How To Protect Your Raised Bed Garden From Animals

Hi, I'm new here. I have been using the square foot gardening method for the most part the last two years. I started out with four 4'x4' raised beds just off the back patio, then the next year, four 3'x8' beds arranged along the back fence where there was more sun. However, like many of you here, between the rabbits and my son's Jack Russell Terrorist (I mean terrier lol) it was a mess. I tried wrapping 3' high rabbit wire around the beds but the bindweed and everything loved to climb it on the outside, and it was too tall for me to reach over, and not very convenient to remove. I found myself not weeding or harvesting as much because it was such a pain, and that was counterproductive. The next year I drove T posts in each corner and wrapped 2' rabbit fencing around each bed so the fencing started at the top of the raised bed. That solved the problem of weeds climbing up the fencing and made it much easier to trim around the beds, but I still had trouble reaching over.

Finally, this year I decided to completely fence in a 12'x16'corner of my yard. I came up with a potager-style design with 2' wide beds all around the perimeter, and a 4'x8' bed in the center. There will be an entrance/gate at one end and a bench at the opposite end, and a walkway all the way around the center bed. The rabbit fencing wraps around the entire garden, supported by 2"x2"s in the corners of the outer raised beds. I'm going to hang cattle panels along the inside of my 6' privacy fence, which forms two sides of my potager, and use that for trellising. Eventually I would like to build an arch over the entrance and an arbor over the bench to provide even more trellising opportunities and make it look more attractive.

Even though this new layout is not yet complete, it is already working SO much better! The dog can't get in at all, and neither can the rabbits. Once I get the gate installed, access will be easy and convenient. The bench is a nice place to sit with a glass of iced tea and admire my accomplishments lol! I wish I had done this to start with.

Here's a picture - its not finished yet, and the gate is not installed yet, but it will give you some idea. I am still using the square foot gardening method, its just in a different configuration.

Shelley

Here is a link that might be useful: