Do-it-yourself wickerwork. How to make a wattle fence from the rods of various shrubs and trees with your own hands. As a conclusion
A wicker board fence, or "Austrian braid" is an attractive and original type of wooden fence. In terms of technology, such a fence is similar to the classic weaving from branches. For work, planed boards are used, which can be located horizontally and vertically.
It looks like a classic wicker fence made of boards
This type of wicker fence performs not only a decorative function: it is also a full-fledged fence to protect the site, which is easy to build with your own hands.
Pros and cons of a wicker board fence
The disadvantages of a wooden fence include a short service life - 7-10 years.
Drawing of a device for the design of a wicker fence made of boards
Although this indicator depends on many factors: climate, region, soil characteristics and the impact of environmental conditions. With good and timely care of a wooden fence, its service life can be doubled.
Installing a wicker board fence
Types of wicker board fence
- Fences up to one meter are used as inside the site, most often for plant fencing and creating borders;
- A meter fence is used for zoning the territory of a house or cottage;
- Above one meter - a reliable fence with full protective functions.
Necessary materials and tools
Preparation of material and marking of the territory
Pillar installation
Making a fence from boards with your own hands is not difficult at all, the most time-consuming will be the installation of fence posts. Supports for a wicker board fence can be anything. Braid combined with brick and stone looks attractive and expensive, but such heavy supports need a reliable foundation.
If you install wooden or metal poles, it is not necessary to fill the foundation.
However, the design of the boards has considerable weight and windage, therefore.
wooden poles
metal poles
- For corrosion protection. Their upper part is closed with plugs;
- A hole is dug 1–1.2 m deep and 20–25 cm in diameter;
- A pole is installed, aligned vertically and height;
- A third of the pit is filled in layers with sand and gravel and rammed;
- The rest of the well is concreted.
For a city dweller, deaf fences that do not have any gaps have long become familiar. They reliably protect the territory of their owner from intruders.
It looks like a classic willow fence
The situation is quite different in the countryside. Here everyone is familiar, constantly in contact with each other, so a fence made of branches, which is more decorative in nature, can be called a real find. Looks very original, but costs very little. you can do it quite simply with your own hands, using waste material. Branches are suitable for this:
- mountain ash;
- birch;
- aspens;
Weaving
A decorative weaving fence can be made very simply with your own hands, for which any available material is suitable.
Boards
You can make the most vertical or horizontal connection. Moreover, the boards are easy to combine with metal and brick.
An example of a wicker fence made of boards
The result will be .
Fence
Well-planed planks make it possible to weave them in both vertical and horizontal directions.
thin flexible branches
To make a fence with your own hands, branches of any thickness are quite suitable. A fence made of branches is the cheapest among all similar products.
As a material, you can use the branches of any trees. They can be grouped into bundles or used separately if they are large.
Green braids
A fence of willow branches, you can do it yourself. With the onset of spring, willow branches are stuck deep into the ground. Their rooting takes place, they begin to grow, a living weaving is obtained. 
Procurement work
- apple trees:
- pears;
- plums;
- cherries;
- mountain ash.
You can also weave a fence with your own hands from rods cut in copses, which are located near the summer cottage.
The rods are cut with a well-ground garden pruner at a right angle.
To obtain a dense weave, you should try to choose rods that have a small diameter, preferably less than two centimeters.
As a result, the fence will be deaf, without gaps.
The best material for making good . It is sold in special nurseries.
To make a decorative fence, craftsmen recommend purchasing a thin willow vine with a diameter of less than one centimeter. 
To weave a fence, you must not forget about the stakes that form the basis of the fence. The diameter of each peg must exceed five centimeters.
To make the fence rigid and stable, special horizontal poles are selected. Wooden stakes will successfully replace:
- Steel pipes;
- Corner;
- fittings;
- Plastic pipes.
Willow rods must be cleaned by removing the bark, coated with an antiseptic composition, and then painted with a suitable stain. Willow twigs with white color look beautiful. To make such a color, willow twigs must be treated with hydrogen peroxide.
