Ladies, we had our first rabbit in the garden this afternoon!!!! I chased it away with a fierce threat, but I think we’ve been found out. If the little creature tells his friends we’ll be cleaned out in a matter of moments. Any suggestions for prevention?
Needless to say, we went into high-alert mode and held an emergency garden meeting. It was decided that Peggy and Virginia would attempt to find an effective and yet reasonably priced protective system for the garden that could be installed by nightfall. Since we were pressed for time, Lowe's and Home Depot were really our only options. The local stores offered nothing that met our needs, but a knowledgeable employee at Lowe's directed us to the store in Garner, which carried electric fencing. (Interestingly, the Cary stores are considered "too metropolitan" to carry such items...?) Off we went to Lowe's in Garner, where we found a very reasonably priced electronic fence kit, which promised to give us 100 feet of fence and appeared to be easy to install. (We had measured the perimeter of the garden before heading to the store, and decided that we would need about 75 feet of fence.)
We raced back to the garden and tackled the fencing project, working by the light of a large halogen flashlight held by David S as the sun set. We couldn't really tell if the posts holding the wires were appropriately placed or if the wire itself was level and in the right position, but we did our best and David S helped us rig up the energizer. The highlight of the evening was Jane's courageous attempt to test the fence, which she did manage successfully after remembering to remove her rubber gardening boots!
This morning, Peggy sent us another message:
Well, this morning there was no evidence of garden invasion form our pesky friends. However, there was a rabbit in the back yard who seemed preoccupied with the surrounding grasses as opposed to our garden. I don’t know if he was shocked by our newly installed e-fence and decided to avoid the garden or not. I left him alone to see what would happen and when I returned after breakfast he was gone and the garden was unscathed. YEAH!!!
We returned to the garden this afternoon to straighten out our work, and to add a second wire to the fence posts. Virginia found an electric fence tester to save Jane from further fence-testing trauma. Photos of the finished project will be posted soon. We sincerely hope that our e-fence will end this threat of rodent hooliganism!
We raced back to the garden and tackled the fencing project, working by the light of a large halogen flashlight held by David S as the sun set. We couldn't really tell if the posts holding the wires were appropriately placed or if the wire itself was level and in the right position, but we did our best and David S helped us rig up the energizer. The highlight of the evening was Jane's courageous attempt to test the fence, which she did manage successfully after remembering to remove her rubber gardening boots!
This morning, Peggy sent us another message:
Well, this morning there was no evidence of garden invasion form our pesky friends. However, there was a rabbit in the back yard who seemed preoccupied with the surrounding grasses as opposed to our garden. I don’t know if he was shocked by our newly installed e-fence and decided to avoid the garden or not. I left him alone to see what would happen and when I returned after breakfast he was gone and the garden was unscathed. YEAH!!!
We returned to the garden this afternoon to straighten out our work, and to add a second wire to the fence posts. Virginia found an electric fence tester to save Jane from further fence-testing trauma. Photos of the finished project will be posted soon. We sincerely hope that our e-fence will end this threat of rodent hooliganism!
Score ONE for the Dirty Women! I can highly recommend the NC Extension for free information when your next challenge comes along: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/Publications/lawngarden.php
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen!!!
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