My neighbors are attempting to be urban farmers and have a flock of several chickens. The neighbors initially wanted their chickens to be entirely free range - not even any fences to keep them in the yard. I like chickens, but they are powerful diggers and can do a fair amount of damage to a garden in just a few minutes. I would often come home from work to find large ruts dug in my various beds, mulch kicked over paths and groundcovers, new growth of some plants pecked and eaten, and on one memorable occasion, the chickens left a spectacularly large and messy turd on my porch. After I complained about the persistent damage, the neighbors reluctantly put in some shoddily installed chain link fence scraps wired to recycled metal fence posts.
This worked to contain the chickens and I barely noticed either the fence or the chickens for a couple of years, until I cut back my massive English laurel (
Prunus laurocerasus) hedge. What was previously an evergreen, nearly impenetrable privacy screen 60 feet long by 20 feet wide and 20 feet tall (18m x 6m x 6m) was now a void offering a clear view to the chain link fence and the neighboring yard. Since my neighbors live uphill, it also gave them a clear line of sight into the previously secluded garden courtyard and much of the house.
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| Neighbor's chicken coop and chain link fence before. |
Building a proper cedar privacy fence is probably not in the budget this year, but a solution was to be found in the garden shed: several rolls of reed fending which I had planned to use for a landscaping client but never did. An hour and half and several small zip ties later and a fair amount of privacy has been restored:
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| Neighbor's chicken coop and chain link fence mostly hidden after. |
Hopefully even this reed fence will be invisible after planting some new shrubs and allowing for a couple years of growth.
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