To ask how high?

[Damntheman]

I'm having issues with neighbours (and also random strangers) using my garden as a short cut. Since the town took away the bus stop up the hill when re-doing the bus routes I've noticed an increasing stream of foot traffic through my garden without permission. It's a pretty steep hill but going down my garden is probably the least steep part of it and cuts 10 minutes walking time off anyone coming from the houses up there down to the current bus stop. It's driving me batty! It's turning half my garden into sheet ice and almost certaining ruining the grass and any plants beneath. I'm also fairly territorial and have my hackles right up regarding people sauntering over my land without asking.

I've managed to catch two of them at it and asked them to stop but there are still several more. The land is quite open as when they built the new houses up the hill, they cut down the line of trees along the border so now in winter (we get a lot of snow) there's no visible boundary which I suspect is a large part of the problem. As a side note I'm also fairly certain someone living up there has buried their pet in my garden as I found a small mound along with home-made cross under one of my trees before the snow came.. wtf!

I want to put up a rope fence in spring time (probably May by the time the ground has defrosted enough to sink posts. Sigh..) to prevent people walking through. I quite like most of my neighbours up the hill and there's a shared play area up there that my kids have an open invite to use so I am not wanting to go for a completely solid high fence to start with at least. It would be nice to be able to maintain at least some of the open community feel without opening my garden to become a public footpath.

The current thought is a series of posts 1 meter apart with two ropes strung between them. One at about 1 meter high and one at 50cm to prevent people ducking under the rope or climbing over.

Is that high enough to prevent people climbing over do you think? Or should the upper rope be more like 4 feet (1.2 meters) up instead or higher?

I'm also considering planting a row of gooseberry bushes or something similarly prickly in front of the hedge for a secondary line of defense.. so to speak.

Help!

I remember my grandad had a concealed entrance in his fence that locked from the inside. His garden backed onto the common (and he wasn't meant to have a gate).

Could you put something in your garden to make it look more like a private garden like a table and chairs with a parasol, when the snow's melted?

In the meantime, put a couple of posts up with a laminated sign showing a photo of your land clearly marked and saying the land marked red on this photo is my garden, there is no right of way over it.

That may hopefully give you some respite before you need to put a barrier up.

If the OP is in Scotland (which I think she is), we have a right to roam (although we do still have a law of trespass, but it’s more akin to criminal damage), therefore “private property” signs are a bit pointless. You definitely need a fence.

If the OP is in Scotland (which I think she is)
OP said she was not in the U.K.

Electric Fence?

I'm in Norway. There's no right to roam on private land here, only state :) considering prickly plants! Have a hankering for gooseberries.. is 20 gooseberry bushes overkill??

Will consider charging for the pet cemetery :o allow access on Sunday afternoons for suitably attired remembrance ceremonies!

Sadly the garden is on a pretty painful incline so there's no chance of garden furniture. I'm surprised nobody's actually hurt themselves yet coming down it in the snow/ice!

Ahh missed that bit @HaddawayAndShite

I would put a proper fence in to be honest, people will climb over or duck beneath rope

I like the electric fence idea personally.

Ooh, ooh, and a moat!

Could you fence the bit nearest the road? It’s keep the access and open feel to the play area, but people would see they could get through, so wouldn’t come into your garden. Maybe with a (locked) gate, so you can still get through.

I was just about to suggest an electric fence - cheap and easy. People will soon learn to respect it

Although I'd probably start with a few wooden posts on the boundary with signs stating that it's private property / no trespassing.

A fence with a gate - job done.

I would worry kids might play on the ropes and injure themselves.

You can get fences that are half solid and half trellis so not as intrusive as solid fence

So is it just a load of grass/mud/flowers with no boundaries and then a communal play ground? People probably just think it's all part of the grounds like an estate, so probate but not individually owned.

No Noeuf. It's cultivated lawn with fruit trees and a very cultivated looking circle of berry bushes. Plus 4 cultivated raised beds and a rose garden. It definitely doesn't look like wild public land. There is a boundary line of tree stumps, but in winter this can be covered by snow. So the people who are aware the play area is owned by the line of new houses will also know where the boundary is and that it's a garden as they'll have seen it in summer.

Sadly i can't fence the bottom without it looking ugly AF and ridiculous due to the incline.

I really don't want to go straight in with a full on fence for reasons given and also because the tree stumps will cause a problem with that. We can't remove the stumps because they are holding the hill's soil in place.

What I wanted to know was how high a rope fence needs to be to prevent people climbing over it. Consensus appears to be 4ft so that's great :)

One more issue with a full on fence that's just occurred to me. We are on a considerable incline. With a rope fence the only damage weight of snow will do is push over a pole (I hope not if it's sunk 1 meter down but you know!), if a full on fence is there is could be totally wrecked. We get quite a lot of snow and from Feb to April that snow gets wet and very heavy.

I’m boggling at the idea that you think a rope fence will stop people

*What I wanted to know was how high a rope fence needs to be to prevent people climbing over it. Consensus appears to be 4ft so that's great

What?? Can’t you see that people will go under it?

Norwegians aren't in general the cheeky fucker type, although of course some exist. Any kind of visible barrier usually stops people. But a line of 3 ropes at chest, waist and knee height would definitely make it difficult to get through, people don't usually want to risk a bum full of snow of a winter.

How can they go under it if there are 2 more levels of rope barrier?

Chainlink fence might be better.

It depends how cheeky people are. If I could see from any kind of flimsy, low barrier that it was private land, I wouldn't walk on it anyway.

How can they go under it if there are 2 more levels of rope barrier?

Lift the top rope up and swing their leg over the other 2. If it's clear it's a garden and they've trespassed anyway, that might not stop it.

Just to cheer you up OP on a frosty day, I would go this high

@SnoozyLou I agree with you, I'd much rather a chainlink! DH is being obstinate however. His Nordic soul hates the look of them and he's not bothered by people going through the garden even though it's lifting me to an intense level of rage.

Ah I'm seeing a translation error perhaps. Rope fences here are not flimsy and neither do they have enough give in the rope that the rope can be lifted. These are thick, solid ropes that are almost straight once strung. No namby pamby decorative rope with flexibility here.

@HugeAckmansWife I'm hoping any kind of visible barrier will stop it! The two I caught already have stopped after a quick word so maybe they're all just not thinking. Maybe I just need to take a week off work and camp out in my garden to catch them all :o

@GrockleRock :o :o DH would think I lost my mind but the neighbourhood kids would LOVE it!