First, I must say the cutest rabbit deterrent ever (aka Cinder the mighty huntress) is doing a great job. We hadn’t seen any rabbits in the yard so far this spring and I got complacent.
A week ago, I noticed one of the sunflowers in the new no-till bed was eaten. The next day another one was eaten, then another, then another. Some wily bunny escaped Cinder’s radar, and figured I’d never notice if it ate only one plant a night?
The raised beds are all bunny-proofed (read last year’s Bunny Chronicles here) and now we needed a plan for the no-till rows and quick!
I picked up two rolls of chicken wire at Home Depot, and Mr. Bee and I got to work. We decided to just outline the beds and nothing fancy. The area is 22′ x 36′, so not overwhelming.
Mr. Bee is a pack rat saver which does come in handy sometimes. He dug out some rebar, we unrolled the chicken wire, and went to work.
After putting a rebar post in each corner, we securely wrapped the chicken wire at the first corner and pulled it around the second corner. About every 4′, Mr. Bee wove a 3′ piece of rebar through the fencing and drove the post into the ground.
I followed behind, pulling the fencing down the rebar posts far enough to create a 2-3″ lip sitting on the ground. I secured the fencing with these wire hold downs that are actually for the drip irrigation but worked perfectly to keep the fencing tight to the ground. No rabbits can shimmy under that fencing! Ha!
I also zip-tied the fence to the stakes that were in place to mark each planting row. You gotta love a project that only requires 2 components!
Of course, we were about 10′ feet shy of completely enclosing the bed. Should I go and get another roll of chicken wire, or do we use some 4′ fencing we had on hand for other projects?
Since this side is along the row I planned for dahlias, we went for the 4′ fencing which will be handy for staking the dahlias. Using an old piece of wood lattice, Mr. Bee fashioned a ‘door’ that is bunny-proof but provides easy access.
Adding the fencing meant losing a couple feet of each row, since I need a walkway, but it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Happily, I was in the garden the next day, planting out rows of zinnias and more sunflowers!
*Just for fun, my friend A. (who owns a business providing drone footage for companies) took a picture of my garden. She’ll come back and take more footage when the garden is in full bloom. So cool!*
Do you suffer from pests in your garden? How do you manage? Let me know in the comments!
Happy spring planting, Pam 🌻