Fencing for the vegetable garden, ideas?

[HappyHomestead]

Hey guys Do you have ideas and/or pictures of favorite fences for your vegetable garden?

Our garden space is about 24 feet square, and the problem is it's right in front of the house where most of our windows are. My husband is really not crazy about looking through an 8' fence (I don't know why, I'd be looking out there all the time, just to admire it) so I keep trying to find something that will keep the deer out, not trip me up, and not look terrible. And not cost a fortune! This year I've divided everything up into garden boxes about 4' square, with short fencing above them. It has potential, but I feel like I'm wasting space. Thanks! Rebekah

 

[digitS']

I'm probably not going to be able to help you with this, Rebekah, but I don't quite understand the question either.

Your husband doesn't want to see the garden?

You don't want to put up an 8' fence but you want to keep the deer out, right?

Is it just that you want an attractive fence that fairly well hides the garden and may help to keep the deer out?

Steve

 

[wifezilla]

What about deer netting? You can hardly see it. All you would need are corner posts.

 

[thistlebloom]

I second Wifezi' suggestion, the black really blends into the background. They make different strengths of it, some is pretty heavy duty and durable, the netting is lightweight and can tear if the deer are on the aggresive side.
Another thought is deer repellent spray, I have two favorites that I am using now, that are low odor or odorless and last three months, give or take.

Here's a couple of sites for repellents:

http://www.deerout.com/

http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/accessory/plantskydd.shtml?google&gclid=CMXliJrMwqkCFQR3gwodP04dZw

 

[Jared77]

Given the distances you might want to try something like this:

I know its a very simple drawing, but it gives you an idea of what I was trying explain. No its not to scale either The black rectangles are 4x4 posts, the blue is a heavy gauge wire to give the deer a visual deterant so they won't jump into the garden, and the red is obviously a picket fence. I did a simple picket fence for the drawing but you could do a rail fence but that would mean adding wire behind it to keep critters from going between the rails. A nice white picket fence would look great as it has very classy and traditional look. It would give the area good air flow not like a privacy fence, and sunshine to peek through the pickets so less shadows than a privacy fence too. If you put up a more decorative fence it would give you something nice to look at and help dress up the area which sounds like what your husband is worried about and while I disagree, I understand his concern. Depending on the length and width of your garden, you might be able to get away with just using the corner posts as the tall posts to hold the wire in place. You'd have to test it before you put it in place. I don't know how much tension and support you'd need to hold the wire in place.

I don't know where your at, but here in MI we have to dig 36" down to sink a post to bottom of the frost line. If you used 12' posts you'd still have 9' of post above the ground if you went that deep. The wire wouldn't be seen unless you were up close enough on it either so from afar you'd just the the fence.

PLUS you've now creatived an area to decorate. You could put up hangers on the tall posts and have a hanging basket of flowers trailing down or the hanging pouches of impatients always look great. Each year you could change the color scheme or type of flowers. Or you could put something like chicken wire or welded wire bent around each post and plant a flowering vine go up it. Something that looks pretty like Clematis, or Morning Glories and Moonflowers, or smells good like Honeysuckle, climbing roses or trumpet vine. You could add wind chimes, bird feeders, hummingbird feeders, any kind of crafty decoration that you wanted to. Get creative with it and take advantage of the vertical space you've got going there.

Personally this is what I'd do. Hope this helps

 

[lesa]

Jared, I like the way you think!! Any paragraph that includes," you have now created something to decorate"- is right up my alley!

 

[HappyHomestead]

Thanks so much! My husband is the one who doesn't want to look at a fence. I could be quite happy looking at razor wire and all my happy veggies inside Like the picket idea.

 

[Jared77]

Thank you. I wasn't even thinking along the decorating ideas till I looked at my doodle and suddenly realized you'd have these posts sticking up that are just boring and really would draw attention to the wire and make it look like a penal farm. So short of putting up little search lights and turrets I figured impatients, honeysuckle, and hummingbird feeders might go over better. I have a REAL problem leaving empty space alone. I always feel like its missing something, so I let my imagination wander and you saw the effects of that.

I thought the picket idea might be a happy medium of something classy/decorative yet functional. I've learned sometimes you have to have both to get your spouse on board with an idea. Even if they don't offer an opinion to the decorating, your making it part of the landscape instead of something that stands out like a sore thumb like Id think a privacy fence around the garden would. I hope this might get your husband on board so everybody is happy.

 

[HappyHomestead]

I ran the picket fence past him and he thought it was a good idea. Maybe this season, certainly next.