In the past day and a half, I went from thinking I only had deer and crows, to seeing a rabbit, a groundhog, and a raccoon in the garden area. The groundhog especially just DECIMATED a bunch of greens. I have a flimsy green plastic fence attached to T posts that I thought would be okay for deer, and the raised bed wasn’t protected. What can I do to keep them out of it without completely redoing the fence? Will hardware cloth around the bottom help, and a fence around the greens, flowers, and raised bed? I caught a rabbit inside of the garden last night mid-munch while another rabbit stood guard and the groundhog was caught treating himself to a salad bar. And then this AM a raccoon walked right on past me in the garden without a care in the world and disappeared into the woods on our property…
Excuse the needed weeding and decluttering that I need to find time to do but photos attached for reference. The fence that’s floppy is attached to a movable post so that we can open and close it without getting a gate- it’s open in that pic.
To add to the matter, we’re about to have Chickens moved into a coop out here, I imagine that’ll make even more animals come around as well. Am I cooked?
by 3a5tc0a5t
9 Comments
Also the bamboo was temporary- I have stronger cattle panel cages I built around the tomatoes which I’m kicking myself for planting so closely together again
I love your wire hut that holds your supplies! Where did you get it?
hardwire cloth will work but you have to use landscape staples to keep it on the ground so they can’t nudge it up and it’s got to be at least 3 ft high for groundhogs …. I’m in the process of reinforcing my old fence right now….. so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and I’m putting wooden posts in every 4 ft and wood 3 ft high and then once the outside is not I’m going to use that to start my raised beds… but I also have a ton of scrap posts and wood from my boyfriend’s job so it’s the only reason I’m able to doing it ….. I have a pretty large garden so that would get pretty expensive if I bought it all new 😂 and I refuse to buy something if I can get it for free
The holes are too big for rats, mice, squirrels and chipmunks. I found that out the hard way with my cages. I covered them in plastic hardware cloth, 1/4″ holes. Seems to work for my critters which are also rabbits, groundhogs and raccoons besides the previous mentioned. For the tomatoes, I use stainless steel mesh fruit bags. I think for the rabbits and groundhogs, hardware cloth at the bottom would help, but not chipmunks if you have any. Groundhogs can also dig under if they have enough room to do so, in my case here, they don’t have a good place to start because of the timbers. This is why you will see gardens on here enclosed in fencing to try to keep out most critters. One year, I got square tomato cage supports and put hardware cloth around that to try and stop them and that didn’t help much, hence the bags. Cloth was a joke, they ate them too. I wish I had a simple solution, but there isn’t one. If you have a big critter problem, caging is about the best option. For raised beds, fairly easy. PVC piping arced over and hardware cloth covering it. The plastic kind is easier to work with and you will need to figure out opening and closing for harvests.
https://preview.redd.it/gbp5pxgc9u7h1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b7ce3f2672a1bace8acb0ba23351cefcfcd4195
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1H8SP1C?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1H8SP1C?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2)
I know you don’t wanna redo the fence but that’s the only thing that worked for us tbh, metal chicken wire fence with cloth under everything (including planters) and then rocks to prevent animals from digging under. And a camera to watch, it’s all helped tremendously
Get you a couple of these. Works wonder for us.
https://preview.redd.it/dq0t967bcu7h1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2d2b4e7637ae66a780473bf5159718e8e9845d7
Oof. Sadly, the plastic-style fencing won’t stop deer. You need the heavy fencing wire or hardware cloth. But you can try using those motion-activated sprinklers they sell to spook animals. Sometimes those work.
Sorta cooked, for this season. Not sure the plastic snow fences stand much of a chance against digging friends.
Next year when you re-do the fence, bury it at least 1 foot *into* the ground. This discourages them from trying to tunnel. And make sure to fill any attempts at tunneling as you come across them.
Another solution for right now would be to plant a little unfenced garden, or a few scattered plantings here and there, *away* from your garden, that are *for* the critters to eat. The idea is it’s an easier meal for them to access, so it might lure them away from your garden, bc all the protective gear is also a PIA to them. Plant the veg they love, and make sure to succession plant, to keep up their supply.
I have friends, albeit on larger pieces of land than just a backyard, who have had success with planting animal gardens. This is one solution among many to try at this point in the season ( windmills, hanging CDs, cayenne pepper, ++)
My garden has chicken wire around it on the same posts as the deer mesh.
Young rabbits can slip through chicken wire, but usually cant get into a raised bed. Anything that isn’t deer can bite through plastic fencing easily, hence the chicken wire. If you have voles/mice, you might use hardware cloth instead of chicken wire, but it’s much more expensive and harder to work with. Whether you add metal fencing or not, you should get some landscape pins and secure the bottom of the fencing to the ground to deter animals digging under it.
Raccoons are smart af and will figure anything out that you can throw at them. Keeping them away usually requires that you keep them away from the property altogether. Eliminate their hiding spots (eg enclose gaps under decks/sheds) and easily found food (eg open compost bins, trash cans with unsecured lids, dont cat food). But like another poster said, a dog is an excellent deterrent, assuming the dog spends time in the yard.