March 27, 2017

The new garden fence

At the end of last year a part of the garden fence blew down in a wind storm, taking the irrigation supply with it. This put an end to any thought of a winter garden, and made putting up a new fence a priority in the new year. It really was time to replace the old fence as some posts were loose in the ground, the lattice was coming apart here and there, and a javelina had tried to push his way through.

Having lived here for 13 years now (gasp!), we have dealt with a number of challenges in keeping our veg safe from animals: from mice to javelina and everything in between. We have built a couple of fences to deal with the problem but our rodent protection remained inadequate.



Our neighbors have the same challenges of course, and after some persistent javelina incursions, they added metal to their garden fences. Not ones to have to reinvent the wheel, we decided to follow suit and in addition buried a foot of 1/4" hardware cloth on the bottom of the metal to discourage animals from digging under it. The metal is attached to 5' field fence which will help keep the javelina at bay.



In this scheme the garden is not safe from deer or birds; deer seem to have enough to eat in the National Forest next door and have not been a problem. We would have to build an overhead structure to keep the birds (mainly quail) out, but we will discourage them with crop protection, which we have in various configurations.

Will this be the Final Garden Fence, and the Final Big Project? Time, and the animals, will tell. Regardless, this is the best looking garden I have ever had, and I am looking forward to planting the seedlings which are happily growing in the cold frame.

3 comments:

webb said...

THAT is definitely a fine fence! Great construction. Should work like a charm ... altho, i have to admit that my next taxk will be to look up "javalina". have heard of them, but haven't a clue .... rodent, cat?

Hope things continue to go well.

Garry said...

I really like what you have done with the fence along your garden. It definitely looks more secure and is much more pleasing to the eye compared to what you had there before. It also looks like your plants will be able to get more sunlight. I hope that this new model will solve the problems you have been having with rodents.

Garry @ Creative Fences And Decks

Anneke said...

Garry, sadly I have to report that I am still (live) trapping mice in the garden. Yet it was worth the expense and time as I am sure the javelinas will not be able to get in. Also it is a pleasure to work there and the garden is doing well. All we really need is RAIN; we are awaiting our monsoon season and that is when the garden really flourishes.