On 16 Apr 2003 09:40:17 -0700, (Jay Chan) wrote:

I am trying to fence a small vegetable garden to prevent rabbits from
eating my string beans. By the way, I am living in northern New Jersey
area.

- How tall the fence should be? Is 2-ft tall enough? Rabbits in this
area are not that big. They are around 3/4-ft long when they are
sitting on the ground.

- I am planning to use a wooden fence with stiff plastic net mounted
on the fence. My question is: What type of wood should I use? Is
pressure treated wood good? Because it is a vegetable garden, I am
afraid that using pressure treated wood may not be appropriate (I
don't really know if I am worrying too much). Should I use pressure
treated wood as poles, and use cedar for the rest of the fence? Should
I use cedar to make the whole fence, and use metal
pole-footers/pole-anchors for ground contact?

I welcome any suggestion. Thanks.

Here is cheap, fast, excellent and you can use it for climbing, beans, peas,
cucumbers.

Go to your local ranch supply and pick up steel t-bar posts.
6 ft are less than 3 bucks each.
these are just pounded into the ground Two feet is perfect.
You want wood to join post to post at the top and bottom.
Split cedar rails are perfect also from your ranch supply but you could use
cheap 1x4 or 2x4s.
Now you want a roll of STUCCO wire, used to attach stucco to houses, it is nice,
and cheaper than fence wire. Comes four ft high, 50ft rolls very cheap.

Now you are read to put up this great fence in less than a couple HOURS.
No digging, no nailing.

Pound your t-bar posts into the ground.
Drill holes in you top and bottom rails so you can drop the first one on the
first two posts. The rails from post two to three will have to be screwed to the
first one. You'll figure it out.
Once you have your top and bottom rails on, roll your stucco wire from post to
post tying it on with wire and stapling it to the top and bottom rails.

This fence works really well with no top and bottom rails as well.
Even cats have a tough time climbing the loose wire.

Then you can put it up in just minutes.
BTW if you go to your local Home Depot instead of a ranching supply place you
will pay double. ;-)

I have installed a fence over the vegetable garden area.

What I have finally done is different from what I set out to do:

- As I mentioned in my previous message, I don't use any pressure
treated wood. I stick with soft wood. Thanks for advice from newsgroup
members that warned against using pressure treated wood.

- Instead of making and painting the fence very nicely, I just use
some scrap wood to make 2"x1" wood poles. The reason is that I am
afraid a nice-looking fence will be too massive and will block a lot
of sun light from reaching the vegetable garden. Therefore, I make the
fence as skinny as I can get away from. Yes, they will not last. But
they can be replaced very easily. Moreover, as correctly mentioned by
another newsgroup member, I can take it down as soon as the plants
have grown to a certain height. At that time, I will remove it, clean
it, and roll it up for storage.

The total cost is $60 because the 3 rolls of stiff plastic net are
kind of expensive and 2 boxes of deck screws are not cheap either.

Thanks for all the replies that I have received.

Jay Chan