Willow fence option
It is very easy to do this work with your own hands. Hydrogen peroxide is applied to the willow branch with a thin brush. After that, the branch should mature for several days. This operation can be repeated several times to get the effect of "whiteness".
Weaving methods
As mentioned above, several methods of weaving are known.
vertical
Prepared rods for horizontal arrangement are mounted between the supports, while maintaining a step equal to 20 centimeters. Then, willow twigs are stretched between them, starting from the very bottom.
An example of a vertically woven fence
Horizontal
This method of weaving is considered a classic. The rods are intertwined with the "eight". When willow twigs are very thin, they are gathered into bundles before weaving. Thus, the beam becomes one section.
oblique
This method can be called a design move. Part of the rods is intertwined in a diagonal direction. It is best to use this method for those who were able to make small fences, for example, a summerhouse.
To obtain greater strength, the junction of the rods must be fastened with wire.
How is horizontal weaving
One of the most important moments is the preparatory process. He is quite laborious and painstaking.
To do this job, you must have:
- shovel;
- secateurs;
- hammer;
- screwdriver
- awl.
First, a fishing line is pulled, repeating the line of the future fence. The locations of the supports are marked.
Wicker fence made by horizontal weaving
Columns with a diameter of at least 4 cm are being prepared. For a long service life, it is better, since the tree will quickly rot.
The depth of digging supports should reach 50 centimeters. They are installed in increments of 30 cm. Moreover, for greater reliability, the step at the very beginning of the fence, as well as at its end, is made smaller.
The length of the post should be 20 cm more than the height of the fence. For a high fence, it is necessary to prepare thick rods.
To keep the weaving even, on top of. When the work is completed, it is removed. But if a strong wind often blows in the summer cottage, it is better not to remove the bar.
You need to start weaving the fence from below. The thickest end is left in front of the initial support. Then it is intertwined with all subsequent pillars. The resulting edges of the branches should remain on one side only, which will allow them to be trimmed. 
Weaving the second row must begin with the next column.
To make the fence more beautiful and attractive, before starting work, the branches can be painted or varnished to preserve the color of the willow. The lacquer coating will give the hedge increased durability.
After weaving four rows, the product requires compaction. To this end, not far from the post, you need to knock on the fence with a hammer.
The lower part of the fence, located next to the ground, often begins to rot due to high dampness. To prevent this from happening, nails are nailed at the very bottom, which will not allow the hedge to slide.
A similar operation, after completion of work, is done at the top of the support. Willow branches are fixed with nails so that atmospheric phenomena cannot affect its original shape.
An example of a fence woven from thick branches
The popularity of the rustic style in country landscape design is due to the natural naturalness of its elements: wicker fences, wooden arbors, decorative benches ... Many country house owners who want to escape from everyday life and arrange natural design with rustic motifs on their site. Making a wattle fence is a fairly simple task, which anyone can master. It is not for nothing that wicker fences have often been found in many settlements for a long time. Today, the rustic style is again not the pinnacle of recognition, and therefore such a do-it-yourself design can serve as a worthy decoration of the garden.
Varieties of wicker fences
There are three types of wicker fences, each of which has its own height and functional significance.
- Low fences, the height of which does not exceed 1 meter. They are widely used as decorative elements of landscape design: for fencing flower beds and paths of the site.
- Medium fences meter high. They are good for zoning the site. Fences of this height allow you to emphasize the boundaries of space, but at the same time they will not create the illusion of isolation.
- High two-meter fences can act as a full fencing or fence. They are equipped mainly along the outer boundaries of the site.
The service life of the fence depends on the materials of manufacture. A fence woven from cattail or reeds will last no more than three to four years. A wattle fence made of vine, hazel or willow will regularly last up to ten years. But in order to be able to admire a beautiful wicker fence for a longer period, it is necessary to protect the wood by treating it with antiseptic compounds.
If we take the method of weaving as a basis, then the fence can be made using the technique of horizontal or vertical weaving.
We select the basis for the future fence
A wicker fence, like any building envelope, consists of supporting pillars and sections, which are intertwined thin branches or rods. For arranging the fence, you can use wooden stakes or metal poles.
