Creating A Deer-Free, Healthy, Eco-Friendly Garden

Creating A Deer-Free, Healthy, Eco-Friendly Garden

By: Jennifer Homes

Poor soil quality, inadequate water, pests, weeds, deer, and other wildlife are listed among the top 10 problems gardeners face. Now, food is vital for human survival, and with the population estimated to increase by 200,000 people daily, new ways of food production and solutions to the above problems need to be presented. Enter eco-conscious gardening, a technique that helps produce high yields without the use of chemicals that further contribute to global warming. Thankfully, one can start their own eco-friendly garden at home by simply using natural methods of improving soil fertility, controlling pests, and watering. All this, of course, without overlooking the importance of having a garden that is properly safeguarded from deer and other wildlife. If you want to create a deer free eco-friendly garden, deviate a little from the commonly used gardening practices, and try out the following steps.

Warding Off Deer Naturally
Before creating a beautiful eco-friendly garden, you want to make sure you protect it from wildlife. Deer can be very destructive, trampling over new shoots and grazing on the plants in your garden. In the eco-friendly spirit, go for natural solutions. For starters, physical barriers like one of Benner's Garden fencing kits will help. Secondly, consider scarecrows. Although an ancient practice, they are a simple and effective way of keeping wildlife off of your garden. Although Benner's Gardens have a range of repellents, you could make an all natural DIY repellant using eggs, milk, water, detergent or Tabasco sauce. Alternatively, you can spread kitty litter, human hair or dog hair along the edge of your garden. Setting up an affordable motion detector that makes noise when triggered is another sure way of keeping deer off your eco-friendly garden. Once you have secured your garden, you can now get down to the nitty-gritty of eco-friendly gardening.

Prudent Use Of Water
Water is a very important commodity in our lives, without which humanity would cease to exist. It is also vital for the growth of the plants in your garden. Learning eco-friendly and good water use practices is therefore important. The first thing you should do in your eco-garden is install water harvesting tanks. Water collected during the rainy season should be used in irrigating your garden during drier seasons. While watering your plants, try to avoid using sprinklers, since a lot of water goes to waste on bare surfaces. Using a drip line would be more prudent, or a hosepipe. Reusing water is another important aspect. After doing dishes or cleaning the house, use the wastewater if it is not soapy, to water your garden. All these practices are eco-friendly, as they help conserve water reserves by minimizing the use of municipal water.

Making A Compost Pit
Synthetic fertilizers are bad for the ecosystem. Aside from depleting soil quality and leading to eutrophication, they contain ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen gases, which lead to global warming. It is therefore advisable to use organic fertilizers instead. One can create their own organic manure by making a compost. A lot of useful waste can be found at home: old newspapers, egg shells, vegetables, leftover food and fruit peels. These wastes can be recycled to provide manure for your garden. Manure boosts soil fertility in an all-natural way, helping you increase the quality and quantity of your produce without damaging the environment.

Leveraging On Symbiotic Relations
To avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides that are not healthy for your garden, apply natural means of fighting pests. Plant flowers like sunflowers on your garden to attract useful bugs such as ladybirds. The ladybirds will in turn help ingest aphids that usually eat garden plants, lowering yields. To deal with other pests such as caterpillars, slugs and snails, one can attract birds. To do so, a garden owner just needs to have bird baths and food strategically located in the garden.
Companion farming is another important aspect. When two different but compatible plants are planted together, they complement each other, ensuring healthy growth. An example is planting chives and tomatoes together. The smell of chives turns away aphids that attack tomatoes.

Planting Native Plants
The main essence of an eco-garden is to enhance savings. This is achievable by planting native plants. Native plants thrive easily with little or no additional care required if grown in specified regions. They require less water, fertilizer and care than non-native species. Attracting good bugs and birds is also an easier task with native plants, since they are common in the locality. Having knowledge on the list of native plants in your area is important for someone who wants to try out eco-gardening.

Having an eco-friendly garden neither requires extra resources nor high expertise. Simply follow the above steps and turn your garden into a deer-free, eco-friendly one. By using all natural solutions, The Nature Conservancy suggests that global warming could be reduced by a significant 21%.

