I have enough trouble managing my own monsters so the local rabbit population was not a welcome addition to my burdens.
We’ve started getting to grips with the our new smallholding in the few months since we moved in. One of the areas we wanted to make a start on was the allotment. Our main paddock is two and half acres and we decided to use about a quarter of an acre of this for an allotment.
Now one thing we are not lacking for is rascally rabbits. Ours and the adjoining paddock are infested with the furry little rascals. Knowing full well we decided to embark on the “minor” task of installing a rabbit proof fence around the allotment.
The trenches
I’m not much of a labourer if truth be told, too many years working in soft offices jobs. But I do know how to reasonably efficiently dig a trench. I have my old colleague George to thank for that. About 15 years ago I erected my first polytunnel in our back garden and George helped my put it up. Despite having 20 years seniority over myself he dug the trench far faster and neater than I could manage. I paid attention and whilst no expert I can dig a fairly neat trench these days.
So the allotment is approxiamtely 25 metres by 25 metres which adds up to about 100 metres of perimeter and hence trench. I scoured the internet for advice and the general rule of thumb was you needed to bury the wire to about 30 – 45cm (12 to 18 inches). Or at least you do if you want to keep rabbits out. I set to work and in a few hours had a 100 metre trench, but only 27cm deep. Which happened unsurprisingly to be about the length of blade on my spade. So rather than do the job badly and forever regret rabbits getting, I went back around using a small pointed spade to clear out further. I got to about 35cm before I hit the subsoil and decided that was probably adequate.
It was tiring but that was the hard part out the way….right.
The posts
The trench is ok for burying the wire but you need posts to support it. Because I’m not trying to keep stock animals out it didn’t need to be that robust. I settled for 100mm round posts at the corners and 50mm round posts every 3m metres in between. The 100mm I bashed in using a tube like post hammer, which whilst not easy is efective. I tried this with the 50mm posts and broke the first. They were just too flexible and all the force went into beding them not driving them.
So after a quicjk internet search I rented a 2 stroke post hammer. Now at first glance this should be easy. It’s just when you consider the machine weighs 16kg and you have to lift it above head height and pull down that you realise for all its speed it is hard work. Harder than the tench in i’s own way, but at least the hard bit is over…. right.
The fencing
Ok so I’m not going to pretend that fitting the chicken wire mesh was hard work, just that it was harder than expected. Ironically the hardest art was unrolling the damned stuff. When you get to the centre of the roll it wants to stay rolled and you have to manhandle the stuff into a vaguely flat. Why unroll it I hear you ask? Well it just was easier for folding the bottom over into the trench that way.
A few staple nails hammered in each post. A bit of crawling around on hands and knees to pull the wire tight and lay it firmly into the trench bottom and the fence was done.
Finishing the rabbit proof fence
OK all I had to do now was fillin my trench with my soil, easy. Or so I thought. Taking it out was genuinely less painful than putting it back in. Something about using a shovel to slide the soil a foot into the trench was agony. Regular rests to “shoe in” soil tightly were required and I probably dreaded this job the most after each rest.
We used a coarse brush to get the last of the soil back where it belonged and our fence was complete.
Now a few weeks later I am more than pleased to say we have had no rabbit incursions. Which is probably as important for mental wellbeing as it is for my vegetables.
We still have work to do the gate is only temporarily fixed. The final post hit a stone when it was 30cm into the ground and could not be kept vertical despite a torrent of swearing and tears. So I’ll be bodging that at some future date.