Subject: Re: CHicken wire over a tulip bed. An environmental mistake?
From: vandy@avana.net (Vandy Terre)
Organization: Tanglewood Farm
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 00:30:39 GMT
Message-ID: <MOD$970922.6340@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$970918.20346@rec.gardens.ecosystems>


On Fri, 19 Sep 97 01:54:01, "dhs" wrote:

>To protect a tulip bed against rodents who dig them up, I plan to lay over
>it, and under 3 inches of soil, some chicken wire. Is this a mistake? Am >I poisoning the soil? It is made of galvanized steel.

>Lisa in zone 6/5
I don't know if it is a soil poison or not. I think not, but I will
leave that call to some one with more knowledge.

What I do know is that chicken wire/ poultry net will rust to nothing
in less than three years when exposed to high acid soil. The light
grade wire is easily chewed by rodents. I have stopped using this
kind of wire for that reason. I use it to control the travel patterns
of our poultry flocks.

On this farm, poultry net is slowing being replaced by wielded 2 inch
x 4 inch wire. For your application, hardware cloth might be a better
choice. Or try some of the 'thumper flowers' (usually plastic
daisy-like wind driven to thump and irritate rodents) to drive the
rodents away.

posted/ emailed

Vandy Terre
vandy@avana.net
Georgia, USA