Recently at my home I’ve been having a design dilemma and related to finding a cost effective way to deal with my current hedge/fence situation. A little background: The house I live in was a foreclosure and at one time it had a lush hedge surrounding the property, but after being empty for 9 months the hedge is mostly dead and terribly unattractive. My plan has been to replace the current hedge with a more drought tolerant plant, and after thorough research on hedges in my neighborhood, I’ve finally decided on the podocarpus plant. It makes for a very tall, thick and lush hedge, and my neighbors who have a particularly nice one have had it about 4 years and only water it 15 minutes a week. Perfect.
But my next problem was deciding what to do while the hedge filled out. I didn’t want to just have empty spaces between each plant as I waited for it to grow–but any money spent on building a wood or other high dollar fence would essentially be wasted because it would need to be removed when the hedge properly filled out. So I needed a fence that provided security at a low linear foot price so I could invest more in older, more mature plants. Also, I wanted to be able to leave the fence there so when the hedge filled out entirely it would still provide security and keep my dog in the yard.
Then it occurred to me: ranchers use hi-tensile fences to enclose thousands of acres. And I remember seeing it used a long time ago in the Ocean 1.7 Better Shelter homes built in Orange County, CA a few years ago. They’re perfectly modern and not going to break the bank.
[via Ocean 1.7 Photos]
