Planting through chicken wire

10 years ago

Hi, all. I've been locked in a desperate battle with the raccoons, who tear through my raised garden beds every night -- the soil looks like a deranged gravedigger was set loose, and even stout plants get dug up (the small ones sometimes vanish in the huge mounds they leave behind). I just spent $75 on fencing to protect two beds, but I can't keep that up... I already have four beds, and I'm planning a total of eight veggie beds and a bunch of perennial beds (like asparagus) over my sprawling backyard. Fencing the whole area isn't an option. Even if I just fenced beds in pairs, it would be a heck of a lot of fencing, not to mention the hassle of working around it...

One long-term alternative I'm looking into is the solution used to prevent cats from digging around: a sheet of chicken wire tacked down at ground level. I could snip a couple of wires to allow me to plant through it, or poke seeds through the holes. It would need to be replaced every few years (at least), and I'd have to pull it up if I wanted to really work the soil in the off season, but covering the surface of 3-4' x 15' beds would be far cheaper than enclosing them with stout wire fencing.

Has anyone planted through chicken wire? What problems have you had, if any? Do you have any tips?

--Sam

Featured Answer

Sam Stewart
Original Author

10 years ago

gumby's right -- the raccoons aren't interested in the plants, they're interested in the bugs and worms, and they dig like dogs (or wild pigs!) trying to get to them. The plant roots get injured, and sometimes they're uprooted entirely, but it's all collateral damage to the bandits. Make it impossible to dig, and they move on.

I'd only be doing this for summer crops or perennials, the majority of which fruit above ground level. I'll probably put the wire a few inches above the sweet potatoes, so that I can chop the vines off, remove the wire, and then dig the roots when the time comes. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, squash, none of those need to come out of the ground until I change over for the season, at which point I can pull the wire back. Garlic and onions are out by May or June, which is when the hooligans come around. So in theory, it should work... it's good to hear that others have had some success with it.

My raised beds are full of compost or imported soil, and they're about 2' high with wooden sides, so I get very few weeds... it should be easy to pull them before they're so big they get their roots into the wire.

Thanks for the comments. :)

--Sam

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Comments (12)

insteng
10 years ago
You should have no problems using chicken wire that way. We used to use it to grow beans and cucumbers on it. The wire will keep animals from digging in the soil. You might want to stretch it so it is about 2-3" above the soil
tyler
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Have you considered adding coon skin hats to your wardrobe?
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Laura at Rather Square
10 years ago
Wouldn't chicken wire at ground level not protect anything that has sprouted?

But I hear you. We've only got one raised bed and we designed it to have a "roof" of chicken wire because of the abundance of squirrels and rabbits in our area.

How to Build a (Covered) Raised Garden Bed
gumby_ct
10 years ago
It sounds like the chicken wire would work, tho I have not done it either way as of yet.

I don't have an outside dog either but have you considered that option?

I also have been having problems with coons again this year so will be eager to find out how things go for you.
digdirt2
10 years ago
Planting through it might be possible for small, narrow stem things. But harvesting through it would be impossible I'd think.
exmar zone 7, SE Ohio
10 years ago
Why not use electric fence?
gumby_ct
10 years ago
I thought he was talking about putting the chicken wire on the ground to prevent digging, no? I think the coons dig for worms.

I was putting UCGs around seedlings thinking the smell would keep em away, until I saw with my own eyes the coons digging into an old bag of UCGs. They seem to come back to the same spots each nite for feeding too.
nancyjane_gardener
10 years ago
I've got plenty of coons around and they have never bothered my garden! Same with possums and skunks! I don't know why!

I do have a bunch of barn cats (mostly feral) that drift over from my neighbor's place.

I've tried wire (a little heavier than chicken wire) over my asparagus bed to keep the cats from using it as their personal restroom,but I found it next to impossible to weed and once the gus started to sprout, it was hard to lift the wire to weed without breaking off the gus! We ended up putting plastic forks throughout the gus bed and this has pretty much kept them out. I'm not sure that this would bother coons, though. I have also put little pieces of bamboo sticking up.

The rest of the beds I have used cardboard and weed fabric and so far, so good. I like Laura's idea of a roof of wire, but that could be cost prohibitive with a lot of beds. Nancy
Jody gawboy
6 years ago
I wanna plant just a few flowers in this big bed at the cat keeps digging up. So do I put the chicken wire down first cut holes in it and plant the already grown flowers? Or do I plant the flowers first and then then cut diagonal lines and slide the chicken wire in around them after the fact.
kitasei2
6 years ago
These remedies seem so onerous they’d take the pleasure out of gardening. I urge you to focus your energy on sourcing free or cheap material for a fence. Post a request on free cycle. Keep an eye out on Craigslist under “free stuff,” farm and garden, and materials. Explore creative options too. We humans have been farming with animals for thousands of years. Solutions are there!
Robert Zone 6A
6 years ago
@Jody gawboy

Preferably you'd put the wire down first, make holes then plant.