In response to a growing number of attacks by local wildlife (i.e., rabbits), Whitney and I constructed fences around the most important vegetable patches in the garden. (In particular, the bunnies were devouring innocent green beans we planted two weeks ago.)
While we went into the project rather blindly, with some help from various unreliable sources on the web, I think it turned out quite nicely. We used chicken wire with one-inch openings and secured it to 36-inch stakes. For the patch on the ground, we used fencing 36 inches wide, and buried it about 6 inches into the ground, folding it outward a few inches to prevent the rabbits from burrowing. Because we didn’t have to worry about burrowing under the beds, we were able to use shorter fencing (24 inches wide) and stapled it the base of the beds, using a few stakes to add stability.
So far there’s no evidence that any hungry mammals (other than us) have been able to get into the fenced-off areas. We hope it stays that way—if only we had done this a week ago!
I’ve uploaded a set of photos of this experiment for your viewing pleasure.
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Tags: farm