Protecting Your Garden From Damage This Winter by Gardening Limited

Protecting Your Garden From Damage This Winter

at NOVEMBER 29, 2018

With winter just around the corner, its time to think about how to prepare your garden for the colder months of the year. Some of these tips may or may not apply to you, based on where you live and your weather patterns. Below is a collaborative post on some things to keep in mind when protecting your garden from damage this winter.

The green fingered amongst us who dote on our backyards tend to spend extended periods of time taking care of our gardens during the summer months. We mow the grass regularly, pull weeds, ensure that our plants are well watered and protected from pests, trim bushes, prune trees, and generally ensure that everything is made presentable.

However, as we start to enter the winter months, we tend to look at the gloomy picture outside and convince ourselves that we’ll carry on our gardening work tomorrow, or maybe the day after. Who can blame us? Nobody wants to spend hours toiling away in the garden when it’s wet and rainy or frosty and icy. Cuddling up in front of the television indoors is a much more preferable option.

But if you want to avoid a mess of a garden and you want to return to a pretty and presentable scene in the spring months, you’re going to have to make the effort to maintain your outdoor space come rain or shine! Now is the time of year when it really does need the most TLC. Here are a few steps that you can take to protect it from damage throughout the upcoming months!

Photo Source

Remove Leaves

Most of the leaves will have fallen from the trees by now, but if there are still leaves lying around on the ground in your backyard, it’s extremely important that you remove them. Not only will they quickly change from pretty shades of red, orange, and yellow to a decayed brown and black pulpy mess, but they will prevent sufficient sunlight from reaching your grass. This can cause serious damage and can cause your grass to wither and die, as it won’t be able to photosynthesize and maintain itself.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the wind will eventually blow them away somewhere. Your fences will generally block leaves from escaping. Instead, you need to be a little more active.

If you’re feeling energetic, you can use a rake to gather and collect the leaves to then dispose of them. If you want to spend a little less time outdoors, you might want to invest in a leaf blower. While this will prove to be more expensive, it can be used year after year and gets the job done as quickly as possible.

Remember to Water Plants and Grass

Many of us make the assumption that we don’t need to water our plants throughout the winter. We assume that rainfall is sufficient to keep everything as hydrated as it needs to be. But this isn’t necessarily the case. Rain can be sporadic and outbursts may not be sufficient for your plants. You may still need to top everything up with your watering can or hose. Monitor rainfall and determine whether there have been any dry spells that could see your plants need a little extra water.

Put Up a Deer Fence

If you have deer in your local area, they may encroach onto your land in search of food. Who can blame them? Their main sources of food tend to get scarce during the colder winter months and they’ll become increasingly willing to come into closer contact with humans for the sake of a good meal. However, if you’re not willing to offer up your own plants to them, you might want to install a Garden Deer Fence. This is a humane way to prevent them from stepping foot on your property.

Sweep Snow

If you have trees in your garden and it snows heavily, you should consider sweeping the snow from their branches. This will reduce the weight that they have to bear and can ensure that light reaches any leaves. Just be extremely careful when doing this – large volumes of snow can be heavy and you don’t want this to fall on you from above.

Use Mulch

If you have flower beds, you might want to consider spreading a layer of mulch over the soil’s surface. This will prevent the soil from becoming compacted over the winter months and can consequently avoid water logging during periods of excessive rain. Mulch can also protect the roots of perennials from frost!

Raise Potted Plants

Potted plants can become waterlogged extremely easily. So, take the time to ensure that all pots have holes in the bottom that excess water can drain out of and that these pots are raised above the ground. This will prevent plants from becoming overwatered and will reduce the chances of roots rotting.

Consider a Greenhouse

If you have delicate or particularly vulnerable plants that you want to maintain through the winter months, consider investing in a greenhouse. This will provide them with a safer space to grow in. They will be better insulated and will be out of the reach of snow, ice, and frost.

