Jeepers Creepers

Highland Ave is a pedestrian boulevard. Hundreds of people make their way, up and down every day, to and fro the bus they go . . . the high school, the hospital, UW campus, the businesses on University Ave to the north and Regent St to the south. It's also a handy street for parking, especially in the evening, for the restaurants a short block away.

The house is only nine feet from the city sidewalk, and there's no visual or physical barrier of any kind. No fence, no shrubbery. So the backyard feels like a vacant lot or public property, maybe a small city park. Folks walk their dogs in it. They pick the flowers. One recent evening, a man got out of his car, strolled into the yard, stood there for a couple of minutes, smoking a cigarette, peering inside, then went on his way to the Blue Moon.

Those days are over.

Picking privacy details is as vexing as making any other selection. If a fence: wood or vinyl or metal? what style? how high? what color? pickets? a solid wall? barbed wire?? electric?? If plants: trees or shrubs or perennials or grasses? how fast can they grow? hardiness zone? deciduous or evergreen? shade or sun? flowering? poisonous?? man-eating?? And what combo of these elements? What arrangement? How many and where? What's the sweet spot between privacy and aesthetics? And what does the city of Madison have to say about it?

The whole backyard plan had always been contingent on getting the drainage right. But I'm tired of not being able to open the curtains and let in all that southern-exposure sunshine. Add the fellow smoking a butt at the window, and I've decided it's okay if there's still a wee bit of bog in the back. Maybe there won't be. But if there is, we'll just put in a legacy koi pond.

So let's start with the fence.

Step 1: stake the post placement

Step 2: auger the post holes

Step 3: lay out the panels

Step 4: install the posts (check out that 3D level!)

Step 5: install panels as you go

Fence finished: no more peepers

Next spring: a hedge?