I used black deer netting between my deck rails. I grew my tomatoes in pots on the ground and tied the tomatoes to stakes, bird-netting and the deck, itself. If you look between the rails, on the left side, you might see the deer netting. This is a moon flower and morning glory vine. Here's another shot. This vine is growing from a pot on the ground, climbing up the deer netting. This photo shows so many plants, but you can see the tomatoes with stakes and there is deer netting between the deck rails. I tied tomato branches directly to the deck. I used heavy metal stakes which had green plastic coating. Not terribly creative, but it worked and didn't look too ugly. Jane

That's awesome! What size container did you plant your watermelons and cantaloupe in? This is my first time container gardening (or gardening at all for that matter!) and I'm kind of making it up as I go. My watermelons seem to be growing and flowering but no fruit (the bees don't care about them). My cantaloupe has TONS of flowers (and the bees love it) but only one fruit so far. I also have pumpkins...one just got a bunch of flowers yesterday so we'll see if anything happens there. All the pumpkin flowers are really close to the stem (not out on the vine) and that's where the cantaloupe is too (even though there are lots of flowers out on the vines there). The thing is, in this GA heat, I'm already watering 2-3 times a day and there's not even any thirsty fruit yet. I'm just trying to figure out how to salvage what I can this year and what to do better next year.

Very nice. What is growing in there? Looks very full and productive!

Hi there,,well, the only time I have to worry about anything getting my chickens is at night, but they are closed up in there coops very securely so nothing can get in. I have 3 dogs and 2 big cats. None of them bother the chickens at all. It depends on your pets. Mine have been around them for about 6 or 7 years. You can also keep them penned up around their coop if you don't want them to free range. I do not feed them organically anymore due to the high prices of the feed. I buy regular chicken feed but I also give them watermelon, yogurt, peas, corn, black sunflower seeds, berries, scraps from the kitchen, etc. My chickens stay in the yard, they don't wander off into the woods or anything. They even stay out of the road. They dont travel like Guinea hens do. Guinea hens will travel up to 1/4 mile away from home. I lost all 10 of mine in one season. If you go on the "farmlife" forum, there are alot of people over there who own chickens and have good ideas.