My Rabbit-Proof Garden Gate

I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've finally got my rabbit-proof fence and gate finished and my garden planted! If you remember, in my last post I had built a fence around the garden perimeter, but hadn't yet figured out how I was going to build a gate.

Well... look what I built over Memorial day weekend:

Not bad for a beginner, huh? Here's the how-to...

First, I installed a gate post that the gate would be hooked onto. I measured the height I wanted it to be and added about 8" so that I could put it in a fairly deep hole to keep it nice and sturdy. I used a circular saw cut cut my 2x4 to the desired length. I used untreated wood since I didn't want any chemicals leaching out into my garden and potentially be absorbed into vegetables. It just isn't worth the risk to me. If the gate gets rotten in a couple of years, I'll happily build a new one. Here I've dug a hole and pushed the gate post down into it:

To get it a bit deeper, I used a sledgehammer to really pound it down into the hole:

As you can see, I am a pro sledgehammer-wielder. (Seriously, I only missed hitting the post about 1/2 the times I tried... oh well, it worked anyway!)

Next, I measured the opening I wanted the gate to cover. I used some 1x3" boards I had leftover from my basement renovation project and bought a 1x4" board from Home Depot for the remaining pieces I needed (the lighter colored ones in the picture). I cut the boards to size and used a triangle square tool to make sure the horizontal and vertical pieces were lined up. I put two galvanized nails in each corner to fix the boards together. 

Before going any further, I held the gate piece in the opening to make sure it was going to fit. I made sure to leave a little space on each edge so that it would still fit after I fixed wire fencing material around it. 

I used the same green wire fencing material to wrap around the gate. 

I found these hinges at Home Depot for just a couple dollars. I drilled some small pilot hole on the gate piece and screwed the hinge on in the location I wanted it. Then I lined it up on the gate-post at the height I needed (so that it was high enough that it could swing open but low enough that bunnies couldn't squeeze through the gap). After the first one was in place, the bottom one was easy to line up.

To keep the gate closed, I used a simple hook and eye available from Home Depot, again for just a couple dollars. I screwed it into the gate in the location I wanted and added a loop of wire on the fence side to secure it to. 

I still had some chicken wire fencing protruding from the ground underneath the gate, so I cut another 2x4" piece to create a treshold for my gate. I used a couple of staples to secure the chicken wire to the board. 

Now when I close the gate, it is nice and secure and doesn't have any gaps large enough to allow rabbits to get through!!

Here is what the garden looked like after building the gate:

All ready for planting! I was really excited to transplant the vegetable and herb plants that I started from seed a couple of months ago:

I hope they grow quickly in their new home :) 

Can't wait to harvest some home-grown produce!!