Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I Built a Garden Fence!!

I must have been feeling really motivated because of my ginormous list, because I was super productive on Sunday. I built a garden fence. By myself.

If you remember, Eric and I had been doing a bunch of digging. We measured out the garden and cut out the sod pieces to fill another spot in the lawn (details on that can be found in this post). The transplanted sods seem to be doing pretty well - remember what the yard looked like before we removed the bird feeder, stump, and white rocks?


And here are those spots now (so much easier to mow... and yes, I plan to transplant that hosta from the middle of the lawn eventually):


Okay back to the garden. After cutting out all the sod, we were left with an 'L' shaped area that was free of grass. Since we know we get a lot of wildlife in our yard (remember the raccoon that found its way into our basement - see that post here ... and we saw a turkey hanging out back there a while back). But most especially, we are worried about these guys:


Okay, maybe the ones in our yard are not *quite* that big, but I swear they are larger than normal. Anyway, though they may be cute to look at, feeding the bunnies is not the reason I am starting a garden. I know I could just plant my seeds and see if I even have rabbit trouble, but I'd rather prepare for that from the get-go.  I read a couple garden books and they pretty much all recommended installing chicken wire in a 6" by 6" trench on the outside edge of the garden to prevent animals from digging under the fence.... which required more digging. Thankfully I was getting the hang of really putting my weight into the shovel, so I was able to do this while Eric was at work on Sunday. I dug my trench and laid half of the 12" width chicken wire down in the bottom and the remaining 6" sticking up (so that it made an 'L' shape facing away from the garden. After I threw a bit of dirt to cover the chicken wire in the bottom of the trench, it looked something like this:


I got some 3 foot metal fence posts (the green ones) from Home Depot and spaced them out so that there was one at every corner and the remaining ones were 3 to 5 feet apart. I was able to push most of them down pretty easily by stepping on the little metal flange that sticks out from the main post. I pounded a couple in further by placing a 2x4 on the top of the post and using a hammer to push them in.



Here is a little bit better picture that shows the layout of the chicken wire in the trench and the fence post installed on the 'garden side' of the trench. The chicken wire laying flat would soon be covered with dirt. That way, if a bunny decides to dig his way into my garden, he'll end up basically sitting on chicken wire (which he is hopefully not smart enough to dig under). 


For the actual fence, I got some wire fencing coated in green plastic (so it blends in better) from Home Depot. It has graduated spacing between links, so toward the bottom the spaces are really tight (so bunnies can't squeeze through), and toward the top it gets larger. I laid the fence in the angled part of the 'L' of the chicken wire. 


On the back side of the garden, there was already a row of bricks and more of those white rocks. Since I figured the bunnies couldn't dig through rocks and bricks very well, I didn't dig a trench on this side, but instead laid the chicken wire facing into the garden a bit (you know, just in case). You can sort of see in this pic how I tied the 2 fence parts together with wire:


So, after about 7 hours of hard work on Sunday, I was left with this:


See how that green fence blends in? Nice huh? When Eric got home at about 8:30 that night, he sure was surprised to see how much progress I had made (did I mention that I somehow found time to mow the lawn too?). I'm actually starting to think I'll be able to plant this thing soon!! Really all that is remaining is to finish wiring the top of the chicken wire to the green fence and add some top soil...

...well that and figure out how to make a gate for my fence that will keep out the rabbits. Anyone have any ideas on that? 

PS. Last night Eric and I had the first night of ultimate frisbee league. It was really great to play and chat with friends that we haven't seen since last fall! Also thanks to those who mentioned they enjoy reading this blog. It is nice to know that I have some readers out there  :)  BTW, everyone should feel free to leave comments here or on facebook with suggestions, etc. It is nice to get feedback!

(Bunny photo courtesy of the Washington Post.)




10 comments:

  1. You're quite a woman. Eric is a lucky man!
    -Barb

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your fence came out really great. You did a really nice job. I love the photo of the huge rabbit. I found you over at Centsational Girl's party. I am your latest follower. I would love for you to come and check out my blog and follow me back at www.diybydesign.blogspot.com. Thanks so much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love this post, thank you so much. We are about to move and I would love to plant a garden at the new house but know there are tons of little friends that would enjoy the garden before we got the chance. I will check back again soon to see what you came up with for the gate. Happy Gardening!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very impressive, Tiff. You're going to LOVE having a gardern - veggies right in your own backyard.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It looks great! I need to build a bunny fence too, except the place I want to use for my garden is edged with landscaping timbers so I'm not sure how to dig the 6" under the dirt to keep them out. Might be easiest just to take the timbers out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks everyone for the comments! It is so great to get feedback!

    I've had lots of ideas whirling around in my head, but I think I've figured out how I'm going to build the gate. I'll get that posted just as soon as it is finished.

    Jessica - are the timbers treated wood? I have heard that those chemicals can leach out over time, which might not be so good for a vegetable garden. Just a thought. Maybe you could put the garden in a different spot... or even do a container vegetable garden? Either way you go, enjoy!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tiffany, I am about to build my new Garden.. and I remembered your fence creation so I had to stop by to refresh on what you all did! :) Your blog comes in handy! :)

    Hope all is well,

    Renae Gusaas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great to hear my blog is useful :)
      Maybe one of these days I will convince myself to start some new posts. Good luck with your garden!!

      Delete
  8. I hope they grow quickly in their new home :)
    Can't wait to harvest some home-grown produce!!black vinyl fence

    ReplyDelete