Daniel Arsenault

I'm going on three years where almost all of my garden has been eaten by various wildlife. I live in a woody, suburban neighborhood, but we have a lot of furry friends, it seems. I put out wildlife cameras and got pictures of woodchucks, skunks, raccoons, possums, porcupines, deer, and a few bears. My garden is not that big, let's say 300 x 200 feet. I'd rather not go electric, but maybe I need to consider it. I have a bunch of those green T-bar stakes (7 footers) and built up a fence of chicken wire and then I noticed there was a warning about lead, so I took it all down. I haven't really found any definitive info on whether one should worry about the lead in chicken wire, hardware cloth, etc., both of which are used often for these applications. Anyway, if you have ideas or can recommend a really good book or video about garden fences, please share. Thank you.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to get some tree ID guides. I like to use Shazam to identify music, but I'll never use an app to identify a plant. Just can't do it. I like the old fashioned field guide approach for that! Ok, here are some pictures or some of them...

I have some apple trees on my property and was walking around recently and found I have about ten nice saplings (scattered around) which look a lot like the little saplings right under one of my known apple trees. I'm wondering what is the best way to determine whether or not a sapling is a young apple tree? I don't much care "what kind" of apple it is. I just want to know if it is an apple sapling or not. Are there tell-tale signs? Are there good field guides for saplings? I wouldn't mind being able to ID saplings in general, but, for the moment I am most curious to find out if these saplings are apple trees in the making.

Marc Dube wrote:All Galvanized wire contains zinc and some galvanize solutions contain lead as well. Most people don't worry about it as it should stay on the wire with only adding minute amounts to the soil over the years. If this is still something that you want to avoid stainless steel wire would be solution.

I'd be happy to be convinced that I need not worry about the lead or zinc in fencing material. Can anyone direct me to studies or facts and figures regarding this?

Hello. I'm looking to build a fence to keep the woodchuck in his beautiful, large, clover-rich area of our homestead, and out of our tiny winter squash (etc) haven. I found some nifty plans for a tall, loose-topped fence, using "chicken wire." (1" hex fence designed for chicken coops) On the outside of the fence you lay down two feet of the chicken wire and attach it to the vertical part, then cover with dirt. I built this whole thing and then I noticed the warning on the packaging about lead in the wire. So I took the whole thing down and gave the wire to a neighbor with chickens. Is there some alternative material? Is there some lead free wire fencing? How does one find fencing material which is safe? It seems a lot of people use hardware cloth and chicken wire for these kinds of purposes and never mention lead or zinc? Perhaps I should not worry about this. I'm looking for an alternative material or information which leads me to conclude that I should just rebuild the thing with chicken wire.

I know, the W word. I moved to this new place and there's a gloriously composted, rich dark garden soil area, and I let the weeds take over last year--mostly jewel weed and something with buckwheat in the name. I wonder if I should rake it all away and put something else down (wood chips or something like that) or just pull away small areas where I make squash mounds, etc. I am intending to fence this area in, as the woodchuck is incorrigible.

I have several contractor bags full of styrofoam. I wish I didn't.  Big and medium sized pieces. I thought I would figure out how to recycle them, but it seems like the resources it would take to get them to a place where they probably wouldn't really be recycled anyway are rather absurd. Can it be used for anything? Insulation? Any ideas and thoughts welcome.

You know all of those plants that are already growing there? W-w-w-w-wild plants? I want to learn more about them. And which ones are good for "Chop and Drop," and what other things you can do besides "Chop and Drop," and why, and what you can learn about your land based on their presence. I've even heard you can "read the land' based on those plants. Any resources you can point me towards would be appreciated, especially books. I have Petersen's for Wildflowers, and Edible Plants, and the one pictured below, but I'd like to learn more about ID, uses, and what they mean for the places in which they reside. I live in NH, USA, Zone 5b.

I like the word, but I get how the commonly held definition is problematic.

Thank you for all of the thoughtful and helpful replies. I am grateful for your recommendations and advice!