A significant disadvantage of such stakes is that they are subject to decay, and this significantly reduces the life of the fence. To protect the stakes in place of the future wattle fence, you can equip a trench, the soil in which is replaced with a layer of sand. Water, flowing down to the base of the fence, will simply seep through the sand, and the wood will not rot. It is desirable to treat the stakes themselves with an antiseptic chemical composition in advance. To increase the stability of the fence, the stakes must be deepened by at least half a meter. Metal poles are used in the construction of high two-meter wattle fences.
Vertically driven wooden stakes 3-5 cm thick will serve as a good support for low decorative fences
To give the fence a more natural and attractive look, it is advisable to paint the poles in the color of the braided branches or vines.
Stakes or poles are placed at a distance of half a meter. As practice shows, this step is most convenient for braiding both flexible willow twigs and more rigid branches. The choice of the ball is determined taking into account the thickness and flexibility of the rods, as well as the design idea of the master.
Advice! Along the entire trench, the support posts are placed at an equidistant distance, and closer to the edges of the fence, it is better to install them more often. This placement of supports will create a kind of lock to secure the ends of the rods.
Harvesting the “correct” rods
Traditionally, branches of willow, willow or hazel are used to make wattle. But in the absence of the opportunity to purchase or stock up on a flexible vine, you can always weave a fence from thin annual branches of fruit trees in the garden.
Branches up to three centimeters thick are suitable for high fences, for low decorative fences it is better to use one or two centimeter rods
Smooth long shoots are suitable for cutting. They can be cut, dried and stored tied in small bundles for quite a long time. For the manufacture of wattle, you can even use freshly cut twigs with green leaves.
Branches prepared for weaving must be thoroughly soaked. This will give them flexibility by restoring the circulation of the juice. Flexible rods will be easier to twist, forming simple horizontal or unusual fancy patterns.
Advice! To steam out the branches and make them more flexible for a while, but after drying to return to their former strength, you can arrange a "steam bath". But such a procedure can only be applied to untreated and unvarnished rods.
Braiding rules and decoration techniques
The weaving of rods begins to be performed from the bottom row, gradually rising to the top of the fence.
The rods are carried out in wave-like movements alternately between adjacent support pillars, stretching along the entire length
The branches should wrap the flexible part around the supporting stakes, forming a "figure eight", in which each subsequent rod is a continuation of the previous one. So that during the weaving process the fence does not lead to the side, it is better to attach the tops of the supports to even planks, removing them before weaving the last row.
During weaving, it is important to ensure that the ends of the rods are located on the inside of the hedge. To prevent the fence from falling apart, the ends of the rods can be carefully fixed with a wire, and the protruding “tails” can be cut off with a knife. The ends of the last row are not cut off, but imperceptibly tucked along the stakes.
Here are a couple of video instructions from summer residents:
The finished wattle fence can be varnished or painted to match the surrounding landscape design.
Clay pots, decorative sunflowers and other attributes of a rustic style can act as decorative elements for wattle.
Wattle looks most impressive in combination with other wooden decorative products. For example, a wooden bench placed along a wicker fence will bring a feeling of comfort and coziness and will become a favorite resting place for all family members.
Wattle fences allow you to create an atmosphere of warmth and hospitality on the site. Wooden interior items with bright positive energy will always please the eye.
Reading time ≈ 3 minutes
Of course, a concrete 2-meter fence will hide you securely from the curious. But is your garter technology a state secret, and does the lovingly tiled pool in your country house make you a participant in rigged voucher auctions? The eye of an ordinary Russian will certainly be pleased with a do-it-yourself wicker fence erected in one summer.
First you need to decide on the materials. Willow, hazel, alder, birch are perfect for making your own wicker fence in the garden.
Fence weaving patterns
Instructions for self-installation of a wicker fence
At the first stage, columns are dug into the ground, which will serve as the basis. It can be natural wood or metal pipes of a suitable diameter. The thicker the rods collected for the fence, the thicker and stronger the stakes must be, otherwise they will simply break. It also depends on the depth to which the pillars are immersed in the ground. The distance between the supports should be 50-60 cm. The depth is sufficient for 30-40 cm, with especially thick rods up to half a meter.
