Making a fence hostile to being climbed over.

[goodolpete]

Our row of houses have a common fence at the bottom, with council owned thorny
trees hard up / over growing from the other side. My right hand neighbour
has removed all the trees beyond his garden, and several people have commented
that anyone walking up the road beyond the trees could now climb up the fence,
onto my potting shed roof and into my garden to trash, steal or break in.
One thought is to put up three old trellises I have and try and make them
awkward to get over. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Pete

[bikermike]

you run into issues very quickly with barbed wire etc.

I know some people have "accidentally" left carpet grippers attached to wood for shed reinforcement, and this seems to work.

The most lawful suggestion I can think of is plants. Roses for a more decorative effect or brambles for really making the point. They have the advantage that they can accidentally spread out under the fence.

If your neighbour has removed the plants beyond his garden, did he have the right to do so, could you ask the council to reinstate them?

[mcdood]

I'd suggest Pyracantha, a shrub that can be trained over a fence/shed, pretty flowers in Spring/Early summer followed by berries (yellow, orange or red). It has some serious thorns on it which should deter the unwanted.

[nickdub]

lots of easy to grow thorned plants out there - blackthorn for example

[greenishfing]

Could you paint the top of your shed with anti-climb paint?

[Jay-ell]

The problem with anticlimb paint is that legally you need signage saying that it's there.

Another spikey plan is the Hardy bitter orange/Japanese Bitter Lemon- especially the Dragon Volant variety which is like an evergreen razor wire. Can produce an edible fruit. By edible I mean not poisonous, but by all accounts not very palatable.

[Chestnut]

Agree, thorny plants are very useful at times, but can take a while to grow.
Stuff in the blackberry hybrid range should only take a couple of years though ;-)

In the meantime, what about one of those pressure sensor alarms on shed roof - the kind of thing which used to be used in burglar alarms before the heat/movement sensors with the little red lights became popular?

Store a pile of tall metal poles upright in the corner? Difficult to get past without waking the neighbourhood?

Or fix your trellises in the corner - well enough to hold the trellises up across the ‘access point’, but not securely enough to take a person’s weight?

[Scarlet]

Another vote for pyracantha- the thorns are vicious.

[Dynamite]

Hi Pete, could you ask the council to put new trees back. Assuming the neighbour didn’t get their permission that is. Council’s don’t like cutting trees down anyway due to environmental and wildlife issues so they may be happy putting them back.

I would definitely get some PIR floodlights to cover the areas of concern. Maybe also suggest this to the neighbour since they caused the problem in the first place.

Pin up some small “smile you are on cctv” labels maybe?

Kind Regards.............Rob

[Madasafish]

Himalayan brambles. 3 meter long stalks, vicious thorns. Destroy clothes.. And nice fruit.

Used them on a cast iron fence .. deterred cows as well as people..
And when they die back, the stems still are horrible.. Gauntlet job when cutting them.
Seriously painful.

[mrbadexample]

Himalayan brambles. 3 meter long stalks, vicious thorns. Destroy clothes.. And nice fruit.

Used them on a cast iron fence .. deterred cows as well as people..
And when they die back, the stems still are horrible.. Gauntlet job when cutting them.
Seriously painful.

Isn't that a bit on the invasive side?

My vote would be another for pyracantha.