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Greenhouses & Garden Structures

Building a brick garden structure next to a rotting fence

10 years ago

Hi everyone:

I have one of those never-ending projects and I hit a roadblock and wanted to get some advice.

We're in a rental where the landlord has given us carte blanche to do whatever we want. So I've been trying to build a keyhole garden using reclaimed bricks. Location option A was eventually rejected because an orange tree would eventually grow up and crowd out much of its sun, and it was next to where a fence would soon need to be replaced. So I moved the project to another, sunny spot where there was nothing impeding the build...

... until I discovered today that the sprinkler irrigation line does not run in a straight line from sprinkler to sprinkler, being instead 2 feet in from the sprinkler, directly under my build site. ARGH.

So back to Option A. Unfortunately, the fence area right there is rotting, but the landlord isn't really super-excited about replacing it (probably has a couple of years before it actually falls down). There are cement garden boxes right next to the fence on the other side, so I doubt those would be easily moved.

Since I would like to actually finish this project ASAP, I'm wondering how much space I should leave by the fence to ensure it can actually be replaced?

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Comment (1)

steve333_gw
10 years ago
Hard to say without seeing the site and the type of fence. It will depend upon things like access to the other side of the fence (which sounds like it is limited), how the fence replacement will be done (by hand, or machinery), what type of fence, and other such variables.

Another possibility would be to offer to move that sprinkler line to where you thought it was running. It would be some additional digging, but might be easier in the end than dealing with the fence in the other location.
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