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My husband and I erected a sixteen-foot-long, three-foot-tall fence along the north side of our front yard garden, adjacent to a section of the neighbour’s driveway.
It's not that we have a problem with our neighbours - we don't. It's not that the fence is visually restrictive - it isn't. It's just that we got tired of uninvited strangers traipsing through our garden with nary a thought to the plants they were destroying.
Specifically, postal and flyer delivery people, and electric and gas meter readers seem to feel completely free to trample lawns and gardens even when they've been politely asked to stop.
I was beginning to feel like a hall monitor, watching for transgressors, expecting the worst. I was becoming seriously stressed about the rudeness and laziness of these trespassers, and impatient with myself for being so bothered by them.
The idea of a fence was already on my mind because I'd been researching the French Potager and noticed that border fencing was considered integral to the traditional kitchen garden.
I hadn't originally considered a three-foot-tall fence for the Potager purpose but eventually reasoned that anything shorter wouldn't deter people from walking through rather than around.
In addition, I suggested to my husband the idea of creating a flagstone pathway that would lead from our front perennial Potager to the side pollinator patch, mostly eliminating the need to use the neighbour's driveway to tend our side garden.
The new pathway ironically offers a direct route for foot-traffic to and from our electric and gas meters and our neighbour's mailbox through our garden; but, at least it's a deliberate hard-scape path and the fence clearly indicates where their feet shall not tread.
An irritating negative has become a soothing positive; and, though I couldn't have known that erecting a fence and creating a path would sooth my frazzled nerves in such a dramatic way, I'm certainly happy to have let go of the destructive obsession that had been upsetting my equilibrium.
It does still bother me a little that we had to go to all this work and spend the money to move plants, relocate flagstones, mulch, and install the fence; and, I wish these unwelcome intruders would take the long way around, as they should.
I must admit, though, that the fence and path look amazing and really enhance the garden; so, it’s a win-win!
