Scaled-Down Garden Fence

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Text, photos & design by Tom Hintz

   My wife installed a small flower garden in a corner of our yard and I recognized an opportunity for at least partial justification of the jointer and surface planer I had come home with a week or so earlier. Since this garden was quite small, I thought scaling down the other garden fence would be a good idea.

   Starting with 4X4 pressure-treated posts, I planed them down to 3X3's. I also ripped the rails down to 3-inches. The rails are let into dados, the top of each post treated with a dado'd band, and miter-cut diamond shaped finial.

   To allow easy access to this little garden I also built a scaled down gate that fit the proportions of the rest of this little fence.

   Though I clearly remembered the discomfort of sinking the 14 posts in the main garden, this version only had four posts, and the ground was much easier to dig. Despite this fence being easier to build and install, the wife was happy with it and my jointer and surface planer were here to stay.

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