My Garden in Early Summer 2005
Protecting the Garden

My main focus in protecting my garden is keeping out dogs, cats and rabbits. Our neighborhood has many uncontrolled dogs and since we live on the edge of town, there are often jackrabbits and cottontail rabbits in the area. In addition, our cats and the cats in the area are always on the lookout for a place to use as a ''litterbox'' - not a desireable circumstance!

I'm lucky to have an existing chain link fence on the south edge of the garden - one of the long edges, so all I had to do was construct the other three sides and make a gate.

I already had a bunch of 9 foot ''T'' posts for supports, so I installed them as corner posts and at intervals around the sides of the garden area. For a gate, I was able to scavenge a discarded gate which had been removed from an old chain link fence, and I used another ''T'' post as a gate support.

For the fence itself, I purchased some 28'' rabbit-wire fencing I found on sale at a nearby lumberyard. This type of wire keeps out both cats and rabbits, and so far the dogs have refrained from jumping into the garden.

The extra height on the ''T'' posts allows me to put up temporary trellises around the perimeter of the garden area, where I usually plant tomatoes (especially cherry tomatoes) or beans as a border.

Keeping cats out of your garden is imperative as their feces contain bacteria harmful to humans. Dog feces do not degrade well in a garden and their urination and digging is very destructive. Rabbits just like to eat your plants. Putting up a fence like this will protect your garden from all three. I have very little damage from birds although they are often in the area. If you do have destruction caused by birds you will want to consider various ways of protecting your plants using netting, etc.