In Part 1 of this
series, I discussed the need to start a garden sooner rather than later, the
pitfalls of starting a garden where grass has been cultivated, the creation of
your gardening beds (whether rows or raised beds), and the use of composting
for amending the soil. In Part 2, I will continue with discussing the
structures of the garden with emphasis on fences, gates, and varmint control.
Maybe you are one of
those fortunate few where there are very few varmints– an undesired animal in
an undesired place. (Some would ascribe the term to certain two-legged
creatures as well, but I digress.) These animals may be small and unobtrusive,
and maybe they don’t jump fences. In such a case, only a short, upright fence
barrier of lightweight materials is necessary, just to discourage the little
critters from entering your garden and going elsewhere, but for most areas of
the country, varmints are a reality and can wreak havoc on a garden to the
point of destroying your entire crop overnight. In a survival situation, this
could mean life or death for you and your loved ones. In this case, proper
fence design, installation, access, and maintenance is a necessary part of the
process in designing your garden.
How tall a fence should
you build? It is an indisputable fact that there are more whitetail deer in the
U.S. today than there were in revolutionary times. I will spare you the ecological
reasons, but the bottom line is that they exist almost everywhere, and due to
restrictive hunting laws, they are used to being around human habitats without
fear for the majority of the year. These deer can and will get into your garden
if they are starving, just hungry, or even only curious. An adult whitetail
deer can jump a six foot fence flatfooted, and in the southern U.S. the joke
goes “a six foot fence is only a suggestion to a whitetail.” So at a minimum,
as I believe deer to be the incarnation of rats with hooves, as far as my
garden is concerned, you need an eight foot tall fence. While some deer may be
able to jump such a fence while at a run, there are ways to deter this, and the
eight feet height greatly deters almost all of the other varmints. Eight foot
fences are the standard for most ranches trying to keep deer out (or in) and
work well for most situations. It will also give pause to most two-legged
varmints as well.
So what about those
varmints that are small, so small they can squeeze through the holes in the
fence wire? Many of these creatures, like rabbits and voles, will show up at
your nicely installed fence with the expensive welded wire spans and get
through the wire holes and start chomping away. What’s the solution? A second
layer of woven wire with ½ – 1 inch spacing, set at the bottom of the fence,
extending up to 24 inches above the ground level. Now, the varmints can’t jump
over, and they can’t squeeze through (at least most can’t or won’t climb UP a
wire fence to get above the small wire barrier).
Well, what if they can
dig? Your fence does you no good if they can simply burrow under it, right? Not
if you bury the fence wire in a trench 12 inches deep, along with the smaller
woven wire panels. A rented gas trencher, such as the Ditch Witch (which is
just one brand), will make quick work of this in an afternoon, or you can use
an old fashioned spade, but then it takes a while. Most typical burrowing
varmints will not burrow deeper than a foot to get from point A to B.
That leaves only the
varmints that can fly or climb. Birds can only be controlled by preventing them
from reaching the ripe veggies and fruits with bird netting. Sorry, but that’s
the facts. Scarecrows and “heads-that-move-in-the-wind” owl figures are cute,
but they generally get ignored after a day or two. Just get cheap bird netting
in bulk and drape it over the plants or trellises. If you need to prevent a
climbing varmint, like a raccoon, then your only solution is an electrified
wire at about a foot off the ground, with maybe a second one two feet high, or
the really big ones. A solar charger takes care of the energy needs, all at a
reasonable cost.
I’m sure there are
myriad posts on how to deter the varmints in other ways, such as human hair and
soap for deer hanging from fence posts or trees trick, pepper and garlic
sprays, teaser plots of corn just for the deer, et cetera, but a well-designed,
well-constructed fence will do more to keep the varmints at bay in my opinion,
and if you ever wanted to multi-purpose the garden, it would keep other animals
in (like chickens.)
The actual building of
the fence is a book chapter in itself. Particularly if you are fencing a ranch
or homestead, there are principles that apply to construction that should be
adhered to, especially when corners and gates are involved and when you use
barbed or high-tension (electric) wire. However, if you are not designing a
fence to keep large animals IN, like cattle and horses, then you can get away
with less rigid construction techniques.
