What kind of mesh/fencing will protect my garden from wild animals?

[K0k0shka]

Hi all. I'm looking for practical advice on what kind of fence to put around my garden to protect it from (bold and urbanized) wild animals. Protecting it from the chickens is easy, but those other critters have been destroying everything! I read about a 3-foot-tall chicken wire fence being enough, so I did that, but it clearly isn't enough. We don't have deer and other such large things, but we do have lots of rabbits, raccoons, groundhogs, gophers, chipmunks, squirrels, and birds, and I'm sure others that I'm forgetting, too, but in general, that category of critter. In the garden, I have vegetables, herbs and berry bushes. I'm not sure who exactly is getting in and how (thinking of getting a critter cam, but that won't help me right now - I want to enclose the garden before the new crop comes in). The beans are picked clean down to the sticks (leaves, pods and all), even though they are on 5-foot-tall ladder-like trellises with the horizontal slats about 1 foot apart, and everything is eaten up to the top (can rabbits climb ladders?!?); cucumber fruit AND leaves are eaten, tomato fruit and leaves, etc. etc. The cucumbers have chomp marks, so something is taking big bites. I'm starting to think that I either have to enclose the garden around on all sides, including the top, with something serious, or I won't bother gardening at all! (been doing this for 12 years and never saw the amount of damage like over the past 3 years, so I need to either get serious or quit).

So... If I use chicken wire, will that be enough? The chicken wire currently around the garden hasn't been torn anywhere, so they're not getting in by "breaking and entering". Are the holes too big? If I use bird netting stretched around a frame, they'll probably chew through it, right? Should I use hardware cloth? It's so expensive I want to cry just thinking about the amount I'll need, but if that's what I need, then that's what I need. Or maybe some combination of different fencing materials. Would bird netting along the top, at least, be enough, or would things climb up the vertical fence and chew through the bird netting to get in? Please let me know what has worked for you!

 

[azygous]

Clearly your wildlife has moved in and are regularly raiding your garden. So I suggest you "gather intel" by sitting in an unobtrusive spot and conducting surveillance. Then act on the intel. You may find, as I did, that ordinary grey squirrels are the main culprit.

Years ago, I had the same problem and was at my wits end wondering how the veggie burglars were gaining access. I sat and watched grey squirrels run around and around the perimeter of my fenced garden. Finally, a squirrel stopped at a corner and began to dig. I have two kinds of squirrels, Ebert's which eat only tree bark and pine cones and grey squirrels which eat everything not nailed down.

By sitting and watching, I saw that the squirrels were very astute at examining my fencing for vulnerabilities that were not obvious to me. I saw that the fencing in some spots wasn't tight to the soil line and squirrels found it easy to dig the dirt away and scoot under the fence.

It took me a whole day, but I ran a skirt of narrow gauge chicken wire around the perimeter and buried it about three inches into the soil, thus cutting off one avenue of entry.

Another point of entry for grey squirrels were trees on my fence line. I stapled hardware cloth skirting around the tree trunks to make it unpleasant for squirrels to scale the trees to hop over the fence.

For larger critters such as raccoons and skunks, I ran electric hot wire, baited with peanut butter, at a two foot level around the fence as well as a hot wire twelve inches above the top of my fencing using twelve inch cut lengths of 2" PVC slipped over my metal "T" posts to elevate the hot wire and insulate it.

My fencing is ordinary steel field fencing with the above enhancements. It's been working splendidly for ten years.

Rabbits do not jump over fencing as you would think. I have eighteen inch high fencing around flower plots and narrow gauge chicken wire against the field fencing and that stopped the rabbits from slipping through the mesh. It even protects the flower plots from my chickens as they hate to hop over it, too.

