AIBU to do whatever I like to my fence?

[SunnaStrangeInTheNeighbourhood]

Or rather is DH BU?

Last summer we replaced our tatty 6ft fence with a brand new one. It's a very long garden and that side was looking horribly bare. We have planted shrubs and flowers in beds down the side but it was still looking a bit naked because we'd had to remove a lot of established bushes and shrubs to do the fence.

DH scrounged was given some lightweight barbed wire left over from a friend's project and has been hammering it to the fence along the top and in loops and curls up and down with the intention of growing some climbing plants along it. It will also make it harder for random burglars to climb over the fence, he said. 3 years ago a potential burglar scaled all the fences down the lane and tried all the back doors, so it's not entirely silly to think it could happen.

NDN is worried about his cat getting hurt. Said cat hardly ever comes in our garden because we shout at it or squirt it with water. Until we moved in it had used it as an outside toilet. 4 years of discouragement means we hardly see it any more.

Cats aren't stupid so I think it may have encountered barbed wire before (we live in a village surround by farm land) and will have learned to avoid it or tiptoe round it. He wants us to remove it but "doesn't want to fall out over it". Dh has said he doesn't want to fall out either but it's staying.

NDN's wife says he's being ridiculous. He is isn't he?

Ps if you ever come to see, it will be a huge turn off to perspective buyers.

Sell*

Barbed wire all over a long fence? HMPrison or something? And squirting water at the cat? Have you buried land mines as well?

Barbed wire will rip any climbing plants as the wind moves them around. Use plain sturdy wire (it isn't expensive) attached horizontally to the fence posts with U nails. It's what all gardeners do. Then train the climbers with twine.

Scratches to the skin from barbed wire can get infected, it's dodgy stuff. You'll need to get at the fence to re-treat it with weather-proofing products (eg Cuprinol) or it will rot. The barbed wire will go rusty and look even more terrible.

Keeping friends with your neighbours is very important. You never know when you might need eachother.

Leaving aside the issue of liability if someone/an animal gets injured, if he's looping it along the top of the fence, he needs to be really really careful that it's not encroaching over into the neighbours side. A bit like if branches grow over. Coz then the neighbour could legitimately remove what is on his side of the fence.

but it will look naff and be dangerous and is a really bad idea

And squirting water at the cat? Have you buried land mines as well?

No landmines but we do squirt water at the cat. We don't like cat shit in the garden. It's recommended on here as a cat deterrent (and lots of other websites).

DH now stuck in "but it was free" mode. But wavering.

You really don't like cats do you

I'm a bit confused actually. Has your man put barbed wire on all the fences around the garden? If not, can't these marauding burglars get over the other fences? Because one normally only owns/is responsible for one side of the property's boundary fences.

He might be stuck in 'it was free' mode but it's a ridiculous idea and quite frankly you'd be as daft as him if you let it stay up.

You really don't like cats do you

I don't like cat shit in my garden, but am happy to admire them from afar.

It doesn't matter that it was free. It's the wrong tool for the job.

If it was so great for climbing pants, don't you think it would be recommended on gardening programmes and in gardening columns of magazines and newspapers? But it never is, because it's rubbish for the plants (will tear the tender young growth in windy conditions), is inconvenient for the gardener (trying to perform maintenance amongst metal barbs) and could land you in hot water legally.

If you want added security and/or a cat deterrent, replace the wire with trellis or twine and grow some holly and berberis amongst your flowering climbers. Btw wisteria is v slow growing so will take substantially longer than a year to hide a prison-camp effect fence and doesn't flower for years. If you want quick growth and lots of flowers, stick to different varieties of clematis and honeysuckle.

Climbing plants. DYAC!

Barbed wire?! Must look awful! Terrible idea, fgs talk some sense into your OH and get some trellis, twine or canes fit for the job. Who told him twine was expensive ?! It's £2.49 for a pack of 10 bamboo canes. Don't ruin your very expensive fence for the sake of a few pounds.

To add, my garden has climbing plants which have managed to climb fences very well with no means of support at all.

OhSoSharp: a thousand thank yous for climbing pants!

Agree with the other dissenters. Sounds like you've exchanged horribly bare for just plain horrible. Whether or not you legally may use barbed wire (or gun turrets?) on top of your fence, I'd have thought you're a bit weird to want to. In a years time, your climbers might have made a bit of progress, but it'll probably look more like an unmaintained bit of industrial (or post-apocalyptic) landscape than the rural idyll. Your visitors will snigger behind their hands, and the neighbours will justifiably talk about you as the paranoid cat-haters making an eyesore of the village.

I don't like cat shit in my garden either. I got a dog, and leave the responsibility for keeping them out of the garden to him.

Really? Barbed wire? FGS.

Whatever next; a sniper post disguised as a tree house? What every suburban home needs...

I would rather have a working burglar alarm as a deterrent than bloody barbed wire on the off chance a burglar climbs over the fence.

I don't like cats or their shit. What's the problem with that? A lot of people don't. It's perfectly normal to dislike them. I don't like dogs much either, sandthorn, DSs are allergic to most animals so we've never had pets.

The wire is for plants to climb on. It wasn't meant to be a deterrent to burglars or cats, DH just thinks that's an added bonus. It's not great thick prison barbed wire it's fine and quite thin and hardly visible at the bottom of the garden, where he started his artistic endeavours.

We have a cutting from the old wisteria and know it will take a while, that's why we are going to grow clematis and honeysuckle as well - they grow very fast.

DH informs me that there is a barbed wire fence behind the hedge at the bottom of the garden that goes all the way down the lane. This belongs to the farmer and there are no notices. So maybe they don't have to have them around here.

Burglars can't get over the back because there is an 8ft holly hedge (and a barbed wire fence, I learned this morning) planted by previous owners. The fence down the other side has trees, flowers beds and plants and bushes in front of it plus a couple of honeysuckles on trellis.

We want something fast growing, maybe on a temporary basis to hide the vast expanse of fence. We put the "pretty side" to face the neighbours, to be nice but I wish we hadn't bothered.

we wish we hadn't bothered crikey, you must be some neighbours to be taking umbrage when your NDN objects the 'artistic' (yeah right) barbed wire.

Could you maybe grow a spiky climber over your fence? Rambling roses would have the same sort of effect as barbed wire without being wire, and they'd look/smell nice too! :)

It's the NDN who is being "some neighbour" he can't even see it. Only we can. Even his wife thinks he's being daft.

I haven't taken umbridge, I don't think I'd find the fence as ugly if we had the pretty side facing us. We were nice neighbours and let them have the pretty side.

Thin end of the wedge putting barbed wire on the top of a fence between gardens like that. Fwiw I don't think your NDN is daft, in fact he's the one showing sense.

SunnaStrangeInTheNeighbourhood

Why did you bother asking?

It will also make it harder for random burglars to climb over the fence.

It wasn't meant to be a deterrent to burglars or cats,

Make your mind up.

a sniper post disguised as a tree house

but stop giving the op ideas!

I would happily used barbed wire to stop a cat coming into garden