Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

A pergola provides an attractive garden structure for supporting and growing plants. In the past, you’d have to measure and cut all the components to size yourself, but these days building a pergola is made much easier as you can simply buy one in kit form. You can build a pergola in many parts of the garden to provide an attractive focal point or to act as a screen or even build one over a patio or path to add further interest to the area. Below is an example of a typical kit pergola. read more »

One way of gaining greater privacy in your garden is to add trellis to a fence. This also allows you to grow creeping plants along the trellis, which will clearly be attractive as well as obscuring. Fortunately, the process is very straightforward as all that is required to add some extra height to a fence post is a post extender – you may also find these called post collars or post extension collars. read more »

A paver path is straightforward to lay, and doesn’t require any mortar as effectively the whole thing is laid ‘dry’. Paver types and sizes vary with the ones shown here being a typical colour and design, but there are plenty of other options out there. The main consideration is how much compacting the sub base or foundation to the path will require. If you’re making a paved area for vehicles, read more »

If you are erecting a fence on concrete, you can dig out holes and sink the posts in place, but it is much easier to use bolt-down brackets. These brackets are simply fixed to the concrete surface, and the fence posts are inserted and secured into the bracket socket. The technique shown here deals with a panel fence, but you can adjust the method according to your particular fence design. It is also worth you reading my guide – ‘Erecting a fence on soft ground’, read more »

There are many different types of fence, but in this section I’m showing one of the most common designs, often called a panel fence. Even if your chosen design is not like this, most (if not all designs!) require posts, and you can adapt the technique shown here to suit your requirements. The technique you use is first determined by whether you are on soft or hard (concrete) ground. read more »