I finally got around to upgrading our vegetable garden fencing this past weekend. For the past two years we protected the vegetables from rascally rabbits with some rusty metal fencing so we were due for something new.
I picked up a roll of wire fencing and three rolls of wooden fencing from Lowes to make the fence. I also grabbed my handheld staple gun and wire cutters.
I simply unrolled the wooden fencing, placed the wire fencing on top, and stapled it to the wooden fencing. Then I went back through and cut the excess wire off.
Now, I’m going to share a blogger fail with you. Not many bloggers share these things but I’m cool with publicly sharing my failures.
Okay so I probably should have thought this out some more before I started. Instead of putting the nice, smooth part of the wire at the top of the fencing, where it would potentially touch our skin when we reach in to get produce, I put it at the bottom. Then I used the wire cutters to clip the excess wire at the top. Mistake. It’s not terribly sharp, but it would have been nice to have the smooth side of the wire on the top, and the cut side on the bottom where it wouldn’t be in contact with any skin.
I finally wised up when I was more than half way done. Face palm. I was too annoyed to go back, pull out all the staples, flip the wire, and reattach it. So I put the smooth side of the fencing near the tomato plants– the most frequently picked vegetable in our garden.
While I was working on this in the garage, Jack decided to treat himself and sneak off with a small piece of wood I had laying around. Don’t worry, we took the piece of wood away from him.
Seriously, this dog will chew on anything wood related– branches, mulch, Popsicle sticks. (He’s never chewed on furniture though.) I once caught him dragging a Manzanita branch, I had planned to use in our wedding decor, out of my office. But I’ll take his wood fetish over a shoe fetish any day.
To secure the fencing into the ground I used the stakes provided in the wooden fencing packaging. But they weren’t the best, so I used some craft dowel rods to better secure the fence. I stuck the dowel rods in between some holes in the wire fencing and sunk them into the ground. You can kind of see them in this photo. I’ll try to get a better photo of today and post it later.
Jack approves of the fencing. Hopefully we won’t catch him gnawing on the fence posts.
How do you protect your vegetable garden from rodents? I read if a man urinates around a garden it will keep pests away. Brad vetoed that idea.
Does your dog have a weird fetish?
MeaganS says
May 16, 2013 at 7:55 AMGood timing! I was JUST trying to figure out an inexpensive option of keeping my (right now potted) plants away from my toddler son (especially since this year I am growing very hot peppers) and my male dog who might get the itch to “mark” them. I’ve been keeping an eye on craigslist because you can sometimes find people giving away picket fencing. No luck so far, though.
Richard C says
October 13, 2015 at 9:04 PMYeah, picket fencing is hard to come by through just luck. If you have any bricks or cinderblocks lying around, you might want to try making a cinderblock garden.
http://www.monomachines.com/shop/diy-ideas#cinderblock
Michele Wright says
September 3, 2016 at 4:53 PMHi there I’m from Australia down under and needed some extra ideas thats not going to cost the earth to make a fence to shut off my chooks from the veggies and my lawn thats almost disappeared.
Melissa Miller says
February 20, 2017 at 10:14 PMHave u tried plants that the animals don’t like? I plant marigolds, society garlic, chives, etc. also they hate the smell of vinegar- place sponges soaked in white or cider apple vinegar where u see the most activity
[email protected] says
May 16, 2013 at 12:23 PMLooks good! I’m super jealous of your garden!
Kelly @ View Along the Way says
May 16, 2013 at 3:27 PMThat is the prettiest little garden fence ever! I wish I had a veggie garden!
[email protected] says
May 16, 2013 at 4:11 PMThis looks great! Much better than our ghetto fence.
Erin @ How to Nest for Less says
May 17, 2013 at 9:19 AMAdorable! You wanna come do this in my backyard??
[email protected] says
May 17, 2013 at 9:53 PMFancy pants gardener! It’s so cute. Can garden fences be cute? I guess so. Weird.
Rachel - Fence Installer says
May 24, 2013 at 4:21 PMThe fence looks great. A great stylish way to keep the critters out and protect your garden. Clearly the dogs enjoy it too!
Cathy says
May 26, 2013 at 9:02 PMI would love for you to share and link up at my TGIF Link Party. The party is open every Thursday night and closes Wednesday’s at midnight.
http://apeekintomyparadise.blogspot.com/
Have a wonderful week!
Hugs, Cathy
Jackie B says
June 1, 2013 at 5:08 PMI just put a fence around my garden, but not as cute! I don’t know of other good ways to keep out rodents besides a fence. I tried marigolds and dog hair last year. Sadly, it didn’t work as the rabbits still hopped right in the garden.
Jess says
June 7, 2013 at 12:16 PMWhat a great idea – thanks for sharing! I wanted to start a small vegetable garden this year but have put it off because of all the rabbits that we have seen in our backyard but maybe I’ll give this a try!
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Ned says
July 18, 2013 at 5:09 PMwhere did you get wood fencing? and what is name of it ( exactly) if it is lowes or homedepot?
RJ says
October 15, 2013 at 11:52 AMThe fence looks awesome. It is always tricky to keep out the varmints – well done!! I love the classic picket fence!!
kelli says
March 3, 2014 at 4:15 PMSo, question for you: I have been trying to come up with a way to keep my neighbor’s dogs from urinating on my young tomato plants. I think buckets with the bottoms cut out like that would work perfectly. How did you cut the bottom out?
Thank you!
Debbie says
March 7, 2014 at 12:20 PMGreat idea! Been trying to figure out a good way that looks cute to keep the chickens out of my garden boxes and planting areas – this will work great I think!
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Amanda says
May 8, 2016 at 9:22 AMDid the rabbits try to jump over this fence? I love this idea! But I’m a little nervous about the height? I’ve been reading garden fences should be 36″ to keep rabbits from jumping over…
Mackenzie says
November 5, 2016 at 3:51 PMThere’s a family of rabbits that are in my backyard every day. A one foot fence was all it took to persuade them that it was easier to eat grass than to try to reach my green onions.
Gracie | Craftily Baking says
May 14, 2016 at 10:44 PMThis is so cute! I love it!
Paul - Plainfield Fence Company says
February 28, 2017 at 4:54 PMWhat a great article, thanks for sharing, this article would go great on our website http://www.cedarmountainfence.com/, let us know if you want us to share it with a link back to your site
Vanessa says
October 4, 2017 at 8:43 AMLooks wonderful! I’m going to use some pallets I have and make the same herb garden this week end