Garden Redo Project: New Garden Fence, Part 2: Gates

We left off in Part 1 of the Garden Redo project, the new fence, with the posts and fence panels installed. This part took forever because the cement refused to set in our swampy backyard. We've had a very wet spring. In fact, when we were trying to do the gates it rained for a week straight.

At least gate installation was fairly straightforward.

We could have bought gate kits, but they were completely out of stock online and not sold in stores. And while they were pricey, they were like half the price of every other gate kit we could substitute in. Ouch. We waited a bit, but the kits didn't come back in stock, so we decided to just use regular fence panels, cut them down and get some gate hardware. The unfinished edges can be capped with fence rail caps.

Mike cut down the last 1.5 fence panels to fit the gate space. The panels are so lightweight we decided we don't have to worry about braces. Mike screwed in the hardware, made sure it was level and voila! A gate!

Gate one swings inwards. And since it's our main gate, there's a latch on the side to hold it open.

Gates #2 and #3 were the same process. Measure, trim, install hardware, hang up. Gate two swings inward (towards the garage) and gate three swings outward.

(Ignore all the weeds, the pathways are next on the list.)

As my long term garden, I'm glad we went with three instead of two, adding the extra one in the back - it will make life easier when I need to add things to the compost bin in the way back or whatever else we need to do.

And now that we have three gates, no more doggies digging up the garden. Which meant... plants! Finally! I was able to plant a few things from the pots back into the garden. I am keeping things very simple this year.

Tomatoes and marigolds (only 4 survived the chaos and they are sad looking)
Zinnias
Dahlias.
Nasturtiums.

(Also in addition to ignoring the weeds, ignore all the stuff still in here, a big cleanup is in order.)

In the back bed I still need to plant the oregano, the only herb that survived all this madness. I also need to transplant the strawberry plants, but I think I might wait until Fall for that.

It's not much, but it's also the end of June, so it's good enough for this year. It's not empty. Next year I'm going all out with a full garden.