English Garden Gate

It is April and the weather in LA. is still cool and hopefully will be for a few more weeks. I am feverishly working on out door projects while the heat is a bay. This project is re-work on my fencing project from last year. After the great Fencing war of 2007, I build fences and gates all around the yard to coral our priceless collection of dogs that other people left on the roadside.

The gate design I borrowed from the many beautiful Garden Gates I saw while living in Wales and traveling around England.

I built the original gate similar to the one shown here out of pressure treated pine. It began to swell and shrink a lot with weather changes and stick in the opening. I used a large dado joint cut on the table saw to make the first gate, but it was not strong enough. It did not survive my attempt to adjust it by jerking it open as hard as I could, and broke into about 3 pieces. So I had to build another one. This new gate is made of 2 inch Pine with a center grill of Red Oak. It is designed to match the panels which flank it on each side. With this new gate I allowed more space for clearance between the gate and post and made it 3 inches taller to discourage escape attempts. I took the time to make the mortise and tennon joints in this gate I knew I should have used in the first place. So with luck this one will make it to 2009.

-- Terry Roswell, L.A. (Lower Alabama) "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans."