January’s storms blew down the 94′ fence which runs along the side of WP668, our backyard caboose. On the other side of the fence, one of the San Jose community gardens and Guadalupe River embankment land belongs to the Santa Clara Valley Water District. It took me many weeks work, including getting a formal permit document from the SCV Water District, to arrange for a new fence. Last week, it was finally installed. Today, SCV Water District inspected it and found it good.
John and I picked galvanized steel mesh with brown plastic slats for the fence fabric instead of the wood used in the old fence. Not only was a metal and plastic fence less expensive than wood but, while the new fence is not pretty, it is very durable and will never look worse.
During the 3 day installation, we were surprised to find that the fence runs on top of what was once the concrete foundation of a chicken barn. We already knew that our home was on land that was a chicken ranch in the 1920s but we didn’t know just where the barn was until the new fence posts hit concrete. One of the community garden old timers told John that the gardeners there often hit barn concrete. We ended up paying extra for Duran Fencing (San Jose, CA) to pound holes through that foundation. Duran did a good job (and squashed as few of my border plants as possible in the process).
While the fence was down, we got to visit the community garden plots and take pictures of the side of WP668 we don’t usually see from a distance. Photos follow.
| Blown down old fence
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Old fence gone
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John raking debris
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| Fence line
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WP668 caboose
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New posts
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Wetting new concrete
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| New posts standing
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Rails and Fabric
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Unrolling fence fabric
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| Unrolling new fence
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Last fencing roll
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New fence!
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| Community garden
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Community garden
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Community garden
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Community garden
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Community garden
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Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
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