many many years to come since you used wood and bark which takes quite some time to decompose,
This isn't a bad thing, but it's something you have to be aware of. If you want to grow spinach and cilantro quick and fast, you can,
-If you want to grow tomatoes or other heavy feeding fruits, it will work, but you might want to add some slow release fertlizer high in phosphorus and potassium, not nitrogen.
-If you want to grow flowers, it will be difficult without phosphorus and potassium.
Waste of money to put in the rodent barrier. No problem for them to get in your garden bed, just crawl over or thru the "fencing".
Yeah, in europe n such well over 1k years ago, they would 'coppice' trees for the main purpose of using the new branches for making fences, walls, so on.