Before we left on vacation, Matthew and I were able to finish fencing in our garden using the chain link fence that used to be around the house. The barn cat, Zia, has been causing lots of problems with my bluebird houses (including eating at least two of the adults!) so I decided to take down all of the boxes and only put one up within the fenced-in garden. While we were away the bluebirds found the box and laid four beautiful eggs.
Unfortunately, it did not take Zia long to figure out how to climb over the fence using the wooden posts. I have had bird houses and barn cats all of my life and have never had such a determined cat! In order to keep her from climbing, we installed electric fence all the way around the garden (it will also keep things like raccoons and squirrels away too) and bought a solar fence charger. So far both adult bluebirds are alive and the cat has not been back in the garden, but I won't call it a success until the babies hatch and fledge!
The garden sure seems to be a popular spot around here. This morning I caught this girl checking out the vegetation along the fence line. Deer don't tend to jump into small, confined spaces though so she did not attempt to get into the garden.
That is quite a system to thwart the cat. I hope it works. And its good to see the fence works against deer anyway!
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