How to Build a Twig Fence

Rustic Garden Fences out of Branches and Twigs

Building a twig fence for bordering your vegetable garden, around a flower bed, or to give privacy from neighbors is a satisfying and challenging project.

Techniques used can be simple - wiring twigs to the top of an existing fence of wire or wood, or more complex - building separate panels and attaching them to posts.

Building your Rustic Twig Fence

Using a wire strung between two solid objects (a house and an archway for instance) you can wire upright twigs in a palisade style.

The twigs can be woven between upright poles to form a hurdle type fence panel.

The poles can be inserted into pipes pounded into the ground - this is a great technique if you have rocky soil, or an area where you can't get a machine in to pound posts.

Make sure you have an odd number of uprights to weave.

Slender canes of willow or grapevines will work best for this technique.

Soaking the canes or vines in water for a few hours or overnight will make them more pliable.

Wire the twigs to a frame and then attach the frame by wire or nails to posts.

If you wire it on, then you can adjust the placement of the fence or individual panels as needed.

This option is great for a fence that is for temporary use.  See more about wire techniques for crafts here.

Nailing or screwing the panels can give more strength to the fence especially if it will be in a windy area, or to keep dogs in.

String a wire between two posts or trees and attach the twigs in a lattice pattern diagonally.

This provides a decorative effect. Use sturdy wire for the main fence; recycled phone or electrical cable works well, and then tie wire used for concrete work for the attachment wire.

For a more formidable pattern for keeping chickens or dogs inside and for privacy, use the vertical palisade style.

Closely spaced vertical twigs will allow light and air movement while spacing the verticals further apart will make the best snow fencing, allowing the wind to go through it, not create a sail.

Willow twigs, freshly cut, can be bent to make a fence like this one;

The twigs can disguise other fence systems, like page wire (used for keeping animals confined) or made out of rebar or other metal structures. 

Chain link fences are used a lot, but they're so ugly.  Tie or wire twigs and branches to cover them and disguise the industrial look of them.

In lieu of chain link, we built a fence out of rope and twigs, both for economy, and to re-use the old rope we acquired.

Panels or hurdles have long been used to confine small animals, like sheep. 

The panels are all made a consistent size, then joined together with wire or string to make an enclosure.  If one gets damaged, it's easy to remove it and replace it with another.

In Britain, a thriving hazel copse was always an important part of the homestead; multipurpose farming - good for the nut crop and as material for fencing. Willows are sometimes cultivated for the same purpose.

Ornamental vines or shrubs planted close to the fence will add more strength and look very romantic and beautiful as they grow up the support of the twig fence.

If you have access to a lot of scrubby twigs, or long vines, a dead hedge might be as good option.

In time, a living fence or 'fedge' can become thick enough to keep in (or out) fairly unruly animals, especially if there are thorn bearing bushes and trees, like hawthorn, roses and gorse. 

As an added benefit, these long term fences attract birds and pollinators to help with garden chores.

The upkeep on a fedge is a bit more than in some options, as each year the twigs need to be cut almost in half and bent over, woven through each other to become thicker each season.

Making a twig fence adds dimension to your garden, as well as keeping out pests.

You can also use your twig fence to hang a succulent mosaic, found objects or painted barnboard signs or other garden art.