Raised flowerbed against wooden fence

[LMonkey]

We've recently had a new fence put up. I have unfortunately realised that the raised flowerbed bed (which has been there since before we moved in) in front of the fence doesn't have a back and so the soil is right up against the fence, which of course means the fence won't last as long as it should. I'm annoyed at myself for not realising this before we had the fence put in as it could have been sorted at the same time. The fencer didn't mention anything, but I guess it's not his place to. The fence looks great. I was thinking of digging out a section of soil all along the back and inserting something between the soil and the fence? The bed is built with brick, if it was wood I'd probably just rip the whole thing out. I think building a back with bricks would be rather challenging without emptying the whole bed. I could just empty the whole thing and start again (although it would be a lot of work). The one plant I'd like to save is the jasmine (currently flopped over since the new fence was built!), I'm really a beginner at gardening so don't know how likely it is I can save this. Any ideas appreciated! 🙏

That is a very narrow raised bed anyway, and on the whole I'd suggest that you remove it altogether (hard work I know!) and just have an ordinary flower bed there instead. You could reclaim the bricks and use them as edging.

You are right in that soil against the fence won't do it any good at all, but if you try and put something else in there as a barrier, you will be making the bed narrower still.

Thanks so much for your input. Yes it is a narrow bed.

I was thinking about inserting something thin down the side between the soil and fence? I don't know, like a sheet of perspex?! Something like that.

Yes to be honest I think ripping it out might be the best option, and I could just have a standard ground level flower bed and start from scratch growing things I really like.

I've just measured and it's 57cm from fence to brick

Yeah, that's not really quite wide enough, is it?

I'd go with your gut and get rid of it, and make a nice proper bed there instead. You don't have to make it a completely straight line, you can put slight curves along it to allow for bigger things at intervals. As long as it is a smooth curve it won't cause any issues when mowing. The best width for a bed I've found is as wide as you can reach when kneeling at the edge of the bed, so however long your arms are really!

Handy hint - use a hosepipe or string laid out on the grass and you can move it about until you are happy with the shape of the bed. It means you can go inside and look out of the window to see what it would look like as well. If you go upstairs you can view from above.

Hello LMonkey,

If you don’t want to remove the whole flowerbed dig a trench along the back to the depth required and insert bamboo barrier. Bamboo barrier as the name suggests is inserted into the ground to prevent non clump forming bamboos from spreading. Very good stuff which comes in a rolls of different lengths. The barrier is only around 2mm thick and is made of rigid plastic and is 69cm wide. Depending on the depth you wanted to go down to it can easily be cut with a Stanley knife.

I used it recently to prevent a neighbours bindweed from spreading under the fence once in place and with the soil back filled behind it the bamboo barrier is like a sheet of steel. There are other versions to the one in my picture however I find that this one is the best 👍

Happy gardening
TheSustainableGardener 🧑‍🌾

Thanks so much, I will check this out!

What about using some waterproof membrane with some gravel behind it between the membrane and the fence? It be cheap and easy to do the gravel would mean water wouldn't sit on the wood.

Are the kickboards? If not, maybe you could put some in and use composite plastic rather than wood.

If you don't do anything the fence will rot pretty quickly.

I woukdnt put anything infront ofnit water will get trapped.it won't air properly so rot will set in. Best off removing the flower bed taking it to ground level. You can grt those metal edging to operate hlgrass from flower bed, helps keep grass contained and theb you can gif the flower bed down a bit more so dirt is off rhe fence completely so the grass is more raised iyswim.

That's why I suggested gravel behind any membrane. It's not ideal but would work for a while and would be easy