Jeff Wiseman

The garden is enclosed with a 6' woven wire fence; the bears don't get into it.  What they like is the pear and apple trees outside the garden.  Even though they're not here often, they've done considerable damage to two of the trees this year.

We're going to put up a 6', 2"x 4" welded wire fence to keep deer out.  Someone here on permies extended the apparent height of their fence by running thin white rope a couple of feet above the fence itself, so we're considering that, too.  Our soil is very dry and sandy, so we'll use ground-return wires as well as rods. If we put several "+" wires on standoffs (for bears), could the fence wire itself serve as the ground return, or would there be too much resistance? Total fence length is about 650 feet. Also, what flexible wire with sufficient insulation could we use to connect the "+" wires and the ground return (whatever it ends up being) to the gates?

Thank you,
Jeff