Before starting work on installing a wicker fence made of willow with your own hands, the twigs must be softened in the steam room. A salt bath is possible for twenty minutes. So you don’t have to spend extra effort on weaving, and the chance to break your building material will be significantly reduced. After the work is completed, the wood will naturally dry out and return to its original shape.
Having fixed the twigs not on the first peg with a wire, you can begin the painstaking work of making a wicker fence, the scheme of which is very simple and resembles a snake. The rods in a checkerboard pattern go around the posts. So that the structure does not fall apart, it is better to wind the twigs to the support with wire or other improvised material. You should also make sure that the wattle fence does not reach the ground by 5-10 cm. This will extend the life of the fence, and eliminate putrefactive processes. More complex types of do-it-yourself wicker fences (see photo) require serious skills and are beyond the power of beginners.
Wicker board fence
A separate discussion deserves the manufacture of a wicker fence from boards, as in the photo. This grandiose building can decorate not only the classic 6 acres. It can serve as an original and worthy fence for a solid country house. As a material, ordinary planed boards are used. Supports (wooden or metal, it does not matter) are placed at a distance of 2-2.5 meters from each other and must be concreted due to the very large load exerted on them by the boards. The structure is fastened with self-tapping screws and treated with compounds that protect against decay. The unusual appearance of such a fence will remind you of the historical past of the country and make your home stand out from many others.
After completing the work, it is necessary to cover your creation with a stain or other composition that will help preserve the natural wood used to make the wicker fence, its original appearance for many years. It is possible to paint in any color that matches the exterior of the country house and outbuildings. In any case, the structure of the intricate pattern of the fence will remind you of its man-made and natural origin.
I would like to hope that our review with photos and videos clarified all the nuances of how to make a wicker fence with your own hands.
Video of making a wicker fence with your own hands
A wicker fence is a bright and colorful decoration in landscape design. Such an element of street decor evokes warm associations, reminiscent of comfort and rural life.
Due to the variety of types of weaving, and the ease of their manufacture, each person can personally create an original fence for his site. Wattle is considered the most environmentally friendly type of fencing, since natural materials are more often used for its manufacture, which, by the way, are also free, since they can be found on your own site. 
But such a fence is short-lived, and does not tolerate changing weather conditions. Therefore, in a few years, the fence will have to be completely updated. Another feature of the wicker structure is the complexity of the repair: you will have to redo it all, even if one element is damaged.
Since a wicker fence is a decorative element, you should not count on it to protect you from unexpected guests.
There are different types of fences:
- height: high (up to 2 meters), low (up to half a meter) and medium (up to 1 meter). The height of the fence determines its function. A two-meter fence is considered a capital structure and can play a protective role. The low wattle fence is a purely decorative element.
- weaving method: horizontal and vertical.
- based on materials production: natural and artificial. The natural ones are willow, hazel, cattail, reed, vine- any flexible rods will do. Artificial - PVC, artificial rattan.
Natural materials for creating a wicker fence
To create a natural wattle fence, any tree species is suitable. The main requirement is the length and flexibility of the rods. That's why willow and hazel would be better suited for this role. In addition, plants grown near water bodies are saturated with moisture, and become more supple and smooth.
Examples of natural materials for the manufacture of wicker:
Regardless of the material chosen, special attention must be paid to vertical stakes that serve as the basis of a wicker structure. The durability of the fence largely depends on their strength. It is important to treat the ends of the stakes with an antiseptic or hot resin to avoid rotting. Even better - cover the entire hedge with an antiseptic. The most reliable racks are obtained with metal rods or pipes.
There is another trick that will help to avoid stagnation of water under the bars, and hence damage to the lower rows. To do this, you need to dig a small trench under the fence, and fill it with sand.
Mini fences made of willow for the garden.
