Nothing lasts forever- especially this gate to my garden. I started gardening here in 2009, and the gate went up almost as soon as the garden fence. I'm actually surprised it lasted this long, but it's finally time for an update. Time to put up a new one!
Here is a section of the old garden gate showing the extent of rot. If I remember correctly, we built it out of some scrap bits of lumber- none of which was pressure treated. There was even some plywood employed as well... not a good choice for something that's always going to be outdoors. Painting it only slowed it down a little. The gate was held in place by a thread on one hinge and had to be propped up to prevent it from falling over. This has been it's state for the past year or so.
For the new gate, I decided on pressure treated lumber. I would not use pressure treated lumber for anything else in the garden because of the terrible chemicals in it, but because this is a gate (and I will not be growing food in close proximity to it) I made an exception. I also got an excuse to work with my Kreg Jig. Kreg Jig- where have you been my whole life? Note: Always use fasteners approved for use with pressure treated lumber. If you do not- you are wasting your time, as the chemicals in the lumber will eat your fasteners UP! I use star drive coated deck screws for all my outdoor projects. The design of the gate itself is something I completely made up- there are probably a thousand and one ways to build a gate.
The old gate was 8 feet wide. I decided that wasn't necessary and designed the new gate to be 4 feet instead. That makes it more than wide enough for pushing a wheel barrow through, and that's all I really need. An eight foot gate is also really really heavy. A narrower gate will surely have less structural issues than the wide span of a the old eight foot wide gate. The only things I reused from the old set up were the galvanized chain link post and the chain link fence style hinges as seen in the picture above.
The chain link fence post is pretty strong and it doesn't seem to be corroding at all. When we installed it, we simply dug a hole a couple feet down and then reburied it with a bunch of stones (the thought was that the stones would prevent the post from shifting around as much over time- it seems to work). I need to get a cap for the post to keep out water. The hinges work great though, and they interconnect in such a way as allows me to lift up the gate (with some leverage) to take it down for any needed maintenance.
Here is the finished gate. I used galvanized fence staples to fasten chicken-wire on the backside. If you are making a gate yourself, you may want to keep in mind that things like chicken-wire come in specific widths. I'll admit that the choice to make the gate 4 feet wide, was pretty arbitrary. I happened to luck out that the chicken-wire I had on hand was also 48" wide. I'm undecided about whether or not I will install a gate latch of any sort. I've been using a bucket full of rocks (with the green lid) for so many years. It's like a very heavy doorstop. I feel like the bucket-full-o-rocks does a good job at keeping garden pests from pawing the lower part of the door open.
Of course, going from a 8 foot gate to a 4 foot one, meant I had to close the gap in the fence perimeter. I have a lot of ground hogs in my backyard, so this fence building technique may seem extreme, but it's meant to deter these over sized rodents from digging in.
First I dig a trench along the outer perimeter of the fence. I made it about the depth of my shovels blade.
Using chicken-wire (again, this is a roll that is 48" wide) you will bend it at a right angle to fit into the bottom of the trench... importantly with the bent part facing outward.
In case this is not clear in the pictures. The trench serves the purpose of having a section of your fence underground to prevent burrowing animals from getting in. There is about a foot of fence going down vertically and then about a foot bent horizontally like an 'L'.
If a ground hog or other burrowing animal decides to start digging along your fence perimeter, it could follow the vertical section until it ends and make it through. With this method, eventually they would make contact with that buried horizontal section of chicken-wire... and hypothetically give up.
Chicken-wire or some other fencing material with a small opening is pretty important as a bottom layer to a garden fence. You may not believe it, but a lot of animals can squeeze through the typical 2" x 4" openings of wire welded fencing (including rabbits and juvenile ground hogs). The layer above the chicken-wire can be something more open, like a wire welded fencing. Here I show how secured the seams of the two types of fencing together with a bendable wire. 48" of chicken-wire and 48" of wire welded fencing gave me 6' of fence (this is still not tall enough to keep out deer, but it's a start).
This project only took a few hours to do and inspired me to continue on with more fence maintenance. It's easy to get antsy about planting, but in my area it is still TOO SOON to plant just about everything. This is a good time to spend your energy getting prepared for the growing season. I am really relieved to have this project completed. I know in the next month when I have seeds to sow, seedlings to thin or transplant, and tons of weeding to do... maintenance projects like this are going to be the last things on my mind to do.
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