Fencing Off Those Pesky Garden Critters

They are the car thieves of the gardening world: Critters. You plant something in a garden with the impression that you are going to enjoy the plump vegetable in a few months. Each day you walk outside to see how much your plant has grown. First, it is just a seed, and then it pokes out of the ground. Soon the seedling becomes thicker and has a branch coming off the stalk. Leaves develop and eventually, buds follow. You have put love into this garden by caring for it and watering it. The buds are a sign you are headed in the right direction, like your child getting an “A” on his report card. Then you see the first sign of life, a tiny tomato growing off the stalk. It isn’t edible yet, but each day you watch the tomato get bigger and bigger. Eventually, it reaches the correct size and you see it turn from green to yellow on its way to a perfect red that you can enjoy. This process is a commitment that has taken months. When your intended harvest is as red as can be, you give it one more day on the vine to be perfectly ripe. The next morning, you head out to the garden to pick it and what you see is a gardening tragedy. The tomato is lying in the dirt, full of bites, ruined.

You have been victimized by garden critters. The critter could be a rabbit, a squirrel, a bird, or any small creature that was hungry. It doesn’t matter which creature did the nasty deed; what matters is that your tomato or zucchini is ruined and inedible. There is only one answer to this situation: You must put up a garden fence. The barrier is easy to purchase and can be used to surround whatever shape of garden you have. The fence is a little over knee height and is the protection for your plants from critters.

Now, before you toss out the idea of a fence because you know small animals can climb, you should consider a few things. For starters, many of the animals that are liable to eat your vegetables aren’t very agile and don’t climb very well. Animals like rabbits and ground hogs can’t climb at all, so a knee-high fence is a huge deterrent. Even the animals that can climb are put off by fencing. After all, even a short climb means it takes effort to get into your garden. If given a choice between an unprotected garden or a garden that the animal has to spend energy to get into, most creatures will pick the easiest target. When they do, you’ll be able to enjoy your vegetables in peace.

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Click Here to read the rest of this great article on Garden Structures

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