Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

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.

Jay Chan

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

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.

The rabbits may be small, but they are good jumpers! I would go for
at least 4 feet.

- 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?

Use cedar if you can afford it. Pressure-treated wood contains toxic
chemicals that could leach into the soil and be absorbed by food
plants.

I welcome any suggestion. Thanks.

Jay Chan

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

"Jay Chan" wrote in message
m...
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.

They can probably jump a 2 ft fence. Then again, I have rabbits in the area
where I live that have never bothered with my fenced in garden that's only 1
1/2 high. The only reason I use fencing is to keep chipmunks out.


- 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.

Jay Chan

Regular wood may last you several years if you don't mind rebuilding it.

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

"Jay Chan" wrote in message
m...
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.

I am planning to fence in my garden this year, too, and was toying with the
idea of using copper pipe for the fence posts. I've seen garden ornaments
and trellises made of copper pipe; they look nice and seem to hold up to the
elements.

I wonder if there are downsides to this (beyond not being able to
nail/staple the fencing material directly to the posts)? My bet is it would
last longer than untreated wood...

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

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.

Jay Chan


Are these bush beans or pole beans? If they are small enough it won't make
a difference. Make a cover for the rows out of chicken wire. Just bend it
into a mound shape -- like a little quonset hut. You don't need any wood.
If the rabbits are really bad you'll also have to close the ends. When the
bean plants start hitting the cover and trying to grow though it, I remove
the cover and the rabbits leave them alone. They only seem to want the
very young sprouts.

Bob

--
Have a Windows® computer that is powered on for hours at a time? Join the
search for a cure for cancer: http://grid.org/projects/cancer/

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

I used to grow my cucs, pole beans, snow peas, and summer spinach on an
upright trellis. I was very limited on space and it worked out great. The
reason I'm telling you this is because I think my setup might be appropriate
for your bunny situation.

I bought 6' green fence posts (metal with hooks running up to the top) from
Home Depot and then stretched heavy duty (you can double it too) bird block
netting between the posts. The netting can be hooked on the metal hooks and
secured with string or twine. You could buy shorter fence posts and use the
netting at the bottom of the posts to keep them out. Pressure treated wood
should not be used in vegetable gardens because they contain arsenic.
Another deterrent for bunnies is to sprinkle a granular product that
contains fox/coyote urine around the outside edges of your garden. There
are different products out there, so I didn't name names. I think one is
called Shake Away. It may be worthwhile to try it.

Good luck,

Penny
Zone 7b - North Carolina
"Jay Chan" wrote in message
m...
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.

Jay Chan

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

In article ,
says...
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 have an 18" fence on top of my 10" high raised beds for a total of 28".
Of course, I also stretch bird netting across the top of the 4x4 beds.
The birds like fresh greens too :-).

I've always used chicken wire, but am trying some plastic fencing on some
areas that I'm replacing old fence. I do worry the the rabbits can just
bite through the plastic, but I thought I'd give it a try.

Since the posts are not in the ground, I just use plain old softwood 2x2s
painted with redwood stain.

--
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we
are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Teddy Roosevelt

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

Check the price per foot on copper pipe and then add in the cost of the
angles you'll need, and the cost of the solder gun etc to put it together.

"Shelly" wrote in message
...

"Jay Chan" wrote in message
m...
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.

I am planning to fence in my garden this year, too, and was toying with
the
idea of using copper pipe for the fence posts. I've seen garden ornaments
and trellises made of copper pipe; they look nice and seem to hold up to
the
elements.

I wonder if there are downsides to this (beyond not being able to
nail/staple the fencing material directly to the posts)? My bet is it
would
last longer than untreated wood...

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

Till the ground where the fence will be. Then I use a plastic wire that
looks like chicken wire but is quicker to put it up. Your home supply store
will probably have 1x1 or so posts about 30 inches long that are more or
less scrap wood. Or you can use plain deck rails, little more expensive but
you can use the cheapest ones you can find. Put up the posts, stretch the
plastic wire, staple with a staple gun,. I fold over a few inches of the
wire on the ground facing out to discourage digging. Then scratch in some
Preen so that you don't have weeds in the little fence.

You can take it down (just roll it up is fine) once everything is going
pretty good and the lettuce is over.

Grand total for 30x40 is about $10. Spending a lot on materials sort of
defeats the financial benefit of growing food. Spending a lot of time on
fence takes time away from other things.

