A determined dog will find a way into a flowerbed no matter what you do to keep it out, but a fence border made from sticks provides at least a barrier to discourage that dog and other dogs. The several kinds of stick fences have different looks that suit different landscaping styles. Use sticks from your yard or sticks purchased from a garden or craft store to create a fence.
Wattle fences are essentially woven fences made from weaving horizontal sticks between vertical sticks. You can build a border fence only 1 or 2 feet high or make a 6-foot-tall fence. The fence's final height depends on the height of the fence's vertical sticks. Cutting the sticks 12 inches longer than the desired fence height allows you to drive them 12 inches deep in soil. Drive sticks vertically into the ground every 2 to 3 feet along each flowerbed. Weave long, flexible sticks, such as willow or alder branches, horizontally in front of and behind the vertical sticks to form the fence. Either weave the horizontal rows close together or leave a space between the rows so you can see through the fence.
A zigzag border fence mimics the fences commonly used to enclose gardens and pastures before the invention of barbed wire. Sticks are laid in a V-formation, zigzagged along the length of each flowerbed. Additional rows of zigzagged sticks are laid on top of the previous course with the ends of the sticks overlapping slightly. Either arrange the fence so both ends of each stick lies on top of the previous course of sticks or alternate the placement so one end of each stick is over the previous course and the other end is stacked under the previous course. The angles of the fence should be between 60 and 120 degrees for maximum stability.
A rail fence or picket fence made from sticks is best for keeping small dogs out of flowerbeds because large dogs can easily step or jump over the short fence. Such a fence is made by first driving sticks vertically in the ground, placing them about 3 feet apart to simulate the fence posts of a larger fence. Attach sticks horizontally to the vertical sticks by using ring-shank nails. Attach two or three horizontal sticks, or rails, along the fence border to complete a rail fence. If desired, attach rails in an X-pattern between the horizontal rails and vertical posts. Making a picket fence requires installing two horizontal rows of sticks and attaching several short, vertically oriented sticks to the horizontal sticks.
If you have sticks between 1 and 3 inches in diameter, an option is to stand them upright in a trench to make a fence that requires no horizontal sticks. Dig the trench about 1 inch wider than the stick diameter and about 12 inches deep. Stand one stick upright at one end of the trench, and abut a second stick directly against the first stick. Repeat this process along the entire trench, back-filling the trench with soil packed tightly against the sticks as you work your way to the trench's other end. An alternative to digging a trench is to cut one end of the sticks to a point and pound the pointed ends into the ground by using a mallet, just as you would drive a stake into the ground. The height of this type of fence should be limited to 2 feet tall.
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- Home Depot: How to Build a Post-and-Rail Fence
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