Garden spaces

It’s all the rage in garden designs to have ‘rooms’. Closed off areas and sections of your gardens that give a sense of security and enable you to evoke different feelings and ambiance in your garden. Well my garden has closed off areas and sections but they are more akin to holding paddocks.

As you may be aware I have free-range chickens. Whilst at the beginning I let my chooks do what they want, as my garden has grown, and as I have opted for a few more delicate plants, and as I have developed a preference for mulch free patio areas, I have added chicken wire fencing to some garden beds to exclude said chooks. While possibly providing the illusion of out-of-reach rooms from a chicken’s perspective they haven’t particularly impacted the feel of the garden from a human-sized view. Which is great.

I also have a dog. Whilst our original buddy was at peace with the chickens, he (very sadly) passed on and we now have a new buddy. A very excitable puppy buddy. Who is NOT at peace with the chickens. Nor are the chickens at peace with him. Which makes outside time very dynamic and has subsequently led to dog always on a leash in the yard and pee on the deck. And so we come to the today’s topic: garden rooms/boundaries/paddocks.

My husband and I are busily creating both a fence around the veggie patch (chickens out), and a separate fenced area in the front yard (dog in), in addition to the front fence (strangers out, animals in), the deck gates (dog/toddlers in), the inside puppy pen (self explanatory) and the pizza oven area (the only non fenced actual ‘garden room vibe’ I have that whilst is designated the ‘pizza oven area’ is also next to the compost and produces the general vibe of junk area or holding station for sticks to be shredded. There are now a myriad of spaces one can be, paths to traverse and gates to walk through (and shut behind you!) in order to get there… or anywhere.