My garden have been a prey for deer and bunnies for some years until I decided to fence it.

I started to fence in 2016 when I could not bear to see deer munching on my fruit trees. Fruit trees are expensive and an investment in my garden. I then decided to fence. I fenced my front yard and backyard using 4 ft. and 5 ft. tall concrete wire. It is not tall to stop deer from jumping but they never jumped in. The reason is simple. Deer have  poor depth perception and don’t jump if they don’t know what they are jumping into. Based on that fact, I fenced my front yard with the help of my husband and fenced inside the fence.

If you are having problem with deer, use 4 or 5 ft. concrete wire to fence your garden and fence inside as well no more than 5 ft. away from the first fence. Otherwise you have to use a 7-8 ft. tall fence. I called the city Hall and they told me not to fence the front yard with anything taller than 4ft.

To prevent bunnies, use 1’’ chicken wire along the perimeter of the outside fence leaving 3ft on the ground. Bend out  and pin with garden pins and cover with wood chips. For the door, start fencing where the door would be and finish 3-4 ft. away from the first post. Put the last post 3-4 ft. away from the first post. Roll the wire from the 1st post all the way to the last post. Make sure you put posts every 6ft or so between the first and the last posts. Roll the wire from the last post to reach the first post and cut with a sniper leaving enough to overlap the wires. Use a wire snip to cut the wire off the roll. Cut in the middle to have horizontal wires sticking out. Use few of them to hook on to the wire from the first post.

Use 4-5 ft. tall posts to secure your wire.

Use a thin galvanized wire to tie wire on the posts and you are good to go.

You can find the wire, posts and ties at Lowes or Home Depot.

I spent a lot of money in fencing. A the start I used  2’’ chicken wire and it was not pretty nor sturdy in my front yard and made the switch. I am glad I did. By trying to save money, I spent more as the 2’’ chicken wire I first purchased became useless.

Not all rodents I kept away from my garden but the ones that would destroy my garden completely.

In 2016, although I fenced to keep deer out I didn’t use chicken wire to keep bunnies away. They cut all my runner beans plants and I didn’t harvest any bean that year. In 2017, I used 1’’ chicken wire 2 ft. tall and 3 ft. tall to fence. I would say that both worked. 2in tall one is easier to deal with and to bend.

If you use 2ft tall chicken wire and think bunny might jump over, leave more above the ground. Bend 2’’ on the ground. Cut some wire length wise like 1’’ wide and lay on the ground by the fence. Pin with garden pins and cover with wood chips or hay. I did it in some parts of my garden and it worked.

Happy Gardening in 2018!