Garden Fencing for Rabbits

After all the work and time you have spent to spice up your garden, it's frustrating to see rabbits eat all your plants, isn't it? After all, you have planted them so as to fulfill your desire of creating a wonderful garden in your backyard, not to feed the rabbits. So, the solution to this problem is garden fencing. The fencing has to be strong enough as rabbits love gnawing. Moreover, they can jump over low border fences, besides they love digging. So, the garden fence panels has to be such that it takes into consideration all these factors.

Before we go further into details of fencing the garden to prevent rabbits from poaching your plants, a point worth mentioning, these little creatures are very timid and come to your garden in search of food, with no intention of harming you (of course it can't). So, make sure that the fence you install, doesn't injure them.

Barriers for Rabbits

Some of the most common rabbit-proof garden fence include mesh fence, electric fence, tree guard, row cover, boxed raised beds and spring seeding protection. Let's look at each of them in detail.

Metal Mesh
Metal mesh is one of the most common rabbit proof garden fence options, used by most people. You need to make sure that they are strong enough (at least 14.5 gauge), so that even if a rabbit starts chewing it, they cannot break through the fence. Moreover, they should be high enough, at least 3 feet high. Poles should be placed at an interval of not more than three feet from each other. In addition to that, ensure that the spaces at the bottom of the fence are not more than an inch thick. While buying a metal mesh fence, you should buy a 4-foot fence, as you would need to bury an inch into the ground.

Power Fencing
Using a fence which transmits electricity through it, is another way of protecting your garden from being attacked by rabbits. It's a cost-effective method and most importantly, it's easy to install as compared to mesh metal fence. In this process, electricity from a power unit is carried through the wires, which are strung on insulated posts. Usually, a flashlight battery is used for this process and low voltage electricity is passed through these wires. A mild buzzing sound is produced, which repels rabbits without harming them. You can opt to use this method of fencing for protecting your garden from other animals as well.

For erecting such a fence, you should use only a couple of wires, one which is about 6 inches above the ground and the other about 12 inches above. You can take a chicken wire fence, insulate the poles and string a single strand of wire from one pole to the other. Once the wire has been strung, you can fit it to a power unit like a flashlight battery and let the power connection pass through the wire.

Tree Guards
You can try to use a tree guard to protect your garden from rabbit attack. You can wrap the lower part of the trunk with a plastic cylinder, aluminum foil, burlap, tree wrap, so as to protect your trees. During winters, make sure that you wrap the trees above the expected snow cover. Another way of preventing rabbits from destroying your trees is to remove the snow from around the trees, so that rabbits can't reach the tree.

You can also opt to protect your garden from rabbits with the help of box covers. For this, you need to plant your vegetables or crops on a raised bed and surround them with a wooden box. Rabbits tend to feed on clovers and there are chances that they would ignore the surrounding plants. Moreover, rabbits are reluctant climbers and so, would not climb over the boxes.

It's not that tough to install garden fencing for rabbits on your own, only remember the instructions mentioned above to protect your garden. Hope, this article has given you some helpful tips on the different types of fencing, which you can opt to use.