Hello there, fellow Kansan!

What about low, decorative fence sections around the area. It probably wouldn't have to encompass the entire flower bed; just enough to define the space and let everyone know (in no uncertain terms) that it is a garden.

"Decorative fencing" could be anything from vintage wrought-iron pieces to unique rocks (strategically placed) to low shrubs ...

Personally, I like the super-soaker idea!

How about poisen ivy? lol just kidding. Rose bushes might be a pretty idea though if you had the room. They could easily step over rocks. Make a mouse trap hidden in the path. Obviously i am too onry for this question. it reminds me of a funny story though.
my very small town (300) has a feral cat and dog population problem. They like to aggravate my pets and get into the trash, one dog destroyed some of my evergreens I planted to cover a hard to mow bank. I like to have fun in life. Soooo... I got a paint ball gun. You see were I'm going with this right? I figured it makes them leave and leaves a gives the dog or cat a nice orange rear end. if they do belong to someone they get the hint and keep it up. If they are strays they are easier to spot for our cop/dog cather/maintenance man. And it's fun too. lol I do reserve the paint balls to constant offenders. I realize all animals get loose ever now and agian. But every night. Your butts mine. Literaly.

I never found anything that was low cost and worked. We finally put up a 4 foot fence across the front. Several years ago, I tried the fancy 2 foot fence along the gardens, but it did not stop foot traffic.

I would suggest that you try to catch the person walking through, and just tell them you are planting a garden there and explain that they are doing damage by walking through. Give it a chance, if that doesn't work....then try other things. A low fence to kids, just means something to jump over though.

If they always walk in the same area....you could also add a stepping stone path there. That would be cheaper than a fence and might work as a guide to where they can walk.

Good luck,

Sierra

A neighbor of mine put up a motion activated soaker with the hope it would deter deer. It doesn't work very well for deer, but it might work for people.

If you have room for a rugosa hedge, that would work. Rugosa roses are too thorny for people to mess with them. In addition, they are pretty and smell wonderful. Dart's Dash, my favorite, is about 2 1/2-3 feet high, a nice height for friendly conversations over the hedge with neighbors. Taller rugosas exist, so you could have a higher hedge if you prefer. White, pink, and magenta are the typical colors. Rugosas on their own roots tend to wander, so they would fill in the gaps nicely.

Rosefolly

If you can grow firethorn (pyracantha) in your area that would do as well, same as rugosa roses, as pointed by Rosefolly. The name *firethorn* has a reason to it... On the plus side, the little white flowers in Spring are very pretty and the crop of berries, which may last until late Winter, provides a feast for the birds. A person can go through a firethorn hedge. I'm just not sure what state he/she will be afterwards, though...

Eduarda

Actually poison ivy and stinging nettles do work, but they present their own problems. I've used both with some success. I use Poncirus trifoliata along the front (it's not hardy past Zone 6, I think) along with gooseberry shrubs. Along the sides and back I grow roses, Fuller's Teasel, raspberries, prickly pear, and sloe bushes. Anything prickly or thorny, since here signs don't work. Fences don't work either. Sigh... But show one kid a poison ivy plant, and all the rest will know it's there in a day or two. I keep mine potted, and be sure to watch for, and remove, berries.

Outside the yard, I resorted to large stones. I have to periodically go out and drag them back into place when someone plows into them (and they aren't on the road!). But, since I started placing the stones around small trees, I haven't had to replace any trees.

Good luck!

At NO cost, you can make wattle fences as tall, as wide and as fancy or plain as you wish. The only material you need is a source of sticks for uprights, or you could use rebar for a more permanent installaton, and lots of small green, pliable limbs for the weavers.

The only variable is how long the shoots of various trees and shrubs last. Some last only one season, some are long-lasting.

You can design a see through fence that has more weavers at the top and is tall enough that it won't be stepped over. If there's an ordinance against 'fencing' make several narrow wattle trellises that are not connected but too close together for someone to squeeze through without caught on the wattle and use some branches or vines with thorns on the top.