 

[K0k0shka]

@azygous thank you for your response! I should've done more surveillance last summer. I haven't seen the squirrels near the garden, but that doesn't mean they've never been there behind my back. Do you think stretching bird netting over the top would stop them at all, if they climb the chicken wire fence up to it? I'm thinking of extending the walls up to 6 feet, with denser chicken wire (right now I have the standard 2-inch but I found 1-inch chicken wire on Amazon), then putting a bird netting "roof" across the top. The garden is raised 2 feet up on cinder blocks and 4x6 wood, I don't know if squirrels can dig under that and then up two feet of soil. But SOMETHING has definitely started digging, because late last summer I found a tunnel right in the middle of the garden, 6 inches across at the opening!!! There was no second opening anywhere inside or around the garden, so it was either a dead end burrow, or something came in from waaaaay out in the bushes somewhere When I was building the garden, I laid chicken wire across the bottom before filling it in with soil. Now I realize I should've used something sturdier. If I lay down a chicken wire apron around like for a chicken run, then have it be chicken wire 6 feet up and then bird netting, do you think that would be enough? Sadly, hot wiring it is not an option because I have little kids that play in the yard and help in the garden.

 

[azygous]

I've had moles tunnel into my squash patch (fenced and hot wired) from far away. I only discovered their cushy little setup when I was harvesting the squash, finding that they had spent the summer residing under the squash plants unseen, munching away on squash to their heart's content.

I've had skunks scale my fencing before I hot wired it. Thank the stars above you don't have bears. They eat your garden, then trash the infrastructure as they leave, like the clumsy vandals they are. I suppose bird netting over the top could stop climbers, but most might decide to chew through it and gain access anyway. You could try it ans see how well it works. It's something I've never tried. Probably because bears would snicker at it and rip it off.

Fence chargers are not like house current. They deliver a mild shock not much worse than a static shock when you touch someone after walking across carpet in winter. If you are barefoot on damp soil, the shock feels more intense, like being hit with a wooden club. But no one dies from it or gets burned.

My chickens have gotten shocks, but it's the last time they touch the wire. Except for my younger rooster. He gets shocked and then he "fights" with it, attacking the wire, it bites him, he bites back, and the show lasts for long enough for me to get a good laugh at his expense.

 

[rosemarythyme]

For me a simple chicken wire surround usually works "good enough" for raised beds - mainly I want to keep rabbits out (we have SO many rabbits around). For berry bushes you'll probably need netting as birds are a common culprit. From the chomp marks on your cukes I'm guessing coons are also an issue, so depending on how determined those guys are, you may or may not need something more secure. Try the chicken wire and see if that helps at all.

 

[K0k0shka]

Definitely no bears, fortunately. I'm on a busy street in an urban area, so no large animals. But the raccoons and rabbits roam around in broad daylight and don't even run from me anymore!

I'm thinking of getting something like this:

Then covering it with chicken wire and giving it a chicken wire apron around the perimeter to deter diggers. Would regular chicken wire be enough to stop squirrels? Or should I get the one with the smaller openings?

My chickens have gotten shocks, but it's the last time they touch the wire. Except for my younger rooster. He gets shocked and then he "fights" with it, attacking the wire, it bites him, he bites back, and the show lasts for long enough for me to get a good laugh at his expense.

 

[azygous]

That's awesome! I'd go with the small gauge chicken wire. That way rats won't be able to get through. Bet you didn't think about rats, did you?

 

[K0k0shka]

That's awesome! I'd go with the small gauge chicken wire. That way rats won't be able to get through. Bet you didn't think about rats, did you?

Damn it I knew I was forgetting somebody!

 

[SueT]

I put cages around vulnerable plants like lettuces, spinach, cabbage family. But the critters don't bother most of the warm weather plants; tomatoes, peppers, okra, green beans, squashes, cukes. Even the chickens don't hurt those veggies, they eat the bugs off them. They might eat a bit of the low hanging tomatoes and cukes, but I plant enuf for everyone.

 

[K0k0shka]

I put cages around vulnerable plants like lettuces, spinach, cabbage family. But the critters don't bother most of the warm weather plants; tomatoes, peppers, okra, green beans, squashes, cukes. Even the chickens don't hurt those veggies, they eat the bugs off them. They might eat a bit of the low hanging tomatoes and cukes, but I plant enuf for everyone.
View attachment 2043526

You're lucky. Critters eat EVERYTHING in my garden. All parts of the plants and at all kinds of heights. Also, my tomato and pepper plants are as tall as me, so it's hard to put cages around them and be able to remove them to pick ripe fruit... And I have lots of plants, too - 30 pepper plants, 15 tomato plants, etc. so it's impractical to cage individual plants. So I'm looking for a way to cover the entire garden up and be able to walk inside and pick easily.