Fences

When one lives on the edge of a wooded area that can go on for miles, one should expect visits from the local wildlife. Some of the usual suspects include deer, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, woodchucks, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, mice and a plethora of various birds. While we do enjoy viewing the wild animals, we do not enjoy having our gardens decimated by them when they visit. The partial answer (there is no complete answer to my knowledge) is to build a fence. Two years ago I built a fence around the greenhouse garden, and it has worked to keep the large rabbits (not the young rabbits who can slip right through the fencing) and woodchucks out.

Since the first fence seemed to work pretty well I decided to put a fence around our vegetable/flower garden on the other side of the house. The process was very similar. Pressure treated 4X4 posts were installed to support the fence panels. The panels consist of one inch thick pine boards that were milled form our pine trees and then air dried, planed, cut to size and treated to withstand the weather. I used a wood stain on the first fence but opted for a clear spar varnish for the second fence.

The greenhouse garden has two gates (seen on the right) to allow easy passage through from either side. These gates are made from cedar 4X4 stock. The construction was done by my good neighbor Rick and myself in Rick’s wood shop. We used the mortice and tenon method of joining the cross pieces to the uprights. I opted for lap joint construction for the gate (seen on the left) going to the other vegetable garden. I had several one inch think oak boards that had been milled from a ninety year old oak tree that had to be cut down to make way for our septic leach field. I decided to use that oak to make that gate and I am pleased with how it came out. I saw a rabbit try to get through it the other day and it was turned back. Success! Well so far, so much for rabbits and woodchucks. Of course the deer can jump the fence while the squirrels use it as playground equipment and the chipmunks waltz right through as it it wasn’t even there. Future battles.