Nell

Here is a link that might be useful: Wattle

I've never in my life heard of anyone potting poisen ivy. I am highly allergic and wouldn't dare. but it has made for a great laugh. how do you get the seeds without being miserable for a month. I got into it one time when I was still working at the nursery. Working out in that heat all day it spread like wildfire until I finally got a shot.

Thanks for the great ideas. I think I'll use a combintation of roses, shrubs and wattle. It should help provide some winter interest too. If all else fails I will get a paint gun! LOL!

LOL, the potted poison ivy is too funny. I too am highly allergic and can't come near the stuff. I don't have the problem with people but with every dog in the neighborhood. I have a dog and I think I am the only one who keeps him on a leash when taking him outside and take him to certain areas in my yard to do his buisness. How people can be so thoughtless and let their dogs run all through my yard and mess all over it really makes me mad. I mean if they don't care about their yard or plants or lack thereof fine but when you can see that I'm always out in my yard and planting..hello..I care and keep your dogs in your own yard darn it! Sorry about the rant and I will now step off my soapbox.

Well, thanks for laughing instead of telling me I'm becoming a mean old coot. : )

I wear gloves when I'm handling the poison ivy or the pots of it. I really need to repot them this year. Believe it or not, I killed one by giving it too much sun and too little water. Some gardener I am, killing off poison ivy by accident. They make cheap practice bonsai.

I really like the wattle idea.

kent

Eventually I would have to take off those gloves. That one simple action and I'd be covered from head to toe in a week. As dark skinned as I am you wouldn't thin it a problem.
slubber - If your a mean ol coot then what am I with my paintballs!LOL

bump

Wow, what wonderful wattles!! I'm going to have to try that. So far the only wattles I have around here are on my roosters. But speaking from experience, poison ivy is a great deterrent. One year I put a bunch of pumpkins on some big rocks at the edge of our yard, down by the road. Someone stole the pumpkins and smashed them all over the road. The whole neighborhood was talking about it. They blamed people from across the stateline, but everyone who stopped by from that state blamed it on the kids from my town. LOL. In any case, whoever it was had to climb through poison ivy and a rusted old barbed wire fence to do it. I can honestly say that NO ONE has stolen my pumpkins since then. One winter I took a shortcut through there myself and tore my pants and gouged my leg on the barbed wire. That was the last time I ever went the short way! We also have Multiflora Rose and Japanese Barberry everywhere. Farmers originally planted those to keep deer and other animals out of their fields. The rose and barberry are both prohibited in my state, so we are slowly (and painfully) eradicating them. The barberry is rather pretty with its bright red berries. Both of them spread like wildfire. Either one of those might be good if you don't have kids and don't go around barefoot. The PI and barbed wire don't stop deer from coming into my yard, but at least the deer don't steal my pumpkins. I'd use deer net, but it tangles easily and gets stuck on EVERYTHING, making it a REAL PAIN to work with.

Here is a link that might be useful: Invasive and Prohibited Plants

Concertina wire???

{{gwi:638913}}

Prickly pear cactus (grows to ten feet tall)
Cholla cactus (grows to 5 feet)
Barberry bushes (thorny little devils)

Works for me! (hehehe)
~Annie

circa1825 - what a wonderful home page you have! Just love all those photos. BTW, what state are you in? Looks like it could be around here.

Thanks, gottagarden! I'm in south central Massachusetts. I like your pix, too. The blues and yellows look so nice and cool together... a good way to visually escape the heat of summer!

oh, can I relate to this. We live on a double corner lot. People cut across the corner and also, without fail, when I cut the lawn I manage to step in at least one "pile" of dog "doo". This does anger me as we have no dog! DH has finally agreed to continue the picket fence we built on the side and run it the rest of the way around the side and front of the house. There will be a rose garden across the corner, with a low stone wall in the front of that area.

I had originally considered a rose or some other type of hedge, but I was concerned with winter die back or worse, winter kill. If that were to happen I would never get an even looking hedge. So the picket fence was the best solution for us.

