Plastic chicken wire for the vegetable garden

9 years ago

Last year a family of squirrels, a groundhog, and a few rabbits found my garden and caused a lot of damage. I am in the process of fencing in my vegetable beds and need to choose the fencing material. I have a choice of either plastic chicken wire, or the regular metal type. The plastic would be easier to work with, but I wonder if squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional ground hog would be able to chew through the plastic netting. Those rodent teeth can be very sharp and I don't want to have to replace these fences. Anyone has experience with the plastic netting? Can it keep out the rodents? Thank you.

Featured Answer

purslanegarden

9 years ago

Go with metal netting. Plastic is too easy for the rodents.

If it's a raised bed, that will help when you try to contain it. Otherwise, you should bury the fence a bit in the ground.

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Comments (13)

digdirt2
9 years ago
Agree that metal is better than plastic. The groundhog can chew through plastic in a minute. Chicken wire will keep out rabbits if buried in the ground but squirrels will just climb over it - they can beat most any fencing IME. I assume you know there are better metal fence options than chicken wire.

Dave
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First thing would be to set your posts. Are you going to use the steel T post that you drive into the ground or wooden post that you will have to make a post hole and put the post in? I do not know if you need to bury a little bit of the wire under the surface of the ground to keep out digging pests or if that is a consideration or not. If so, you need to make your trench in line with the posts. It is kinda hard to do without any help at all if you want to do it right, but if I were going to try to do it myself with what you described I would attach the wire to the beginning post firmly and tack a board over the edge to help hold it steady. then unroll the amount of wire needed to go just around the first corner (You did not say the total size that you want to fence). Depending on how long that run is and how strong you are, you might be able to pull hard on the roll and wrap it around the first corner post, and get a staple or two into the post to hold it. Then stretch and fasten to the posts in line on that side as you go. You may need to take the first staples out to take up the slack when you get back to that corner. Any of the equipment that you mention could easily rip and tear a flimsy roll of chicken wire. To try to use any of them, you would probably need to pinch the wire between a couple of pieces of two by fours and hitch the come a long or riding mower to each end of those with a rope or chain, then tighten very carefully and easily in the lowest gear, kill the motor with it in gear and the brake on when you get it nice and tight and then fasten it to the posts. Tractor Supply Co. has a lot of good information on many subjects. This may be a bit of overkill for your little garden fence, but they have some diagrams and details which could possibly be helpful. You probably get the picture, you would continue this back to the point of beginning or near there where the gate will go. If you have further questions, post them and some one will try to help. Let us know how it goes. Bill P.
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glib
9 years ago
yes, squirrels will go over it, and small rabbits will go through it. You need a wire fence, which is not going to be too tall if it is coupled with an electric fence. That really works. In one of my gardens, the wire is 8 inches tall, but it discourages the entire local fauna.
northerner_on
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you all for your advice. This is a new venture for me and I have reserved a 10-foot square area which I will fence in. In this area there will be a main raised bed for greens, plus two others with trellises for peas and beans. The squirrels are not the major problem, I have successfully gardened with them around for over 25 years, but the rabbits and the groundhogs are the new menaces. The rabbits tore down my pea trellises last year and ate every last pod, while the groundhogs ate my greens. So once I can keep them at bay, I will be O.K. Digdirt, I do know there are better options but I am a lone senior working on this myself, so I am using what I can work with - no hammering or sawing needed. I used this method last week to fence a small bulb garden from the squirrels. They will eat all the flowers off my bulbs. So far, so good. Digging the ditch to bury the fence is quite daunting to me, but I am starting early and will take it slowly. If necessary, I will cover with netting. So now I'm off to source the metal stuff. Wish me luck. Thank you all again.
bcomplx
9 years ago
I use the plastic fencing to keep my chickens off of newly planted beds, but would not recommend it for serious animal deterrence. It degrades in two seasons.
ilovecucumbers Zone 6b, NE PA
9 years ago
Fences aren't an option for me either--can't afford them, and no one to help me put them up. I've considered sprinkling urine around the beds, as well as dog hair on the beds. Has anyone here tried this?
redtartan
9 years ago
Unless it's buried underground as well, they will dig under if they really want to get to it.
I've done human hair as a deterrent at my old place that had a smaller garden. We never had issue there, but don't know if it was the hair or not.
zeuspaul
9 years ago
I use metal poultry fence to keep out rabbits. I don't bury it. It touches the ground and has a slight outward roll. I have not had a rabbit dig under it in 10 years and I have a lot of rabbits. Perhaps it depends on your local rabbits. I also have plastic netting and they don't chew through that although I am sure they could. I prefer the metal because it is less visible.
redtartan
9 years ago
zeuspaul, groundhogs will dig. Sorry I didn't specify. I think some rabbits would as well, but eventhough we have a few resident rabbits, they don't tend to bother my veggie garden too much. They do however get into our hay all winter long. Squirrel will climb over anything if they want it bad enough.
zeuspaul
9 years ago
We don't have groundhogs but we do have gophers. The gophers can dig under the fence but the fence would have to be buried a foot or more to stop them. However the surface fence does help to stop the gophers. The gophers generally relocate on the surface and the fence does control the relocating gophers. When I find a new gopher hole outside the fence it suffers the fate of a trap before it has a chance to dig under the fence.

Our rabbits do dig. Their nests are underground. However when wandering around they encounter the fence and move on.
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
9 years ago
Plastic covered welded metal fence will last better than chicken wire IME, especially when buried.
lolear
9 years ago
I have had rabbits chew through plastic netting many times until I switched to metal. However, once I stopped growing carrots the rabbits stopped bothering...
emmers_m
8 years ago
I had success with rabbits and groundhogs just bending the bottom foot or so of the metal chicken wire outward and securing it to the ground. My critters didn't seem to catch on that they could start digging further away.

I wasn't going to dig a ditch -not a senior, just too lazy :) - and it worked fine in NJ. of course, now I'm in gopher territory and will soon need to make up for it in spades!

If you haven't started ditch-digging yet it might be worth a shot to try the easier way.

~emmers

Plastic chicken wire for the vegetable garden

purslanegarden

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Plastic chicken wire for the vegetable garden

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