Earlier this winter, we were commissioned to build a woven hazel fence to act as a dividing screen in a beautiful garden on the west coast of Cumbria, near Barrow. We chose to build the fence in a continuous weave style, as opposed to installing separate panels, in order to increase strength and to work with the garden’s naturally curved and undulating shape.
The weave begins on oak stakes, hammered into the ground, which will last much longer than hazel when in contact with moisture ensuring the fence is long lived and durable. Soon tall, split hazel zales are inserted into the weave around which supple rods continuously woven, adding height with each run.
The final step is a binding weave along the top few rows which ties everything together and also adds a decorative touch to the finished fence. We also made an archway to allow access to the lower end of the garden, which was made in situ and looks lovely. This fence used a lot of rods; we cut one coppice coupe especially for this project and it took many hours to build but we’re really happy with how it turned out.
If you would like a woven hazel fence, or woven hazel panels for your garden then please give us a shout!