Last year being our first to have chickens, we never really had a need to fence in our garden. Our chickens free range during the day. When we first got them they didn’t venture to far from the coop. They slowly widened their horizons, so to speak, and found the garden. By that time most of the plants were mature enough to withstand their scratching around in the dirt, though they took their toll on the more delicate plants. They really loved the potato patch.
“Chickens in the Garden!” became a common cry as one of us ran down to chase them out. It soon became apparent that we needed to find a way to keep them out. After a little research we learned that buying fencing material was going to cost a lot more than we could afford. But we were getting ready to plant strawberries and did not want the plants ruined.
In our efforts to be self sufficient we try to use resources that we already have on hand. So, looking around us, we realized that we have 30 acres of fencing material right here!
Weaving a Stick Fence
Charley and Tony gathered up the materials we needed. One Sunday afternoon the three of us went down to the strawberry patch an build a fence. Actually, we wove a fence.
Taking trees & limbs about 3 inches in diameter we build a frame consisting of 3 limbs for the uprights and 3 horizontal limbs to weave the smaller twigs through.
We had an assembly line process. Charley cut the limbs and twigs to size, I assembled the frames, Tony arranged the frames around the strawberry patch and began the weaving. As we got them ready, we tied the frames together end to end. When we had all the frames we needed in place, Charley and I joined Tony in the weaving.
For the weaving we used twigs about 1 inch to make smaller uprights. Using smaller twigs we filled in the gaps. The weaving works best with green, bendable twigs.
The result was a functional, affordable fence. It was rustic looking, but that’s what we like. It really cost us nothing but time and with a little tweaking has worked very well.
If you are thinking of trying this, I do recommend that you weave it pretty tight. Chickens can get through gaps you never thought they could. Test your fence. If you can move a twig, so can a chicken. Charley just recently wove some bamboo twigs in to make it a much tighter fence.
This ideas can be expanded into other parts of your garden. You can weave stick trellises, plant beans or other viney plants can climb over them & use them for support.
We plan to use the bamboo that Charley and Tony harvested at a neighbors property to fence in the larger garden. I’ll be posting on that at a later date.
Update: Below is a photo of the bamboo fence we built to replace the stick fence around the strawberry patch.
