For Mother’s day, I decided to build fences for the three gardens we have. It used to be one garden, but last mother’s day it became three. These are standard 10 x 2’s in eight foot runs so that by cutting one in half, you end up with a garden area of 8 x 4. Given the wildlife we have in the neighborhood (squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, foxes, occasional coyote, and a variety of birds), it always is smart to put up some chicken wire around the perimeter of the garden. Every year this proves to be a hassle as the wire precariously attaches to green stakes driven into the earth, with their poorly lined up hooks for attaching the wire. Every year I curse having to put up the mesh wire and it always bows and requires an obscene number of staples to create a seal so critters don’t make their way in from below.
This year’s project was to engineer a durable and re-usable fencing enclosure. Other criteria would be sides that can be removed to provide access for maintaining the garden. The structure must be repairable should something break. Plans always run into reality where I take a trip to the hardware store to see what my material options are. Luckily they carried a nice looking pile of 1 x 2 cedar in eight foot runs. Eight feet is my magic number to be transported home in the vehicles I have.
The garden fence came together even better than I had hoped. I mounted in place the short ends and have the long ends as removable on both sides. A simple gate latch is what keeps them secured with some footing blocks to keep it in place. I’m quite happy with how it turned out and the total cost was around $200 with one of the wires rolls being re-used from last year (they are about $40 each). I would guess the total project time was about ten to twelve hours.