As you are doing "cottage" in the front yard, would a picket fence be an option for you? None of our neighbors have fences either, but I don't think our fence really looks out of line in the neighborhood.

Everyone out here confines their dogs to their own yards except for one neighbor. Their dog runs willy nilly. He likes coming over here to poop his elephant-size, wormy logs and then chases and sometimes kills my chickens and guineas.

We put a picket fence around the front yard to keep our dogs in, but the neighbor's dog goes through the meadow along the barbedwire fenceline and enters at the back of our property. He crosses through the Little Wood at the back of immediate yard near the house, and then doubles back down to the chicken pen run and elsewhere. I find his "markers". Sneaky b-----d! (He is an otherwise sweet pooch. It's not his fault that he is let to run loose and not taught any manners. His humans "think they own the joint", so they can do whatever they want...including their kids and dog, and they pretty much do! What a nuisance.

So, I am going to try using a slingshot. I've used them before on other "strays". You shoot them in the rump with a tiny piece of gravel. It stings and they take off for home just a flyin'. It works great and doesn't do any permanent damage to the animal, but they learn not to come into your yard. I know that in other places of the country you can't do things like this without fearing a stupid lawsuit, but here in Okie, we can still defend our property if we need to do so in most cases.

(But don't try this unless you can hit your mark. You could end up putting out an eye)

Maybe sending them a big fat bill for the damaged property and animals he killed might work too.
A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do!
~ Annie

They still make those pretty Victorian era wire fences. I have three hundred foot frontage so I have been checking also.I thought I could do that and add plants but that is alot of plants.My problem are the PIGS that drive by and toss out beer bottles,taco bell wrappers and used condoms!I am thinking more like a security camera to catch the culprits!

ksmosaicnut:

I too have been thinking of making a wattle fence, to keep deer out of a potager garden. I'm going to use willow saplings because I have access to them.

I want to tell you about my new rosebush. I am growing Mermaid. It is the most gorgeous rose - huge, single, light yellow - with the most graceful habit and the most WICKED thorns. It is also a house eater when it gets established. Those thorns would discourage anyone.

This is a problem close to my heart because I've had maddening troubles with people cutting through my corner lot or coming in to steal my plants, so the idea that came to me this season is nettles. I have a little patch of them that popped up in a batch of topsoil I bought, and these things are a good 4 feet tall at least. I haven't been able to do much gardening this year so they're still there, and I bet they'd make a really formiddable deterrent to cut-throughs. My problem with planting things to deter people is that they trampled the little plants before they got big enough to be effective!

What can I do to keep teens from throwing pairs of shoes into my hickory nut tree? It's by the road with the city ditch in between. I'm on farmland even though our land is within the city. The city won't cut them out of the tree because they told me I own from my property line to the middle of the road. The tree is 4 feet wide, on the property line and land just beside the ditch. It is so expensive to hire someone to do it. The tree is tall, could be 100 years old.

I just found this post about trespassers cutting through a corner lot. It says it was 15 years ago. Some things never change I guess. I bought a little cottage on a large corner lot in a neighborhood I didn't care for. I took a direct approach. I sat on my porch and yelled at anyone that started to cross my lawn. Once or twice a year seems to work.

I was thinking about tying fishing line randomly throughout the line of passage or footpath ...Tie Some high Tie Some low ...Some with bells maybe...??? You may Clothesline some....trip another ...or just be alerted by the bells and may work as a detourant as well!!

Traditional cottage gardens as in might be seen in Britain often have a clipped hedge or other crisp- and substantial-looking contrasting backdrop to the often billowy main plantings. Also with any kind of garden feature being looked at from inside a property if distracting views beyond are not screened out then a conflict is produced. With one's gaze tending to wander to that stuff over there instead of staying focused within the garden. Same as when people are photographed standing in front of attention grabbing objects or settings. Resulting in the picture having two competing subjects instead of a single dominant one.