Garden fence

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Saturday, October 31. 2020

Squirrels, chipmunks, deer, woodchucks eat a lot of my stuff. I don't even bother with things the birds eat, like berries.

Growing vegetables just isn't all that important to me. I always get my rhubarb and my figs. This guy is serious:

Posted by Bird Dog in Gardens, Plants, etc. at 15:30 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

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This year the deer, and I suppose the bunnies did their share, ate everything in the garden they could get to: Hydrangeas - to the stalks, all the bushes - all 12 of them in a row - hosta, sedum and the Roxanne ground cover geranium (but not the spicy one,) berries and even the fruit of the Kousa dogwood. Anything they could reach. Astilbe were in bloom before they started, but new columbine and day lilies were fair game. Sheesh.

#1 AnnieP on 2020-10-31 15:35 (Reply)

Is it bear proof? I can't keep NW Fl black bears from attacking bird feeders. They are less harmful when the drink from the bird bath. :)

#2 Mark on 2020-10-31 18:00 (Reply)

Having a garden or orchard is a constant battle against nature. Thirteen years ago I put in a 20-tree orchard and surrounded it with a 6' tall welded wire fence like in the video. My plan was to keep the deer out, but in all this time I've never seen a deer. Bears and squirrels, however, have devastated my orchard. The squirrels eat the fruit and the bears climb over the fencing and rip entire branches off the trees. Last year I strung a hot wire around the orchard and that seems to have scared off the bears. A week after I energized it, I found a section where the hot wire was all tangled up so I figure a bear learned her lesson the hard way. I thin out squirrels the old fashioned way, with a 12 gauge.

Sadly that 4x6 welded wire fencing is all made in China now and the galvanizing only lasts about ten years.

#3 snopercod on 2020-10-31 18:05 (Reply)

A little peanut butter mix in a little rat poison; tie it up on a tree branch. Squirrel eats it, feels sick goes to his tree house and dies.

#3.1 Anon on 2020-10-31 20:29 (Reply)

I had a strawberry patch in my suburban fenced-in back yard, and I had more trouble with ants taking bites out of them than the rabbits that hung out there. We had a dog and neighborhood cats to keep the rodents at bay. The chipmunks, however, would dig up my crocus bulbs and eat them, so I never could grow large patches of crocus. I grew tomatoes and peppers in large pots, and the only problem there were the tomato worms.

My mother-in-law lived on the edge of a wood, so she couldn't keep a garden or her favorite flowers because of deer and groundhogs.

#4 RebeccaH on 2020-10-31 19:05 (Reply)

hm m m ? We have a new electric fence system that has come in from New Zealand. Folks tell me it works great for everything! I hope so! My suggestion is to build your raised bed waist hight and then fill it with straw, compost, and dirt. Best bet in an area with many rodents is to use some metal siding that is slippery. I have seen cattle water troughs used for planters. They are about 3ft tall and smooth metal sides. Of course you would have to punch holes in the bottom and cover those with critter wire, but it beats the heck out of crawling around on your hands and knees for two months only to have the rodents feast on your produce!

#5 Apple Pie on 2020-10-31 20:07 (Reply)

Deer can clear an 8' fence, so this one will not keep the deer out. Bear could easily climb the fence, though electrification, if well done would stop that. Small rodents could easily get through the fence. I used chicken wire around some tomatoes once and chipmunks had no trouble getting through the hexagons.

#6 sch on 2020-11-01 00:27 (Reply)

I got deer, I got chipmunks, I got boids. We're rural. We feed 'em.

#7 Sam L. on 2020-11-01 10:29 (Reply)

Squirrels chew on my deck, my eaves and the wiring harness of a truck. They even chew on the metal of my propane tanks' gauges. I live in deep woods and back to 19 open, preserved acres. There is plenty of mast around here for them to eat, and plenty of other stuff to gnaw down their repulsive yellow teeth. I got serious and have almost eliminated the problem by using a lethal tube trap from Forestry Suppliers. Get the non rust one. When I see a lot of activity I wire the trap to the deck railing, bait it with PB, and thus far have said nitey nite to 27 squirrels in six months. I bring the trap in at night because raccoons have tried wrasslin' it, and it is a terrifying sound at 2 a.m. I toss the casualties out back in the open where birds of prey can see them, and in about an hour they are gone.

#8 Missy on 2020-11-01 12:00 (Reply)

I guess that fence will keep out big varmints, but a cottontail can squeeze right through that wire grid with no problems. Also, an interesting choice of materials. I'm guessing it's cedar wood he's using, maybe? Down here, he would get to enjoy building it again in about 3 years; most people don't use wolmanized (preserved pressure-treated wood) around food-growing areas for toxicity concerns, which means the wood will bleach and rot fairly quickly, especially when in soil contact.

I am told two strands of electrified wire, the outer about a foot high and the inner about 8 in high, a foot away, will keep the deer out. They can't figure out how to step over the two wires.

#9 Aggie on 2020-11-01 18:21 (Reply)

Thanks for sharing this one :) Enjoy watching the video.

#10 KarenBorup (Link) on 2020-11-25 00:22 (Reply)

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Saturday, October 31. 2020

Garden fence