Last season I made an in-expert attempt at fencing. The barriers I erected were created in desperation in the midst of losing my entire warm-season crop — for the second or third time — and were hastily, poorly constructed contraptions. They failed to keep the ground squirrels, rabbits, voles, skunks, and opossums out. We lost every edible.
A primary issue lay in their lack of sturdiness. I had made something so feckless that it didn’t even take burrowing to get under, just the will to nose-up the netting a little and scurry. The enclosures were also hard to assemble, made working with the plants they were protecting difficult, and were tough to disassemble and store — a tangled mess, most of which ended up in the garbage.
They were thrown together. All I’d done was drive a few stakes or bamboo poles into the ground at points around the plants and wrap them in 1″ square plastic netting. I fastened everything with hemp string. In the end, I had about as much confidence in the structures as they deserved.
Taking a different path became a chief objective of mine this season. Before I planted a single seed, back in February I began building fencing that would better serve our effort — at least I hoped so. I took the left-over materials from last season’s boondoggle (the 3′ stakes, the 1″ netting) and re-purposed them, convinced that the fault of that year’s failing did not lay with the components but the implementation.
What I built this year is as simple in concept as my previous attempt, but more considered. Using a pair of 3′ stakes joined by two 2′ lengths of 2″ x 2″ (that’s a few too many twos), I constructed a solid frame across which I could stretch the netting. I attached the netting using a staple gun loaded with .5″ staples, making sure it was taut and the staples spaced every four inches or so to eliminate “air pockets” an animal could exploit. I then trimmed off the excess netting, leaving about 15″ or so to hang loose off the top so that when the sections of fence are assembled these flaps can be drawn together to protect the crop from birds (this length is for a 2′-wide enclosure; larger spaces should have longer flaps).
I set the lengths of 2″ x 2″ down about three inches from the top of the stakes and up about seven inches from the point at the bottom, allowing space for a prominent place to pound and a good distance to sink them into the ground so the fencing ends up sturdy.
When the stapled side is turned inward, the fencing doesn’t look half bad. The sections of fencing are light and can be staked in a variety of configurations. And so far they’ve kept everything out but small bugs. I put together about two dozen sections this season and have assembled one 2′ x 6′ and two 2′ x 4′ plots — a trial run.
Six weeks in, there has been some digging around the edges, but nothing has burrowed under, and nothing has come in from above. The seeds I sowed in March seem to be doing well.
Safe, so far.
We toed out the bottom of our deer fence (also a light-weight mesh fence) to help deter the bunnies. So far so good. It’s a shame the wild creatures appreciate our gardens as much as we do. Good luck!
We also have a problem with rabbits so my honey built a very sturdy fence around a 20×20 foot area so I could garden without those long eared furry critters, eating everything I planted. I did have to put a two foot high, piece of chicken wire around the inside, as we found the baby bunnies could squeeze through the other wire.
Hope all works out well for you, and you have a bumper crop.