I took this photo recently – the fence, which I installed in April, is blending in nicely with the newly planted hedge.

My day job is running a fencing business, fencing a range of different property – farmland, forest land, equestrian areas, gardens…you name it I fence it. Fencing is what I do (I also do some other stuff, but I want to talk about fencing).

Part of the planning, we had to put a gateway into the field and improve the visibility for entering and exiting the site (even though about three cars and the odd tractor pass by a day). To do this, we had to remove some hedging, something I had wanted to avoid so not to change the environment too much – but this is what the planning wanted us to do.

To protect this now rather large gap, back in early March I decided to build a rustic fence made from chestnut – the technique is called cleft fencing. This type of fencing doesn’t require any nails or screws – it all joins together in slots. I’m really proud of this bit of fencing and feel it fits into the area nicely.

We’ve also planted field maple, hornbeam and beech to replace the hedge we had to remove – now set further back from the road to improve visibility. In a few years, the newly planted hedge will be flourishing.