The 65m run of ‘motorway’ post-and-rail fencing along the Eastern boundary of the site, installed in January 2026, always had much paler-coloured Rails than Posts – as can be seen in one of the photos of the adjacent Hornbeam hedge here. To help balance the colours and to prolong the life of the timber, the plan has always been to apply some dark-brown, oil-based timber preservative. Since the preservative effect is improved if that soaks into the wood as much as possible, the best time to apply it is when the timber has been able to fully dry out. The mini-heatwave at the end of May seemed like a good time to apply a first coat, with perhaps a second coat at the end of the Summer.

There are a couple of different treatments which are safer alternatives to traditional creosote, and Creosolv from Barrettine gets good reviews so is the one I selected. It’s quite a thin liquid and so tends to splash easily but it soaks into dry timber very well – especially end-grain and the ‘incised’ surface of the fence posts.

The fence Rails, while being ‘rough sawn’ are actually quite smooth in places, which means the preservative soaks in much less well than on the Posts. On a hot day the product dries quickly enough for a second coat to go on straight away, so some of the Rails did get two coats – but they would benefit from a further coat at some point. Rather than applying that straight away it seems sensible to wait for the fence to dry out some more (and for the finish to ‘weather’ a bit).

65m of fencing needed about 22 litres of Creosolv, so the cheapest option is to buy one 20 litre barrel then top-up with the 4 litre cans if required.