Fencing the New Herb Garden

Skunk proof!

We’ve had skunks living here, mostly under the butchershop in the barn, for as long as we’ve been here.

When I put in the New Herb garden in 2016, I didn’t think it needed a fence. All the plants had been grown here for years and no animal interfered with them.

New herb garden all planted June 2016

I planted all my seedlings and a few of them got dug up, probably by the skunk that decimated the seedlings in my cold frame that year. But it wasn’t many that were dug up.

Walkway mulching done August 2016

Last year it was a much bigger problem. I had gotten free wood mulch and put it on all the walkways in 2016. It had started decomposing and sending up mushrooms. There must have been something yummy in there because the skunk, in 2017, spent much of its time spreading the mulch into the lawn and beds.

Walkways lighter in color due to decomposition July 2017

It also dug up a lot of my seedlings. I didn’t have the money for a fence last year, so I just dealt with it. I’d just rake the mulch back into the walkways.

Thyme is in the second row, closest

This year, the very first seedlings, thyme, I planted, a bunch were dug up that night. I stopped planting and just prepped the beds, hoping some money would appear for fencing. The skunk was really tearing up the walkways also.

Edging done

So some money did come in and on Monday we went and got fencing at our Farmers Coop. I had most of the prep work done, just an hour or so more edging and I was ready to put the fence up. My husband helped me get it up and by 4 PM we hoped the New Herb garden was skunk proof.

Materials:

Welded wire rabbit fencing 28” high

This was the only thing the right height. I’d been looking for the green coated welded wire 3’ high, but they didn’t carry it.

U posts, light duty for corners and gate

Rebar posts

I’d used these for the pea fences and thought they would work well for this application. We’d just slide and weave the fence over the post, no clips required.

Method:

Posts set at 10’ and pounded in to 36” high

Gate: 10’ wide, hooks around corner

Gate detail

How we joined the sections, poor beat up thyme in background

So far, it seems to be working. It was hard to tell yesterday as the walkways were so torn up. I went around and knocked them back into place and this morning there was no new destruction. Yay!

The good thing about having the fence around the garden is I can now use hay, which I much prefer, to mulch the walkways.

It seems I have a large source of organic hay, if I can just transport it here. Some of it was to have been gotten this morning, but it seems a new tire bought yesterday for the truck, was flat… Maybe Friday…