My preferred garden
fence is built with wooden posts for corners and gates and T-Posts on the
spans. Most people should have access to 10 foot materials, although your local
store may need to order them from a more rural branch in the Midwest somewhere
that caters to farms and ranches. Even the more traditional home centers can
get 10 foot length T-Posts, or may even carry them in stock. Check around and
remember Google is your friend. For the panels, I like six foot tall woven wire
with two inch holes, and ½ to 1 inch hardware cloth for the bottom section. As
to the actual installation, it is not that hard; just physically demanding. You
dig a two foot hole with a post hole digger or a powered augur, place the pole,
brace for plumb with 2×4’s, and DO NOT fill the hole with cement for now. Drive
your T-posts with spans no more than 10 feet, and install your 6 foot and 2
foot wire with the bottom edges in the 12 inch trench. Once tightened using a
stretcher and a come-along, secure to the wood posts with staples and to the
T-Posts with clips. NOW, fill the wooden post holes with the cement with rims
above grade so the water runs off, and back fill your trench with the dirt you
took out earlier and tamp it in. Like I said, it’s not hard, but it’s
physically demanding labor that’s all toward an end.
By the way, there are
more than several dozen YouTube videos on how to perform each one of the steps
I’ve outlined. Some are professionally made. I’d definitely watch these if you
are new at this.
For the top three feet
of fence (remember you buried the bottom foot of your 6 foot wire in the
trench), you can stretch either barbed wire or fence wire and use one wire
about every foot of length. It’s pretty easy to stretch and tie off. You will
also need the wire to construct stretchers in your corners. Again, look to
YouTube and Google for technique.
There is, of course, a
financial cost to all of this, and I will not tell you that you can or should
improvise with reused pallets and the like. If it truly were TEOTWAWKI, you
would do anything you could, even if suboptimal. That is why you need to get
this done NOW. The cost is incurred only once, and if you coordinate with
neighbors on a community garden, for instance, the cost will be spread amongst
many. Try to think how you would feel to wake up one morning and your entire
year’s work has been ravaged overnight because you chose to use poor quality
materials on your fence.
You need a way to get
into and out of your garden, so you will need at least one gate. Keep in mind
everything that may need to go through that gate, including wheelbarrows, lawn
tractors, ATV’s, or even a truck pulling a trailer (full of compost??!) My own
preference for a large garden is a single gate at each end, and a double-wide
gate mid-way along the length going all the way across the garden width to a
second double gate, so you could drive a vehicle through to offload supplies
and equipment if necessary, or to haul away stuff, like produce (yay!) or
rocks. It’s possible that a single gate may work for you, if you are looking to
save cost.
The best, easiest gate
to install and maintain, in my opinion, is a prefabricated galvanized chain
link fence gate. These may be found in stock in heights of 72” and widths of
the same. Some may be ordered as kits that adjust to your specific widths,
which is handy if your gate posts are a little off their perfect design
dimensions after installation. All standard home centers and others that cater
to the farm and ranch communities should either have such a gate in stock or be
able to easily order one for you.
Installation is as
simple as getting the gate post attachments for a few dollars and screwing them
into the gate posts, securing the post hooks to the gate and a latch to the
other gate post, and you are done. An added bonus is the latch usually allows
for a lock, so that a casual passerby cannot just walk on in, but of course a
determined trespasser will not be deterred. Optionally, you can use a piece of
twisted heavy wire to keep the gate from accidentally opening.
The good news about
fence maintenance, once it has been properly installed, is that it is very
minimal. Posts would probably benefit from a coating of protectant every few
years, either commercial if available or just some sort of oil to prevent
rotting, especially on top where water may collect. The wire may become slack
and tightening may be done by stretching and using stringers to keep it tight.
Again check out YouTube to see it being done live. To prevent weed encroachment
I have a border of gravel around the outside edge that keeps grass and weeds at
bay, which also allows me to toss the small rocks I encounter each and every
time I dig. (Such is life with a garden.)
So now you have learned
how to start a garden, prepare the soil, build a fence, keep out varmints, and
install the fence gate. What’s left is how large a garden to build, what you
should plant and why, and how to maintain it, which will be detailed in Part 3
of this series.
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