"Jay Chan" wrote in message
m...
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.

Jay Chan

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

DH has a solder gun and a pipe cutter I can use, so I am set there. Also, we
have a shop near our house that resells left-over materials from new home
construction. It seems I can get a good deal on the copper piping there.

Do you happen to know if I need a special kind of solder for an outdoor
application? ...and I wonder if it would be possible to solder the fencing
material directly to the copper pipes? I had been thinking I would have to
use wire to affix it...

"Tim B" wrote in message
...
Check the price per foot on copper pipe and then add in the cost of the
angles you'll need, and the cost of the solder gun etc to put it together.

"Shelly" wrote in message
...

"Jay Chan" wrote in message
m...
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.

I am planning to fence in my garden this year, too, and was toying with
the
idea of using copper pipe for the fence posts. I've seen garden
ornaments
and trellises made of copper pipe; they look nice and seem to hold up to
the
elements.

I wonder if there are downsides to this (beyond not being able to
nail/staple the fencing material directly to the posts)? My bet is it
would
last longer than untreated wood...

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

good questions. if you have a plumber friend, they deal with copper pipe a
lot and can give better advice than I could.

"Shelly" wrote in message
...
DH has a solder gun and a pipe cutter I can use, so I am set there. Also,
we
have a shop near our house that resells left-over materials from new home
construction. It seems I can get a good deal on the copper piping there.

Do you happen to know if I need a special kind of solder for an outdoor
application? ...and I wonder if it would be possible to solder the fencing
material directly to the copper pipes? I had been thinking I would have to
use wire to affix it...

"Tim B" wrote in message
...
Check the price per foot on copper pipe and then add in the cost of the
angles you'll need, and the cost of the solder gun etc to put it
together.

"Shelly" wrote in message
...

"Jay Chan" wrote in message
m...
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.

I am planning to fence in my garden this year, too, and was toying
with
the
idea of using copper pipe for the fence posts. I've seen garden
ornaments
and trellises made of copper pipe; they look nice and seem to hold up
to
the
elements.

I wonder if there are downsides to this (beyond not being able to
nail/staple the fencing material directly to the posts)? My bet is it
would
last longer than untreated wood...

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

Shelly wrote:
DH has a solder gun and a pipe cutter I can use, so I am set there. Also, we
have a shop near our house that resells left-over materials from new home
construction. It seems I can get a good deal on the copper piping there.

Do you happen to know if I need a special kind of solder for an outdoor
application? ...and I wonder if it would be possible to solder the fencing
material directly to the copper pipes? I had been thinking I would have to
use wire to affix it...


You don't use a soldering gun for copper pipe, you use a torch. Any kind
of solid-core solder would work (except silver solder, but you are unlikely
to get that anyway.) And you need soldering flux. It's all pretty cheap
until you get to pipe sizes bigger than 3/4".

The fencing will not solder to the copper pipe; and it would look bad
anyway. Just tie it on. You might solder little loops of sturdy copper
wire to the top pipe for tie points.

Best regards,
Bob

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

Thanks for all the useful information that I have received here.

I will stay away from pressure treated wood completely. I will use
metal pole anchors as the base, put regular soft wood pole on the
metal pole anchors, and use stripes of regular soft wood for the rest
of the fence. And I will paint the soft wood using red-wood color
paint from top to bottom in order to reduce the chance of having
termites getting into the soft wood too soon (I am hoping that the
fence can last at least 5 years...). The color will also match my
red-wood color deck that is just a couple feet away from the vegetable
garden.

I will make the fence 3-feet too instead of just 2-feet. And I will
construct it in a way that I can easily take the fence down.

I will see how thing goes in the coming weeks.

Thanks again.

Jay Chan

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

I have cedar stakes hubby put points on. For fencing, Ive used nylon
net [Walmart] poly sheer curtains cut lengthwise [thumbtacked on] and of
course rabbit fencing- it spraypaints quite well].

I like the curtains best because they help break the wind and retard
drying the soil; the rabbits and ducks dont seem to like the movement.
You can easily adjust height by folding or leaving more on the ground.

Net stretches- It better for winding around tomatoes, etc Helps shade
plants too

All is easily washed [rinse Well],

You can make any of these look nice.

Need Advice on Fencing a Small Vegetable Garden
 

I use 8 foot chain link with metal poles and two rows of concertina wire
on top. The rabbits we get are much larger and with horns. Al