If you need an inexpensive fence option that looks like a dream cottage, you’ll love acacia fences. Building an acacia fence does not take much time or money, especially if you have an abundance of trees on your property.
Whether you’re looking to add a bit of textual interest to the yard while keeping the chickens out of the veggies, or you need to define a garden area, the acacia fence can do it all.
Here’s how to create your own.
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What is “Wattle?”
Acacia is a type of building material made from woven plant matter. It has traditionally been used to create barrier fences, as well as walls for dwellings. In fact, people have been building “wattle and daub” houses for at least 6,000 years now.
They were very common in Europe during medieval and Tudor times, and many examples of this type of construction still exist today.
For example, look at this image of a Tudor house: it’s part of the Weald and Downland Living Museum, located just north of Chichester.
The house walls are made of wattle and daub, while the garden fence is pure wattle. The difference between the two is that the “cob” fills in all the gaps in the braided branches to create a solid wall.
This cob is made from a mixture of cow or horse manure, clay and straw. It’s remarkably effective as a building material, but as you can imagine, it’s a bit, uh, fragrant to work with.
Luckily, we’re only doing the acacia part here so you don’t have to dip your hands in the poo.
If you’re so inclined, check out this short clip from the TV series Tudor Monastery Farm. You will see how an acacia fence is woven and how cob is applied. Even better, you’ll see plenty of examples of uses for acacia fencing in the background! They were used for fences, raised beds, cattle pens, etc.
Is the Wattle fence effective?
It depends on what you use it for. Usually the answer is “yes”, but there are of course a wide variety of factors to consider.
For example, someone who lives in a mild, temperate climate can use low acacia fences as raised beds. I can’t use them in rural Quebec because the massive snowfalls and temperature swings would destroy the fences. They are pretty, but I would have to redo them every year.
Where I can use acacia, however, is a taller fence to keep deer out of my garden. In my situation, I need to use thicker and stronger materials.
In fact, the ideal would be to create a double-walled fence with brambles and thorny branches between them. This would create a barrier at least a foot deep and about six feet high and prevent most large herbivores from eating my spinach.
Generally, acacia fences are ideal for keeping children and small animals from wandering into places you don’t want them. They are also very beautiful and can be wonderful decorative pieces in your garden design.
How to build a Wattle fence step by step
Follow the steps below to create all kinds of different fence designs. Just keep in mind that the best time to build this type of fence is in spring or early summer.
You need a significant amount of thin saplings and flexible branches to achieve this. In late summer or fall, you will have few materials to build on, as they will all be wooded and thick in preparation for winter.
What you will need:
Needless to say, you will need several different materials and items to achieve this.
- Slender branches and saplings (for support and weaving)
- Thicker branches for support poles
- A saw to harvest said branches and saplings
- An ax or hatchet to sharpen the ends of the posts
- A mallet or sledgehammer to drive in your posts
- Eye protection
- Gloves (optional)
- Sidewalk chalk paint, string, and measuring tape (also optional)
1. Gather your materials
You will have to collect two different types of wood. One type will be thick hardwood for support posts. The other will be flexible branches to weave together.
The best wood for poles is oak, walnut, chestnut or maple branches. You can also use bamboo. Aim for ones that are at least four inches thick. As for the length, the desired height of your fence will determine the length of the posts. Generally, you will want to cut posts that are almost double the length of the fence you are building.
For example, do you create raised garden bed walls 2 feet high? Then try cutting branches four feet long. You will drive half the length into the ground so they have enough strength to hold the weavers tension.
As for the weavers, they should be about six feet long. The ideal material is young hazel branches, as they are both flexible and weather resistant.
2. Sharpen the ends of your posts
You can also call them “uprights”, “stakes” or “spans”. If you search for additional resources on how to build with wattle, you may see them mentioned under either name.
Make sure your ax is sharp, then use it to cut the ends of your poles into nice spikes. You can either cut them at 45 degree angles or sharpen them all the way around, like pencils.
This is how they actually sink into the ground when you hit them, rather than just frustrate you half to death.
3. Cut Your Wattle Fence Weavers
These are also known as “woven wands” or “withies”. These will either be the aforementioned spring branches or saplings and will be flexible enough that you can easily bend them without breaking them. Or swear too much.
Hazel and alder are great for weavers because they are both super flexible and grow quickly. We prune these trees so that we always have usable weavers in the spring. They are great for making baskets, woven fish traps, rackets, bean and pea trellises, and countless other projects.
Try to cut yours as long as possible, as you will need to weave them into and around your posts. Aim for at least six feet long, as they are long enough to weave, but short enough to be manageable.
Oh, and cut A LOT of it.
You will be amazed at how much you need to do this project. To make a fence about two feet high and 10 feet long, you will need at least 40 weavers. Do the math ahead of time, then cut at least twice as much as you think you’ll need.
4. Drive the posts into the ground
Ready to release some pent up frustration? Alright, grab your mallet or sledgehammer and get ready to drive those posts into the ground. Space them about a foot (12″) apart so they give the woven locks plenty of support.
Determine where you will place the messages before you begin. This way you end up with neat, tidy lines, rather than something that looks like a toddler’s scribbling.
Take some sticks and string and mark out where you would like your fence to be. Keep in mind that since you’re doing this from flexible branches and saplings, you’re not limited by straight lines. Design your fence to weave and ripple like the sea if desired.
Once you’ve traced out the general shape of your fence, get the chalk spray paint and tape measure. Spray a spot on the ground about every foot (as mentioned) so that your posts are consistently spaced.
If you don’t have a measuring tape, you can use your own body as a ruler. For example, you can use the length between the tip of your middle finger and the inside of your elbow as a spacing measurement. Or the span of one foot in front of the other.
Once you’ve marked the entire plan, use the mallet or hammer to drive in the posts. They should be at least two feet deep so that they can withstand the tension of the weavers.
5. Get the weave
Start at one end and weave one of these slender branches in and out of the posts you’ve created, as low to the ground as possible.
When you get to the end, overlap the next branch slightly, then continue. Continue in this way along the entire length of the fence, reinforcing the corners as you go.
When you get to a corner, you’ll weave around the end post, wrap it around the next post in line, and double it.
Then the next weaver will start just before the end of the previous fence and continue the next one from there. This will make weaving safer. This post won’t get knocked out by a random goat or small child, as the tension will hold it in place.
See this image as an example of how to weave around an end post:
Alternatively, if your acacia fence is more organic in shape and has curves instead of tight, sharp angles, make it a long, continuous weave instead.
As you continue to weave the branches and saplings, be sure to push them down so that they are quite tight against each other. A looser, more open weave is fine if your fence is decorative, but for a functional fence it’s best to make it tight and strong.
However, you don’t need to weave up and down the full length of the posts. You can create a tight weave at the bottom, top, and middle for a more open look.
Once you have finished doing all the weaving, you can leave the fence as is or finish the top as desired. For example, some people like to run string lights across the tops of decorative fences, especially if they are used in flower gardens at night.
Keep building!
Once you know the basics of building mahogany fences, you can use the technique for all kinds of different projects. Try using wattle and daub techniques to build animal enclosures or wooden shelters. Or use low fences to demarcate different garden areas.
If you like, check out Pinterest for ideas or research how people used acacia building techniques in medieval and Tudor times. The applications for this type of building are almost limitless, so get creative!
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