How to Create an Enclosure For Your Vegetable Garden
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Upcycle Discarded Wood, Create, and Protect Your Vegetables from Critters
One Person’s Trash is Another Person’s Treasure
My husband Jon and I began vegetable gardening six years ago when we built our first raised vegetable bed. The following spring we built another bed. Two years ago, we decided to add an enclosure around the beds to prevent deer and ground hogs from munching on some of the vegetables, especially the romaine lettuce.
It would be an expense. The price of lumber increased during the pandemic. But one day while on a training run, I came across four discarded 8 ft. fence posts on a curb outside a home. It looked like the homeowner was replacing their fence. It was trash day.
And you know what they say about trash — one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
I called Jon on my cell and told him about my new found treasure — some of the materials to build a vegetable garden enclosure. He drove over to pick them up. A couple of days later, Jon came home with leftover brand new wood planks, more posts, and several two-by-fours discarded at a work site.
How We Built The Enclosure
On a nice April day, Jon worked with what we had to build the enclosure and I assisted. These are the materials we used. Our only expense was the welded fence and the green garden posts — about $200 and well-worth it.
4–8 ft. posts
2–50 ft. x 5 ft. 14-gauge Everbilt welded fences
3–6ft. green garden fence posts
2–6t. posts
A shovel
A staple gun
Our 12 ft. x 4 ft. raised beds sit parallel and are 3 ft. apart. Jon measured 3 ft. around the perimeter to create an 18 ft. x 17 ft. enclosure. This allowed enough room for a path between the outside of each bed and the fence.
Then with a shovel, he dug four 2 ft. deep holes on each corner to place the fence posts. Next, he lowered the posts in their individual hole and refilled each hole with dirt to secure the posts. Once all four posts were safely lowered and secured, he unrolled the 5' 14-gauge…