Ventilate Your Greenhouse

If you do invest in a greenhouse, make sure to monitor the temperature inside of it. The sun’s rays can still be strong on clear days and you will consequently need to ventilate the space in order to maintain a good temperature.

As you can see, you do have to take various steps to fully protect your garden during the winter months. Don’t be a fair weather gardener. Make sure that you maintain all of the hard work that you have already put into your outdoor space over the summer and autumn months!

What are you doing to protect your garden from damage this winter? Let me know in the comments section below!

*To leave a comment on the original post from Gardening Limited - please visit the link below:

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Caring for your Deer Fence

5 Ways to keep your Deer Fencing in top shape!

1. Periodically walk your fence line and remove any limbs, leaves or other debris that is interfering.  Allowing debris to collect along the fence puts unnecessary weight and strain on your fence and it could eventually effect the life span of the fencing.

2. Each year, go to each line post and pull the fencing tight and re-fasten using a zip tie where necessary.  Harsh weather and wildlife activity can shift the fencing and cause it to loosen.  The deer fence will be most effective when everything is straight and taught.

3. Is the fence line really sagging?  Install a cable line along the top line of your deer fencing to keep fence material straight and taught between posts.  If you use the cable and gripple system, gripples can be easily re-tightened or re-used if the cable line ever becomes damaged.

*BONUS: Right now if you order one of the following kits, you will receive a FREE roll of 333' cable and 10 Gripples!  A $50 value!
Perimeter Protector Kit $900 - 7.5'h x 330' Advantage Fencing
Garden Keeper Kit $985 - 7.5'h x 330' Advantage Plus Fencing
Ultimate Garden Keeper Kit $1205 - 7.5'h x 330' Advantage Plus Fencing with Rodent Barrier
ENTER PROMO CODE 'CABLE KIT' AT CHECKOUT!

4. Do you notice chew marks, small holes or other damage along the bottom of your deer fence?  Add on a rodent barrier! This metal hex wire fencing protects the bottom of your deer fence from small critters and will expand the life of your deer fence!

5. For area that suffer major damage - cut out all damaged fencing and if necessary remove an entire section of deer fence between 2 posts.  Replace the section with new fence material, overlapping approximately 6-8" on to the existing fence.

Check out this awesome review!

We recently received a great review by Tiffany & Stephanie Reviews!

Check it out below:

Benner’s Gardens

06/19/2018 by STACY TILTON filed under: outdoorsy, stacy reviews Leave a Comment

About them: Since 1992, Benner’s Gardens has been committed to providing safe, high-quality products. They provide excellent customer service for all of your deer fencing and wildlife exclusion needs. The offer competitive pricing for pet and wildlife deterrent and enclosure solutions as well as all types of deer fencing including high deer fence, animal repellants, dog enclosures, rodent barriers, wildlife nettings and turf protection. Although most of our customers want to prevent damage to their beautiful gardens and orchards, they also do not want to ruin their views with ugly chain-link fencing. Benner’s Advantage Deer Fencing is practically invisible and will blend in with the countryside! Our fencing is black and it practically disappears once you install it. We guarantee it will not spoil your view!

We live in the country so there are lots of wildlife animals running around our yard. And many of those are not animals we want hanging around our chicken coop. In the past we’ve actually lost chickens to those critters so we know they are out there. Since we got some new chickens recently we’ve had to do some added prevention to make sure they can’t get in and feast on our new babies. That’s where Benner’s Gardens comes into play. They have a really nice line of rodent barrier fencing that is perfect for the job. I like their fencing because it’s the PVC-coated steel looks nicer than just plain metal fencing like we’ve had before. The black coating gives it a more updated and quality look if you ask me. Plus it doesn’t snag as easy when you’re installing it like the exposed metal fencing does. I know our old fencing is rusting in many places after years of being out in the weather and it just doesn’t look good anymore. As we are able to we plan to update our fencing to the hex fencing from Benner’s Gardens so it all looks fresh and nice out back of our house.

Benner’s Gardens also offers a variety of other fencing options as well as gates and accessories. Be sure to check them out next time you’re in the market for a new fence!

