Faggot fence

I have long wished to make a fence of bamboo faggots, and since our bamboo fence is showing signs of its age and lets in animals freely, I decided to tie bundles of bamboo twigs to it. What I didn't know when I started is how many twigs are actually required to make a worthwhile barrier. The answer is: several million. Indeed, planning a bamboo twig fence only seems worth it if you have a number of slaves at your disposal, which I don't.

Going to the bamboo groves and cutting the twigs is not itself unpleasant, but they often have leaves attached, and waiting for them to fall off is time-consuming. Baling six or seven twigs into a faggot with two bands of galvanized wire is also quite satisfying. However, attaching them to the fence would be easier with three arms instead of two, and there's a lot of "Gosh! Another millimetre and that twig would have stabbed me right in the eye" moments. The final effect is really quite attractive -- in Japanese we say "soboku" -- rustic and unsophisticated. But generally only achievable with slave labour.

Last year, two birds persistently ate the blueberries, and this year they've come back with their offspring. By planting this bristly fence in front of the blueberries, I'm hoping that the birds will find other gustatory options more tempting. However, it will be interesting to see what effect adjusting the microclimate in this way will have on the blueberries' health.