Our Garden 2018 (Part-1)

We bought the house in the late-summer of 2017, so a garden wasn’t going to be possible. 2018, however, was a different story.

We’ve been in condos for a while and finally moved up to a fully-fledged house that, coincidentally, had a well-established garden plot; I was chomping at the bit to do this.

In fact, the previous owners had planted asparagus and rhubarb that we could take advantage of. These perennials take a few years to be mature enough to harvest. I can tell you that I was looking forward to eating asparagus from my own backyard.

Due to being in central New Hampshire, we really couldn’t plant anything until late-May or early-June but I was eager to get the plot ready in advance. It didn’t appear that the previous owners put any type of fencing around the plot – but I wasn’t about to put on an all-you-can-eat buffet for the various wildlife we’d seen so far, so fencing was definitely part of the plan.

Since we’d seen deer in the area, I knew I needed a fairly tall fence, as they can jump as high as 8 feet. But the woodchucks, porcupines, squirrels and turkeys were also a problem, so my fence had to be dual-purpose. I spent almost two months researching ideas that would 1) work 2) be fairly easy to build and 3) wouldn’t cost me a fortune.

During my research, I ran across “Lady Lee”, a woman from North Carolina who blogs about her homesteading methods. Her “affordable deer fence” blogpost might be just what I needed. https://ladyleeshome.com/affordable-deer-fence/

After tilling the 40×40 plot, I purchased 6-foot steel garden posts, 4-foot chicken wire, a few yards of half-inch stone and some DeWitt Sunbelt Ground Cover Weed Fabric (4’x300′ roll). This ground cover is the type you see on the floors of greenhouses at many local nurseries and garden centers.

To keep out the varmint-sized animals, I cut an 18-inch trough around the plot and laid the weed fabric in it. I then laid the chicken wire over it and covered it with stone.

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I then placed the posts in the ground and tied the remaining chicken wire (about 30″) up at a 90-degree angle to the posts using zip ties.

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This will take care of the varmints, who won’t likely scale the 30″ high wire but also won’t be able to dig under it. If any woodchuck finds a way to dig through the stone, chickenwire and weed fabric, I’ll gladly let them have a tomato or two.

But what about the high-jumping deer? Well, “Lady Lee” mentioned the use of fishing line for this part. What I did was string clear, 30-lb test monofilament line every 6-8 inches above the chicken wire to the top of the steel posts (you can see it in the photo above).

Deer typically graze gardens at night. When they approach the fence in the dark, they bump up against the line but can’t see it. Deer will not jump over something if they don’t know how high or deep it is.

Finally, I had to leave a door in the fence wide enough to get the rototiller and wheelbarrow through. Obviously, the door will have no chickenwire across it, leaving an opening for animals. I dealt with this by placing a chickenwire-covered pallet across the door, sitting on top of a granite step, which prevents the animals from digging under the pallet door. Each night, I tie the door to the adjoining posts so it doesn’t fall. Remember, I wanted this to be cost effective!

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Pretty economical solution. Now, all we had to do was wait for planting day.