Vegetable Gardens

[hampstor]

We started building our vegetable garden last year. We had an area filled with screened loam and sprinklers installed on a seperate zone for it.

I am unsure about fencing it off - does anyone have a vegetable garden that's fenced off? If so what kind of fence did you build?

I'm not too thrilled about the chicken wire fences.. I was considering a 3ft wood fence (using post ground spikes to hold posts in instead of cementing them in). Going to install chicken wire 6" below the ground to discourage digging by critters.

My concern tho is the amount of sunlight getting thru - I was thinking of ripping fence boards lengthwise and spacing them 2" apart.

Any thoughts/ideas? What did you guys end up doing?

[no_joke]

No input on what fence to use- My family had a vegetable gardens in the backyard for the last 20 years without fencing them off. This is in the burbs of Calgary. Are there lots of gophers in your area? Based on what you described, it seems like a lot of work to keep out critters. Maybe just install the chicken wire 15 cm below ground and 15 cm above the ground if that's what you're worried about. Then you don't have to worry too much about sunlight.

[ExtraSlow]

Are you inside the city limits? What are you trying to keep out?
Deer? Squirrels? Gophers?

[Kritafo]

yes it depends on what you are trying to keep out. We have an entire backyard garden, only the very back is chicken wired off, because it's not exactly pretty. But the fist year we started we used push in fencing that resembled this.

we took it out because we were always stepping on it. lol.
Our dog never goes in the veggie or fruit area.


http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/2/OutdoorLiving/GardenDecor/BorderFencingEdging/PRD~0590248P/Grand%252BView%252BFence.jsp

[Kritafo]

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/7227/15316101501501249306277.jpg (http://img410.imageshack.us/i/15316101501501249306277.jpg/)

This is one of the view of our garden, but you can't see the greenhouse from this view

[hampstor]

I'm in the city, though just barely. Last year we had a lot of bunnies in our neighborhood - no gophers. We do have voles too though I don't think they'd go after the garden.

Our home backs onto the local ravine so we've got a chainlink fence there. We've got some gaps around where it meets the devloper fence & where the gate is. I thought putting a fence around our garden might be a good idea.

Google had some great ideas too I never thought off (ie: blood meal, planting onions, clover). My wife reminded me that we've already been hearing coyotes at night and that we might not need to put up a fence if they control the bunny population (we haven't seen a single one this year yet). I might just hold off on the fence for now. Thanks for the input guys.

[HondaKid]

Originally posted by hampstor
I'm in the city, though just barely. Last year we had a lot of bunnies in our neighborhood - no gophers. We do have voles too though I don't think they'd go after the garden.

Our home backs onto the local ravine so we've got a chainlink fence there. We've got some gaps around where it meets the devloper fence & where the gate is. I thought putting a fence around our garden might be a good idea.

Google had some great ideas too I never thought off (ie: blood meal, planting onions, clover). My wife reminded me that we've already been hearing coyotes at night and that we might not need to put up a fence if they control the bunny population (we haven't seen a single one this year yet). I might just hold off on the fence for now. Thanks for the input guys.

You'll see bunnies, about six to eight weeks after Easter when all the idiots who bought bunnies for their sweet child find out animals mean work and release them in your area. So the same program as last year, just new assholes releasing the wabbits for you to deal with. Swing by the Humane Society in May, more rabbits than you can ever imagine.

[Kritafo]

we have lots of rabbits in Valley Ridge but they haven't yet managed to get into our yard. As I mentioned we chicken wired the back fence and our gates are so low to the ground that only mice can get through. They are the biggest threat to the garden. We place traps everywhere and used Shake-away bought it off the net because we couldn't find a local source. It certainly cut down on the mice. If you compost make sure to put traps around they love the compost.

We had a gopher but bought a trap from the UFA and haven't had one since. We even had a porcupine one year but after throwing a stick at it, it never came back.

Happy Easter, Happy Gardening!