How to protect my vegetable patch

I have quiet a decent sized veg patch that I am just starting to fill (late I know but is has been freezing).

It is in a field, the same field that Luna uses as a toilet and I use for playing with her and letting her burn off puppy energy. So at the mo there is not way of fencing it off. Or no inexpensive way anyway. We don't have a conventiAl garden as we built our house and plonked it in a field and then just secured the driveway round it.

So how am I to save my veg so we actually have sometimes harvest?

 

I've had to fence my flower beds off so the garden hoolies don't go through them. You have my sympathy. We just cut some of our nut bushes and used those with string to make a very short post and rail style fence. It's not very high but it's just enough to stop the mad dash through. Have you got any natural material you could use?

 

I guess the practical advice would be to fence in your veggie patch but practical and achievable aren't always the same thing . When Juno was little my garden was not secure so she was never allowed out by herself, which also helps to keep them out of mischief , come to that I still haven't got a secure garden for her . I did have numerous raised boxes though of various vegetables together with fruit bushes, fruit trees which all just flowed on from the area of garden that we played in and used for training. I used to practice calling her away from the area but also used to send her towards the area to retrieve her ball or Frisbee and we used to walk around it as part of our general training. Juno used to enjoy doing the odd hoolie around it when playing as well but she never made much effort to run across the vegetable beds themselves although last summer she did enjoy helping herself to the raspberries as w walked past.

 

Maybe I will have to ask my husband to fashion something in "engineer farmer " style. Last year I asked him for an obelisk for sweet peas what transpired looked like a bizarre art installation in the filed made from various bits of farm debris and left overs from building the house!

Wish me luck!!!!

 

LOL that sounds perfect it may double as a bird scarer too

 

my husband was in DIY heaven when he knew he'd get to cut stuff up and lash it together with string......each to their own

 

Some simple stakes with string would work for some dogs. Oban is the first dog I've needed a real fence for.

I think we need a photo.

 

We brought some picket fencing from eBay to put around the pond and flower border. Its spiked and very easy to put in. Working for pond but Molly jumped over it on to the flowers! We took it down with the plan of getting a taller one before she gets to used to jumping but I'm considering putting it back as at least it'll stop the crazy dashing into the beds. Our vegetables are in the front garden so she's never out there for long but does always make a beeline for them, especially as they have a nice fresh manure covering!

 

It's not the veggies she's interested in

 

We used metal electric fence stakes and the plastic bright orange, temporary fencing/mesh that builders use to fence off our little field before we put in the permanent one. Bought it on eBay. We did find that it didn't stop the rabbits though, they ran straight through but it did keep the dogs in.

 

What is it with the poo obsession?! If she gets a whiff of cat poo she's beside herself with excitement!

 

Studded Tee Posts and wire mesh fencing are pretty inexpensive, and can be taken down and reused. We have put up temporary fences with this system several times.

 

This has all been really helpful. Thanks. Will be a busy weekend. If I want to protect my beetroot!

 

Bamboo canes and mesh at a push? Might work - crossing fingers etc

 

We put up fencing around our soggy grass for winter, a mesh type of about two and half feet high. Dexter says it's great for jumping over even from a standing start

 

Bamboo canes and mesh are what I have - wouldn't stand up to a charge but it is enough to make it not worthwhile trying.

....Except if I put cow poo etc onto the beds..... So I don't use straight manure anymore!! If it's well composted first and mixed with other stuff (ie not recognisably poo) it's fine though.

 

Don't you find you get weeds from fresh manure? We did, has to be well composted from now on, for us.

 

Don't want to put a downer on the bamboo canes but don't use them if you think your dog might chew them they splinter badly I believe and are very sharp. I didn't worry with Riley but obi is an awful chewer so I only use them where he can't get to them. Just in case!

 

Sure, good advice. We don't have a cane chewer. But the bamboo canes are definitely made of very tough, splintery fibres that you wouldn't want in a dog tummy...

Wooden tomato stakes might be a better option, or you can get stakes made of recycled plastic too (they are not brittle, and would be pretty doggie safe).