Ideas needed for a garden gate between live trees

[Pallet Fancier]

Evening all,
At the bottom of the garden there is a line of conifers, behind which is a piece of ground that borders a stream (the reason why there are no houses there, instead). I store some junk in the space, between, but have plans to landscape this area and make it more useful. To do that, I need a proper access point that I can close to keep idiots out and dogs in.

Mesh and wood fencing is currently adequate as a dog barrier along the base of the trees, which run across the width of the garden, and the trunks are close enough together that they keep potential trespassing nerks out, by themselves. Over the years I've cobbled together a "gate" from metal mesh that floats on nylon seat belt hinges, is held closed using a length of blue rope and an old dog collar, and is attached to a wooden frame that has managed to stay more or less in place despite the trees growing a lot. (See the attached images. The second image shows the gate and frame highlighted in blue, and trees marked with three lines.)

Nerks are dissuaded by planting horribly spiky things along the stream bank, and piling junk up on my side of the "gate". I also store some wood under the conifers, so there's a lot of that piled up around the gate in the picture.

My question: I'm trying to design a proper gate to go in this gap. I think the trees have more or less stopped growing (I haven't noticed them get any wider, lately). The ground underneath is soft soil but the roots seem to be deep, because I can dig down a few inches without hitting any. I don't know if I can sink fence posts that close to the trunks and have them go deep enough to stand while not being pushed over by the roots or wiggled loose by the trunks flexing in the wind. You can see what's happened to the paving slab at the bottom of the picture. It used to be flat and straight!

I've considered various ideas, but am not happy with any of them, so thought I'd throw the question open to the forum. Maybe someone else has built a secure gate between live trees, before? Or maybe there's a cunning ground work method I don't know about?

How would you do it?

Cheers

 

[Jameshow]

I would just screw posts into the trees and hang the gate off them. They are conifers after all and not particularly specimen trees?

If you use farm gate hinges with a bolt in them you can adjust them as the trees move.

 

[Orraloon]

The unavoidable fact is that the trees will move as they grow. And they never stop growing. Any fence or gate arrangements actually attached to the trees is only going to be a temporary fix. Any fence that includes live trees will always be in need of adjustments.
Regards
John

 

[Tris]

I'd make a frame like a door liner with the head wide enough to span the gap. Drive some angle iron into the ground either side to fix the legs to, use webbing straps to fix the head in place and hang your gate of choice. It won't win any prizes for fine woodworking but should do the job

 

[Pallet Fancier]

The unavoidable fact is that the trees will move as they grow. And they never stop growing. Any fence or gate arrangements actually attached to the trees is only going to be a temporary fix. Any fence that includes live trees will always be in need of adjustments.
Regards
John

One of my ideas was to have a framework that was essentially floating, like a raft, perhaps sitting in a shallow basin of postcrete, and to tie it to the trees with loops of nylon seat belt roll. This hopefully makes the framework/base more likely to ride up and move about than break, and the seat belt straps could be adjusted/refitted if necessary.

 

[Pallet Fancier]

I would just screw posts into the trees and hang the gate off them. They are conifers after all and not particularly specimen trees?

If you use farm gate hinges with a bolt in them you can adjust them as the trees move.

I'm reluctant to screw things into the trees as I don't want to damage them, in case I introduce rot or disease. Taking one of these things out would be a huge job that I couldn't do, myself. But I'm no expert. Is this a realistic concern?

 

[Tris]

You'd be amazed the number of fixings found in tree trunks that are completely grown over. Most sawmills won't touch garden or hedgerow trees for that reason. I've blunted a few saw chains myself taking out old conifers in gardens, usually where someone put up a birdbox

 

[Morag Jones]

Personally, I feel you should NEVER screw or nail into a living tree.
If the tree grows and thrives, the inclusion gets covered by further rings then there’s a real risk of a small piece of metal being kicked up by a chainsaw decades later.

 

[Jameshow]

Personally, I feel you should NEVER screw or nail into a living tree.
If the tree grows and thrives, the inclusion gets covered by further rings then there’s a real risk of a small piece of metal being kicked up by a chainsaw decades later.

You could band round the tree using using builders band or nylon webbing?

 

[spanner48]

As orraloon says: the trees won't stop growing.

So, instead of putting the gate BETWEEN the tree runks, attach each stile to the outside front of each tree. Then, as the trees grow, it'll move forwards, but - hopefully - not change in width.

If you don't want to nail or screw the treetrunks, cut trenails from the trees' own branches, and use them as dowels. I did that with some footholds in a yew tree 30 years ago. It accepted them, formed a very slight swelling, and continued to grow. If you can get 'sapwood-to-sapwood' contact, the tree may take them as grafts and grow them . . . .