Autumn gardening - Fences

How are your fences? Looking a bit sad and tired? Autumn is the time to tidy up and paint or stain wood. But before you start slapping on the woodstain, remember to clean your fence t remove the fine crop of cobwebs, seeds etc that the summer has delivered. You need to clean all these off, paying particular attention to corners and joints between panels and posts. Above all, make sure you get rid of any bird droppings on the fence - make sure you wear gloves as bird muck carries some nasty diseases and use a stiff brush and a bucket of warm water to wash them away. Use a scraper or a wire brush to get rid of any flaking areas of fence. Finally, make sure the boards are firmly attached as its easier to make repairs now, than when the painting has been done. Work on the fence a section at a time. Start by painting the tops of the panels where the brunt of the weather hits the fence and the grain is most open and then work your way down the front of each individual fence panel. It's a good idea to slip a piece of cardboard under the bottom of the fence panels so you can paint right down to the ground and not worry about your brush getting into the grass or earth. Once all the fence sections have been painted on one side go back to the first section and paint the other side - this means you won't get wet paint all over your hands from the board you just painted.

Spring may seem a long way off to us - but autumn is the only chance you have of clearing out nesting boxes or putting up new ones because from February birds may be investigating them as potential homes and your presence, tidying up and so on, will just ensure they don't get used. In addition, some are used as shelters through the coldest weather - wrens, for example, are known to crowd together for warmth. If you want to offer the best to your local wildlife, you need to have a range of boxes in varying locations and at different heights above the ground. Some boxes should have open fronts, for robins, blackbirds etc while others need different hole sizes for bluetits, great tits, house sparrows and starlings. Fix them to walls and fences out of reach of cats and squirrels, and camouflage them where you can with climbing plants.

Onto those plants then - climbing and wall plants establish best in the autumn while the soil is still warm and moist, so this is the time to get them into the ground. It is crucial for all climbing plants that the soil is moist and friable but because most climbers are planted along the sides of houses, this is rarely the case. Often the roof will shelter the soil from rainfall and very often the ground will be full of rubble or old mortar. To give your climber the best chance, add some well rotted manure or compost as you plant. Remember that a clematis wants cool roots so put a rock or paving slab or a thick mulch over the root area once the plant has settled in for a few weeks.

Fence photograph by gilbrit, used under a creative commons attribution licence