New to gardening so advice welcome! I’ve made this new border but as you can see, the soil sits flush up to the fence and apparently that’s a bad thing 😅. What can I do so it doesn’t sit flush with it? Baring in mind it’ll have to be something simple and cheap to do! Also, it’s clay soil and broke my back trying to separate it and add compost to it. Thanks
by Dirtypoppins
15 Comments
Drag the soil away from the fence
If you want to do the best for the fence just pull the earth back a bit and put a board to hold it away from the fence and the post an air gap will sort it.
However without a gravel board at the bottom to periodically replace the fence won’t last forever anyway. It also could do with being treated. Sorry.
I assume the grass is also next to the fence?
Unless you’re going to put a gravel board all the way along I wouldn’t worry about it
I wouldn’t consider it problematic. The timber is pressure treated. I see this all the time and its never struck me as a major garden issue.
We got a plank of wood attached where the soil meets the fence. Should stop the rot for a while.
Timber post will rot at the soil line before the fence boards will rot.
It will rot at the same rate as the fence posts.
Scrape away the soil from the fence and dig a mini-trench under the panels to create a small gap. It doesn’t need to be much, you just need there to be a gap so water from the fence drains off/water in the soil doesn’t soak into your fence panels.
Just bear in mind you’ll occasionally have to maintain the trench and scrape any soil away, especially if you (or the neighbours) have kids/pets etc that are likely to kick soil around.
Presumably it was sitting on the ground when the grass was there as well?
Ideally you’d raise the fence and put a stone or concrete gravel board underneath to hold the soil in, but that’s a lot of work.
You could cut the fence a couple of inches above the ground, but that’s not that easy unless you’re good with a circular saw, and cats will dig under it.
Easiest is probably to thoroughly treat the fence with a decent wood preserver, then get some 6 inch treated timber and put it in front of the fence, digging down an inch or two.
On another note, check each plants maximum size when fully grown and plant accordingly to that.
Those are too close to the grass edge.
A line of gravel maybe
A more permanent solution to a wooden gravel board is a concrete gravel board. They wont rot but will certainly do the job. Wont look beautiful but there you go.
Soak the fence in creosote and put a sacrificial board at the bottom
You could trench that out, use a piece of guttering with holes drilled in it to form a barrier and put gravel in it to drain around the fence. Then build a nice rockery to cover the ground and house insects.
As a retrofit option that is what I’d do. Should protect your fence from getting sodden on the end grain which will rot it prematurely.
I have recently raised a corner of my bedding a few ft and have put a sleeper alongside the fence to protect it.