Recently I was taking with a friend who is looking for a new place to rent. She needs a place that will accept her four cats and, hopefully, her chickens and that maybe will even have a small garden available for her use. Or, at least allow her space to put in a couple of vegetable beds. ‘But, of course,’ she said, ‘if the property is not fenced against deer, I won’t be able to have a garden.’ I brightened up and told her she could put in a little garden with temporary fencing. ‘Even just 8 x 8 will give you lots of growing space,’ I said. She looked doubtful.
When I moved into my current property, I brought a lot of potted plants with me. They were all pushed together and loosely wrapped with wire fencing, but the deer were slowly nibbling their way through. I then remembered that we had the 8 x 6 foot wire panels that we use for temporary chicken runs. We currently had no chickens so I assembled four of the panels (one with a door) and thought I would then stuff it full of my plants. It was June. It was the first time in a decade that I did not have space for growing vegetables. I stood at the entrance of this little fenced-in square and immediately imagined it with beds on three sides. And a chipped path. I set to work.
Even though it was a bit late to be putting in a garden, I got tremendous pleasure over the next several months from this 8 x 8 space. Five tomato plants went into the back bed with a couple of peppers tucked in front of them. Cucumbers, lettuce, parsley, nasturiums filled the two side beds and small pots of marjoram, thyme and chives on a shelf. Also I put up some cross pieces at the back corners which provided support for plastic over the tomatoes and allowed for some hanging baskets. I placed a large pot in the corner and planted up the strawberries I had in small pots. All I had to do was step through the wire door into this ‘garden’ and I was in a lush, green environment so unlike the barren, stoniness on the other side of the enclosure. I was happy.
And what about those other plants the deer were chomping their way through? We properly wired off an area for them where they endured for a couple of years while we fenced in part of the property and built the current kitchen garden.
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