Hello all on such a lovely sunny day.

The leylandii are coming out (hooray, hooray, hooray) (if we'd known what we know now, we would have insisted on a reduction on the price of the house to cover the costs of this) and we will put up a fence in its place.

So, any advice on what the best sort of fence would be? I know that there are various different qualities of fence, and we'd like to have something long lasting. Do B&Q, for example, do a good quality fence? And how hard is it to put up a fence yourself using Metposts?

And a slightly random question - there is a large thuja (conifer) at the bottom of the garden which gives a bit of height and some extra privacy to the garden. However, our elderly widowed neighbour doesn't like it as it shades her kitchen and waves in the wind and sets off her security light. Also, she thinks its responsible for subsidence of her garage, but I'm not really sure about that. She'd like it to be taken out. I can see her point of view, but I don't want to have nothing at all in the garden (which is quite literally what it would be - we have a tree and a shed and a leylandii 'hedge' at the moment). I thought we might plant a new tree to the side of it and then take out the thuja later. The only problem is that taking out trees is quite expensive, and I wouldn't take out the tree if it was just me. Do you think it would be fair to ask our neighbour to pay or contribute to the cost of taking it out?

Thanks for all thoughts!

If you must put a fence up then there is only one fence for me and that is 4" posts or preferably good quality slotted concrete ones with vertical feather-edge close board fencing. Last 30 years or more given the right treatment.
The normal 6'lap panels you can buy are really only temporary screen fencing with a life of about 8-10 years if your lucky and the 3" post about 3 years in the wet ground.
Mel.

Jewson do nice panels-just got 3 from there, about £20 each. B&Q do a range of fence stuff-posts and gravel boards are good (currently using them to build a bridge over my stream), don't have any experience of their panels though.
Metapost thingy is fine-used them in the past, but make sure you get the square rudder thing that they sell to go in the top-makes banging in the posts so much easier! And makes sure there are no services under the spike-they do go down a fair way.

Failing that, B&Q do packs of feather edge boards so you can put the posts and spars in your self, then knock on the boards-handy for irregular shapes where a panel may not fit.

I agree with Mel. Forget about metposts - we tried that. A few years later we paid a professional to do it properly as Mel describes, 4inch wooden posts set in concrete. The fencer supplied all the materials - the boards he used are pre-treated so you don't have to do anything to them for a few years. A properly put-up fence really adds to the look of a garden - especially if all you've currently got is a shed and a thuja

Re the thuja - if you decide to appease your neighbour and have it removed, I think it would be completely reasonable to ask your neighbour to pay half, after all you are only doing it for her benefit. If she's a hard-up pensioner, you might feel a bit mean - but it will focus her mind on how much she does detest the tree - does she want rid of it enough to pay towards having it removed.

Thanks for that, everybody! I suppose it comes down to whether we want to do a proper job or a temporary one. Hmmm. Might phone the father-in-law and get his viewpoint!

We don't just have a shed and a thuja, Velvet - we also have a mound of earth where the foundations for the new shed were dug out, and a heap of wood which is the remains of the old shed.

(I might post a photo to give you all a good laugh!)

Ah well, if you've got a mound of earth and a heap of wood too ....

Hatster, if you plant a new tree close to the existing Thuja the new one won't do at all well - the established tree (especially an conifer) will be far too much competition for the 'new boy'.

I quite agree, Biggles - which is a nuisance! The new tree will have to go half-way down the garden in order to give it a decent chance. Grrr.