Planting season has begun, and the local deer will soon find the tender new plants. Our solution is to put up a seven-foot fence around the entire garden — an approximately 60 by 60 foot area.
Finding the materials was surprisingly difficult on the Olympic Peninsula. Finally found what we needed at the Leitz Farm store in Port Angeles. Purchased four 4-inch by 10-foot wooden poles, eight 10-foot Tee posts, and two rolls of 100-foot poly fencing, plus wire clips and staples. Stopped at Home Depot for additional pressure treated lumber for a gate.
Putting up the poles was an afternoon’s hard work with a post-hole digger. The ground is full of small, smooth glacial rubble, which makes digging even more trying. Setting the 10-foot Tee posts required a heavy, metal, two-handed driver and the tailgate of the pickup truck.
The poly fencing proved extremely frustrating, due to the unevenness of the ground. We spent an hour or more to get just one side relatively straight and firmly attached. The metal clips for the Tee posts proved worthless — we ended up using galvanized wire to hold the fencing. At that point, we were thinking that electrical fencing might have been a better idea.
Three more sides of fencing to go, plus a gate big enough to get the tractor through.