new garden gate

putting up garden fencing

A cold dreary April day. My husband and I put up fencing around the 3 raised beds that I'll be planting spring crops in soon.

For many of the posts, we ran into rock about 4 inches down. Seems maybe there's a layer of rocky fill down there.

Suzie and Skippy patiently watched and were soaked by the cold rain by the time we finished. They dug a good hole under the rhododendron for fun and played in the fresh mud. Now, its evening, and they are clean. They got ushered straight into a warm shower and had nice baths.

fences: what works best for garden plots?

I like the looks of all the different fences in our community garden, though many are worse for the wear after the winter. Since we will be adding a bunch of new plots, the question comes up of how to fence these.

- Leave it to each gardener
- Town fences the plots with standard fencing
- Town provides fence materials to gardeners

A fence to surround a 20 x 20 ft plot gets to be expensive. Five ft tall fencing costs at least $50 for a 50 ft roll at Home Depot. Posts and gate materials add a lot more $$. This cost can make large plots very expensive for new gardeners. And installing a fence is heavy work - too heavy for many would be gardeners.

We have about every vegetable eating critter you can imagine. Hundreds of rabbits, chipmunks, woodchucks. Moles and mice. Deer, wild turkeys, etc. Some critters dig, others climb, baby rabbits can fit through incredibly small holes in fences. I've seen gardeners get very disappointed and leave when their entire pea crop is eaten to the ground and they don't have the resources to erect a good fence.

From all the community gardens I've been to it appears there's most often a standardized, town-provided fence. Waltham Fields has chicken wire around each plot, Cambridge puts an external sturdy fence around the perimeter with a limited access gate then lets gardeners erect small internal fencing of their own choice. I've also heard of gardens where all fencing must be temporary and is removed each fall so the entire garden area can be tilled by large machinery in the spring.



Town provided options gives a consistent and organized appearance. But they have their disadvantages. By allowing each gardener to erect their own fencing, we have all sorts of variety. From 3 foot to 6 foot structures. Rusty to polished. Barricades that exclude any critter remotely considering theft to open posts that line the edges.

Our gardens have grass paths between each plot. These provide buffer zones between personalities. They remind me of some poem of Frost's. "Good wide paths make good plot neighbors." If someone grows 6 ft tall corn, sunflowers or tomatoes, who would want to be adjacent at the north side? But those grassy paths require maintenance. And the more fences, the more potential structures for invasives to grow on.

With these thoughts in mind, our Community Garden is planning to add a few additional garden plots. A few more spaces, a few more happy gardeners....

so many rabbits...

I think we have a bumper crop of rabbits this year. I have never seen so many. Babies and adults - they don't even run from gardeners and cameras. A pair lives in my neighbors backyard and Skippy watches them through the fence. He'd love to get out and chase them. I disturbed 3 tiny little babies while weed whacking the garden paths yesterday. Very cute!

The baby bunny in the photo here was at Mt Auburn cemetery today and hardly even looked up at me. The big one is the neighbor bunny that Skippy has his eye on.

rusty garden finds

I have been finding all sorts of things buried in my garden. In addition to happiness and potatoes, these are photos of long ago tools. Some are abandoned tools from fairly recent gardeners, I think others are old items from the farm here 100 years ago. The space our Victory Garden plots are on was used for livestock and crops prior to 1950.

I have hung these items on my fence or displayed them on rocks. Kind of like garden art or old family photos. My favorite is the enormous and very rusted horse shoe. Maybe worn by an old draft horse? I feel its bringing my garden good luck this year!

finished and fenced

As I remember, the original conversation went like this: me "I was thinking about enlarging my garden for next year", husband "Oh we can just move the fence over", me "What about the stumps", husband "Oh, we'll just take them out". Me "Great!". It seemed so easy. So we started at it...... Now, several weeks later, with sore backs and blisters, a BIG pile of rocks and giant uprooted stumps, we are done.

But its a beautiful fresh new plot of dirt. Definitely a cause for celebrating with a nice martini!

The photos show my new plot from each of the four corners. The new dimensions are 23-24 feet x 27-29 feet. (The plot is not square, so the paired numbers are each end.) About 660 square feet total.

My old plot was 15 x 24 ft, 360 sq feet. So it now almost twice the size.

And I'm planning all sorts of new crops for next year. Here's my list of my new ideas.

community plot expansion project

garden lock

Well, furry critters are one reason for the fence. There also seem to be snitches who can open my bar pull and use glass shards to cut off squashes. Oh well. These things are to be expected. Other gardeners here have lots of stories. I just thought I'd wait with the lock until I needed it. My sister noticed that two or three zucchinis disappeared yesterday, so I added a little pad lock to the gate. Just another aspect of community gardening.

a rabbit looks for a hole in the garden fence

Here's one of the reasons we all have elaborate fences at our community garden. So cute!

Belmont Victory Garden

new garden gate

I have a great new garden gate that my husband made. Now I don't trip over the fence every time I try to get into the garden. I stepped on several plants this spring after I tripped on the fence. No more!

The gate is made from pvc pipe. It rests on either or both of 2 copper pipes set in the ground. It pulls up and off completely. Or it can be set on one pipe or the other so it swings. A very cool design.

The fence is just a low 2 or 3 foot one that keeps Skippy out of the garden.

garden structures

fence day 2

The fence is pretty much done. I need to add chicken wire at the bottom to the last two sides, fill in the dirt along the outside bottom, then move the rocks up against the fence to make more room for plants.

garden structures

new fence - day 1

My new community garden fence is looking good. I had super helpers. We bought posts, fencing and door materials, moved rocks from the perimeter, pounded in posts and attached the fencing all around using tie wraps. Its a green vinyl coated fence with 2 by 3 inch openings. 5 feet high. I'll dig in chicken wire about 4 inches deep and 1.5 feet tall all around the bottom later. (This is because of the very aggressive woodchucks all the gardeners tell stories about.) The door posts are 4 by 4 inch pine posts. My husband is making a door today. Its going to look really nice.....

garden structures

new fence

I am experimenting with this new fence. I need a way to keep the dog out of the garden. Sorry Skip! It just doesn't work to have him using it as a litter box. I need a fence that I can easily step over. Also it shouldn't interfere with my sprinklers. This fence is 28 inches high and quite sturdy. I was able to get two of the four posts into the soil - its still a bit too frozen where the other two need to go. The fence is designed to keep small animals out of the garden (e.g. rabbits). I think I'll end up digging it into the ground a bit so its quite not so tall.

garden structures