Gold & Silver Forum - Hedge Fence

I am building a hedgerow type fence around my place. I figured I may as well use some of the native organisms that thrive here to help me out. It's a play on Franklin Saunders statement "Let your animals do the work."

Around here most of the small ranchers put a "T" post every ten feet and a line post of hedge wood {boi d'arc} every 40 or 50 feet. On my outside fence, which I want to eventually be about 20 feet high and about 8 to ten feet thick, I used only boi d'arc. Some hedge post fences around here are 50 years old and still doing the job.

I started off with 3" to 5" hedge posts that were 8 or 9 feet tall. I wanted a minimum of 5 1/2 feet above ground. I placed these every ten feet with a bag of cement around it. If I was lucky this day it rained about 3 inches, if not I drug a garden house out there and filled the hole up. Let em set for two days.

Next is woven wire about 48" tall with the posts on the outside, except around long turns. There you can go in and out of the posts until you get a straight line again. Nail up the wire right away because in a matter of days after being cut this hedge post will harden up until you can't put a 2" staple in it.

I top it off with a single piece of four barb "bobwire", and wait. When I get some time I will go around and plant a hedge apple half way between each post, on the inside. Once I get a hedge tree growing between each post 2 to 3 feet high, I also will plant the locaust trees that grow around here. They get 3 to 4 inch needle like thorns on them.

When these get 3 to 4 feet high, I will start sowing trumpeter vine seeds among them. The hummingbirds love these and they will grow as high as the tree supporting them will grow. If I have any gaps or just want to "spruce up" the outside I can plant Western Red Pine trees, which are also native.

I am thinking by growing large trees on both sides of my fence and trimming the limbs that cannot be dissuaded from growing through the fence, it will become a sancuary for small animals and keep larger animals in and out, as the case may be. Impenetrable by man or beast.