WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LIVE WITH AN INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER...

 Last year, for my birthday, we built a gate...not just any gate but a "half moon" job... to divide the garden into 2 rooms...one for veggies and the "working" area of the garden and the other area for perennials and seating. We didn't worry about a latch as it wasn't really a gate to keep anything in or out...it was mainly for the design. However, we discovered that it was exactly in the perfect location for the prevailing SE wind so if we had lots of wind it would bang away. It needed a latch after all!

 Well, enter the under-gardener/engineer/industrial designer to the "rescue." No average gate latch would do for us! We needed a mechanism that could be operated with just one hand (because I'm always carrying something from one part of the garden to the other) and it had to latch automatically when it closed.  

 The designer used Heim joints (salvaged from the local A & P mechanic at Beagle Aerodrome). He says these are probably vintage from the 1940's. As old as me...and they still work! Who knew!  

No more propping the gate closed with a slivery 2 x 4! It works great! As my former mother-in-law would say, " Don't you just feel like a queen!" Well, maybe I'll admit to feeling more like a "garden princess!"
Do let's go through the garden gate!