Keeping Animals out of the Garden

I have had a time keeping my plants from being eaten this spring!! I moved my mom's piney (peony for you fancy people, jk) last fall, and it has thrived... except for the goats/sheep/chickens. Every time a new leaf would emerge, it was like a race to see which animal could eat it the fastest. So I had some scrap fencing lying around, and I just wrapped it with that. Not the prettiest, but it worked. Then the animals destroyed my thyme in a garden box. There might be a few twigs left of it. I thought I'd be smart about this.

Hard to see, but mesh bird netting is around those boxes being held up by those wooden garden support poles with Dollar Tree plant clips.

I put some bird netting around my boxes, and when the animals seemed to leave stuff alone, I planted my broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, and spinach. It was a wonderful idea and worked great until Lily realized she could break through the netting. It's like she was moving it out of the way while saying "go forth, my friends and feast on this wondrous bounty!" because as soon as she would pull the netting away about 5 chickens, the sheep and Lily's babies would all rush in. Let's just say there's no broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, or spinach left in the garden at this point. Finally, I had to come up with a permanent solution... Maybe permanent... Probably permanent if I ever finish it.

Tiny fence around my piney (peony)

I'm all about reusing what I have, so I used pallets to make a fence. I got a small fence (tutorial link here) around my piney and began making bigger fence panels to go around my garden area. Spoiler alert, I didn't finish the panels in time for planting, so I just used plain ol' pallets. I'll eventually get around to cutting the pallets and making them into the fence panels, but for now, this is working. I'll link the tutorial on how to make the fence panels here.

Two fence panels made from pallet wood

I'm always in the middle of projects that I started and never got around to finishing. On a homestead, there are always things happening or something coming up that makes you stop one thing and start another. That's what happened with the fence. If you've read my previous post about Rascal passing, that's why I got behind on fence building and just used the uncut pallets to finish it out.

If you look closely at my fence, you will see that it is leaning. That's because I didn't drive the t-posts to attach it to. That's right, that fence is held together by screws and zip-ties. Now I know what you're thinking, why wouldn't I just drive the t-posts? Well, our water line to the house runs through there somewhere, and while I have a decent idea where, I'm not 100% sure. And my husband, who would know exactly where it is, is sick right now. So I would rather risk my fence falling than a busted water line until I can get the hubby's help. Also, do you see my makeshift gate? It's an old compost bin I got off Amazon years ago. Again, I'm all about reusing what I already have. Homesteading projects don't have to be expensive, and they don't always turn out as pretty or picture-perfect as you may have hoped. But as long as it's functional and you make use of it, then it's perfect for you and your homestead.