Rabbit Fence

I am a bit of a lazy gardener. And, one time I was told that rabbits didn't care to eat the things I liked to plant (I have no idea who told me that). So, when we moved to our new house, I planted a garden, but was surprised when the rabbits began eating my plants. They didn't do it at my old house. They even made a nest in my new garden (primarily because of my lazy garden skills). Between bad soil and critters, I had a whole host of problems with my garden the first year. I spent last year developing the soil. Now this year I'm ready to keep out the critters, but I didn't want to spent a lot of money. Sure, I could have purchased a simple stake-down border fence, but I wanted something sturdier. Something I could put in once and leave be. With old used fence posts, I was able to create a nice fence for around $30. If you are looking for old posts, try asking farmers or ranchers. I live in a rural area, and I happen to have the connections. I realize some may not. Ask around, If you have any other ideas where to buy reject posts, comment below. Otherwise, you can certainly purchase new posts at a hardware store, or even online. New ones will even last longer and look nicer. 

First: Take your fence posts and lay the out the corners. It is much easier to fill in the gaps if you have your corners in the right places. 

Using a shovel and posthole digger, dig your corner hole approximately two feet deep. Once dug (with a short fence you don't have to go very deep), insert your post, level it (if you are a perfectionist, but a generally straight pole is sufficient) and tamp the dirt around it. After the post is secure, cut it to length. Since I was using a 2 ft high chicken wire, I cut the post to just over 1 foot. We wanted it short enough to easily step over it. Laying your top post flush with the edge of your corner post, measure out the location of you next support post. Remember, the middle edge of your top post will only set over half of that support post. When you get the second pole in place, cut it so that the top post sits level. I made it level by resting the top post on the corner support with a level on top, and then marked it at the bottom. After both supporting posts are cut to length, saw a 45 degree angle on  the corner of the top post and nail it to the top of each supporting post. 

Repeat with the other side of the the corner. Then repeat this process with each corner. For the ends of each top post, I found it helpful to nail the ends before to the support post before I tamp them into the ground. That way I made sure the ends of the top posts rested where I needed them. In order to give yourself such flexibility, make your hole larger than required. When all four corners are in place, you will simply need to cut a post to length and fill the gaps.  However, if you don't have a post long enough, you will have to add another support post and use two posts to fill the gap. (I had to do this on the far side of my garden. When using throwaways you've got to use what you've got.) 

After the posts are in place, wrap the border with chicken wire, leaving the wire stretched above the top posts. You will need to play with it to make sure the wire is pulled tight to the ground. Since I didn't have level earth, but a level fence, I had to bend the chicken wire into the garden in a few areas. It is better to have excess in the shorter places as opposed to gaps in the taller.  Once it is wrapped, fold the top of the chicken wire over the top posts and staple them to the wood.  

To stretch the wire tight from top to ground, staple the wire to the support posts. Yet, there may be a few area where the wire is not tight. You can resolve this problem by staking the wire to the ground. I created simple stakes by using left over wood. 

Did you find this post helpful? Let me know. Apart from fence posts, is there anything else you have recycled to make a garden fence. I would love to hear your ideas.