Source: http://www.tiffanyreviews.com/2018/06/19/benners-gardens/

Deer-Proof Your Garden!

Why do deer jump?  To get what they want- food!  

But a deer will not jump over a fence unless it is necessary, like extreme conditions where it is important to get to the other side.  So to protect your investment, constructing a deer fence is your best, least costly solution.

In order to build a deer fence, you will need a good quality polypropylene fence material or metal deer fencing with a minimum height of 7.5’.  If you have heavy deer population, a strong mono filament cable line is a good idea to run along the top of the polypropylene fence for added durability and strength.  This cable line also prevents the fencing from sagging between posts - keeping your fence looking great at all times!

If your garden attracts small critters that like to munch, a chew guard barrier would be a good idea to keep those pesky little animals from chewing away at your veggies and flowers!

Benner’s Gardens has taken the guess work of your planning with our all-inclusive garden kits!  Our kits are available in 100’ and 330’ so the only thing you need to know is how many feet of fence you need for your garden.  We do everything else for you!

Our kits include everything you need to construct a deer fence barrier and they are super easy to install!

Convenient installation videos and tips can be found on our website.

It's Feeling Like Spring!

Spring is coming, and if you're a gardener you know that getting your gardens ready is on the top of your to do list!  You put in so much hard work to make your gardens look beautiful, but it doesn't just stop once a plant is in the ground.  You must maintain the plant- feed, water and PROTECT! 

Protecting your plants from hungry deer and other wildlife can sometimes be a hassle.  Figuring out how to do it and what materials you will need can be challenging.  Some recommend spraying on animal repellents, hanging certain household items to "scare away" and deter the animals,  and lots of other crazy ideas! Lucky for you, we have tested and perfected the best method for protecting your landscape from hungry critters- a physical barrier. If an animal is hungry enough, unfortunately repellents and other tactics will simply not work.

Shown:  Deer fence, deer fencing posts, ground stakes, zip ties, Chew guard/rodent barrier

Deer fencing from Benner's Gardens gives you peace of mind and keep your beautiful gardens protected from wildlife.  It is a super DIY-Friendly fencing system and requires no special tools or knowledge.  We also have taken the guess work out of figuring out what materials you need by offering fencing kits that include EVERYTHING you need for a deer fence.   All of the materials are black which make this a virtually invisible fencing system.  Each kit offered also varies to meet any need.  Easily protect from deer, rodents, or both! 

Don't wait, order your fence kit today!

Mention Code: Spring18 for $10 off any deer fencing or garden fence kit! 

PLANTS BEING DESTROYED? PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT FROM RABBITS & RODENTS

Rabbits and other rodents like to chew and dig and repairing and maintaining the damage is costly and tiring.  To protect your gardens, there are many products available, but a physical barrier is one of the best choices.

A physical barrier is the only sure way to keep rabbits, groundhogs and other critters out of your gardens.  Animal repellents only last so long and require repeat applications in order to continue deterring the animal.  A great option for a barrier would be a small fence that is strong enough to withstand chewing and digging.  Fencing is a one-time installation that requires minimal maintenance and can even be used temporarily or seasonally.

Metal Hex Wire fencing is a good example of a barrier that is easy to install, virtually invisible and keeps rodents from destroying your gardens. This metal hex wire fence makes a great rodent barrier as it is strong enough to withstand chewing and gnawing of rabbits and other small animals. It is a steel hex wire mesh fence that is manufactured of 20 gauge galvanized wire coated with a black PVC coating for added durability.

In addition to protection, it offers easy installation to homeowners as a reliable way to manage wildlife while easily protecting your property. The barrier attaches easily to any type of post using zip ties or fencing staples.  For smaller areas and for protection only from small critters,  angle posts can be easily cut down and pushed into the ground for a basic barrier with great protection. 

This style metal fencing is available in a variety of sizes, starting at 2’h up to 7.5’h so it can also be used as a full deer fence in it’s larger size.  Use with a heavier duty style post and give your garden a complete enclosure, safe from deer and rodents! This metal fencing is the best choice if you’re looking for heavy duty deer fencing that is easy to install and maintain.