Above is the bamboo fence that I built in Feb 2019. Three years later, I’d like to say it is still standing strong, but the storms got the better of it.
This is what it looks like today:
I’m debating whether to rebuild it with bamboo, or whether to splash out and treat myself to some chicken wire and real fence posts in the hope they last longer. With this in mind, I’ve been having a think about the pros and cons of the bamboo fence…
PROS:
- It’s cheap – I just cut a whole load of bamboo from some bamboo clumps in the garden.
- It looks natural – that’s a big positive in my mind. It really looked quite lovely and rustic.
- It was surprisingly sturdy in the first year.
- It was actually quite fun to build and I got my niece and nephew involved too, and they enjoyed the project.
- It was fun to grow sweet peas and sunflowers up along the fence – looked great!
CONS:
- In year two it was definitely weaker. Some of the bamboo canes slid around, and I was forever prodding in extras to keep the hens out of the veg patch! By year 3, it was weaker again and finally succumbed to the storms.
- It took a while to build. I wouldn’t mind that, but when it takes a few days, then I’d want it to last more than three seasons.
- You need a lot of bamboo. I’m lucky, there was plenty to spare as the bamboo has rather taken over in the garden, but if you don’t have access to free bamboo, I’m not sure it would be worth the investment.
I don’t think I am going to try and resurrect the bamboo fence – I’ll probably invest in post and chicken fencing to make the fence longer lasting, but I still really enjoy the principle of the trellis-like bamboo fence. I think I will save the better bamboo canes and use them to build frames for peas and beans, and perhaps a trellis-style contraption to lay horizontally across the cut flower patch to a) keep cats off the plot and b) give the flowers a little support. I think that will work quite well.