Creation of wicker fences from artificial materials
Despite the fact that the very concept of "wicker fence" is associated with vines and natural twigs, fences made from synthetic materials are gaining more and more popularity: PVC, artificial rattan.
PVC fences have significant advantages.
- Long service life. Thanks to a modern protective coating, a PVC fence can serve up to 20 years without losing its original appearance.
- Reliability. A fence made of PVC easily tolerates exposure to direct sunlight, humidity, and temperature changes. For care, it is enough to rub the plastic with a special compound, and cover the metal bases with an anti-corrosion agent.
- Ease of installation. The light weight of the elements and the flexibility of the material allow you to quickly install a PVC fence in any area.
- A wide range of. There are various variations of PVC structures, differing in the size of the cells and the length of the sections, and the rich color range will allow you to choose a shade that suits the design of the environment.
- Affordable price.
PVC wire fencing.
Another popular material used to create street structures is. Natural rattan is made from a special type of palm that grows in Southeast Asia. Products from it are very expensive, including as a result of long-distance transportation.
Therefore, it gained great popularity artificial rattan which has many advantages:
- Natural appearance. Artificial rattan is not inferior to natural vine in external qualities, but thanks to mass production, it becomes possible to save nature's resources. Therefore, at a price, artificial material comes out much cheaper than natural.
- Ease of operation. Rattan does not respond to the effects of climatic events, and therefore can last for many years without requiring repair or special care.
- Natural rattan can grow into the ground over time, which will not happen with artificial material.
- artificial rattan is much cheaper than natural.
Techno-rattan fence.
Artificial rattan is also used for production; in terms of strength characteristics, it significantly exceeds natural material. Production features allow producing rods of different textures and shapes: flat, round, rods with imitation of tree bark.
Weaving techniques
The technique of weaving fences is simple, no special skills or tools are needed to work. It is important to choose rods of the same thickness, approximately 2-2.5 cm, depending on the purpose of the fence. For greater stability, the length of the entire structure should be no less than the height of the fence plus another 30-50 cm.
At the beginning of work, a frame is installed, which is later braided with rods. A fishing line is used to mark the possible points for the location of the stakes. The optimal thickness of the frame rods is 4 cm.
There are several main types of weaving:
- Inclined. With this technique, part of the rods is located diagonally. This method is suitable for small fences, or is used for decorative purposes.
In addition to the main types of weaving, there are also a lot of patterns, for example, pigtail or combined weaving. For these options, only bending branches are used. And thanks to imagination, any fence can be decorated with garden figures, or old pots, which will add even more color to weaving.
Making wattle from willow branches yourself
Weaving a fence from willow branches is an interesting process, but it requires a lot of labor. However, the durable and beautiful construction with a pleasant smell emanating from the wood is worth the effort.
The primary task in preparing for work is collection of twigs. Young shoots, one or two years old, are most suitable. They are elastic and break less, so the fence will turn out to be of better quality.
The best time to collect is winter or early spring, when the trees have not yet woken up.
Before cutting twigs from a tree, you need to take one and check the cut - a brown tint and a loose core indicate the fragility of the shoot. Optimum thickness of branches - 1.5 to 4 cm. Then they will need to be cleaned of small branches and knots.
Plants collected in winter must be steamed and then decomposed for further storage.
For support are selected strong spruce pegs, sharpened on one side. The stakes are driven firmly into the ground at a distance of 30 cm from each other, and fixed with transverse slats.
For weaving, the first rod is nailed to the base pillar, and circled around the next pillars in eights. When one branch ends, they take the next one, carefully connecting them together. The proper levels are woven in exactly the same way, only the order of wrapping the pillars in a checkerboard pattern changes.
At the end, the hedge is decorated with sculptures, pots,. The sunflower growing near the fence looks organic.
View an example of production willow you can watch the video:
The main advantage of wattle is their colorful appearance, which will add coziness to a summer cottage or garden. There are many variations of weaving and materials suitable for creating a man-made element of street decor. The simplest and most popular type of wicker fences made of willow or vine, but modern artificial materials are in no way inferior.
The wattle is done, what's next?
The video below explains how to install a ready-made wattle fence.
