Introduction
Growing a vegetable garden is one of the most rewarding experiences a gardener can have. So there’s absolutely nothing worse than getting excited to try your home-grown veggies and realizing the rabbits have beat you to the harvest. The idea of containing your beautiful garden may pain you– trust me I understand. But hopefully these veggie garden fence ideas will inspire you to give it a try anyways. I promise even a chunky fence is better than a horde of deer destroying your bounty.
Know Thy Enemy
When drafting plans for your garden fence, it’s pretty important to know thy enemy. (I know it’s dramatic, but isn’t it funny to think about a little bunny as your garden foe?) Garden critters come in a variety of sizes and expertise.
For example, if deer are foe, you’ll need a high fence to prevent them from jumping into your veggie garden. However, if you’re more urban and struggle more with moles, voles, and rodents, you’ll need a tight mesh fence running into the soil, rather than one stretching high in the sky.
With so many veggie garden fence ideas out there, it’s very important not to build a fence that won’t work for the problem you have.
Garden Fence Ideas
There are three main considerations when building a garden fence. If your fence meets these three requirements, it will be functional. I’d say beyond that, don’t overthink it and be sure to build something you like!
- Height
Going back to “Know Thy Enemy”, make sure your fence is the appropriate height for whatever you are keeping out. If you’re setting up a deer fence, aim to build that sucker around 8 feet tall. However, if rodents are the problem, dig that fence 8-10 inches into the soil, but it won’t need to be too tall (2-4’ range).
- Material
If rodents are your No. 1 enemy, be sure to use a material like hardware cloth that has a fine mesh or fine weave the rodents can’t hop through. For deer, the fence doesn’t need to be so tight to prevent them from getting through.
Be sure to consider the ability of sunlight to pass through your fence, as well. If you have an 8 foot fence made of soil wood, your plants will suffer. If you do want to use an opaque material, consider the height of the fence you need, and the height of the plants on the other side. In a word– don’t block your plants’ lighting.
- Gates
Okay, this is really important. Where should your gate go? Should it go right where you have a bunch of vining, twining, climbers? Or over by the sunflower stalks that grow up but not out?
It’s the latter of those two. Please, learn from my mistakes, do not put a gate near something that will try to grow over the gate, get attached, and get ripped apart a little more everyday when you come visit.
Another truly important thing– build a good gate! If your gate is difficult to open or close, or causes a mess in the yard or garden, you won’t want to use the gate. And what happens when you don’t want to use the gate? You won’t go take care of the garden! So always build a good gate.
Veggie Garden Fence Ideas
Now that we’ve gone over the necessary basics of what a veggie garden fence needs, we can get to the fun part. Brainstorming all the beautiful ways you can build your own fence! Here’s four of our favorite veggie garden fence ideas!
Deer Fence Idea
I LOVE this idea for deer fences. It’s high and contains the garden, but it’s open enough to still feel spacious and not cramped.
Recycled Pallet Fence
This fence gets bonus points for sustainability. Instead of those pallets getting dumped into a landfill, they’re doubling their lifespan by acting as a garden fence! Consider all the possibilities of painting too!
Wattle Fence
Wattle fences are great for people like myself with more time than money on their hands. In the past, we’ve built wattle fences out of young invasive bamboo growing down the street. (Foraged in the forest, not someone’s yard of course.)
Hardware Cloth (Wire Fence)
Here’s the recommended hardware cloth fence in practice. These fences are simple and elegant. These are our best recommendations for keeping rodents out of the garden!
Conclusion
I know the idea of plopping a fence around your beautiful, carefully curated veggie garden may seem like an aesthetic nightmare. But with some creativity veggie garden fence ideas don’t have to be drab and eye-sore.
Plus, keeping a fence around your garden will help ensure that you are getting to keep all the harvest to yourself! Happy planting!
