fences

keeping bad things out of your garden is critical,
I was going to try no fences this year due to the cost of them,
there is a big dog here that keeps away all the racoons and deer, 
but after tilling up the land and making rows the dog came to look at what I was doing,
and the dog totally took out 3 rows 40 foot long in about 30 seconds,
the dog looked confused as to why the ground was not solid,

so I put up a fence,

there are all kinds of fences out there
and what you get should match what you are trying to keep out,
racoons and deer are the big issues here,
deer can jump over a tall fence, but they will not jump if they have no clear landing place,
so a double fence works well as it is harder to clear when jumping,
a double fence also lets you set up a "chicken moat" and they will eat slugs and snails and weed seeds that blow in, but I have no chickens...

some fences have big hoes in them and will not stop much (but will stop the big dog)

there are fences that start off with small gaps at the bottom,

and get bigger gaps at the top, this is the same fence higher up.

then there are fences with small gaps all the way up

but the problem is that small animals can get through and it is more expensive

if you only put your fence posts half way up the fence things like racoons will not climb it due to it not being solid enough for them to feel safe

I am trying 2 plots of land with no fence this year,
potatoes and squash,
so far it is working
I think the potatoes are safe due to the top being toxic and the actual potato being sort of safe underground,

and the squash is the fence for the other plot, deer and racoons don't like walking through it,
so I planted squash around the entire plot with sorghum in the middle
this is a big reason why it was planted with the corn and beans by the natives
and I will find out how well it works this year

don't forget that fences also give your beans something to climb,
here is a runner bean that found the fence

so give the fence you are going to put in some serious thought.

now time to go plant some more black eyed peas