Living Fence to keep out pigs and other critters..

[unknownjulie]

I think they'd definately grow in mountainview in "fullsun" and with alot of drainage. Give it a whirl and let us know! Go try and get some cuttings off the ones in HPP possibly.

[fishnchamp1]

Acacia thorns! That's the trick... There are some mean acacias! Just need some like minded people to help brainstorm...[] There's a great idea. Wonder if there's something native that would be mean like the thorny branch of Acacia sp.?

William DeBoe
Palm Beach, FL
Honomu, HI sometime 2015
Moe'uhane Oihana mahi ai

[mangobingo]

Unknownjulie - will do ... in about 3 years' time, probably...

Good luck, fishnchamp1!

[MarkP]

Having seen a section of chain link fence bent and twisted up at the bottom by pigs I am skeptical that any natural vegetation could keep them out. Certainly you would have to protect the plants until they were mature so you would have to have man made fencing initially anyway.

[unknownjulie]

I think this could work but it'd have to be about 2 or 3 feet wide. I dont know how much space you have. I may try this in the meantime for some kind of garden area. I'll let people know if it works or not. IT also depends upon the type of cactus. I'll drive over to HPP and take a look at the one there when I have some time.

[unknownjulie]

Carey, your plant idea sounds good also but I want something fairly short for a garden area.

[Carey]

Julie, the approach bouganvillea fence of our neighbors is only 3', with beautiful bloom branches on top (different shades of pinks-purples) and a nice lattice work underneath...have no idea how our neighbor did the approach grafting, but this article from Mother Earth News shows one way you could start a lower living fence with thorny branches on things like bouganvillea.. (I would check the plants they recommend in the article, as I do not think some of them would be good for here...do know bougies grow here & do not have invasive behavior...at this time...and no fruit to attrach grazing livestock to root around the fence base ...)
forgot the link!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homestead...z2TNqixNOV

added, Julie,if you want to see the E. lactea living fence in HPP, contact me (it does look like cactus, but is a plant that does VERY WELL in our environment... & is easy to plant & start here

[unknownjulie]

Oh thanks! I have some driveway base being delivered tomorrow and then afterthat I'll start thinking more about a garden.

[sputnut]

mangobingo, you solved the acacia problem, and possibly the pig one, as well. Bring in some elephants... what could they possibly do to the Hawaiian ecosystem?

comin' your way soon!

[Wao nahele kane]

Swine/Hogs come in many sizes.
"Garden" - Field fence works fine and doesn't require any real maintenance. I put up a 50X100 perimeter garden fence a couple years back with 20' posting spans on the 100' runs and aprx. 16' spans on the 50' runs. I used T-post (removed the spear/barb) and it can be set in lava via roto-hammer drilled holes if the dirt isn't deep enough. Scared by my approaching backhoe, I've watched a 300lb boar running full steam a-head bounce backwards off my garden fence and repeat it twice more until he figured it out and went around. I've already lazily dispatched 6 hogs with a 10/22 this year alone and scared off 20 or so via single pump pellet rifle because I don’t like dealing with the carcass every time. So I have plenty of hogs roaming about every day and night and I’m not always in the mood to run and grab a rifle. No breach of the garden fencing or its gate thus far.

A natural fence is a neat idea in theory but in reality the time spent to grow it and somehow fill all the potential breach points is unlikely. A hungry hog will find its way through such a fence and a pig (baby swine) will no doubt wander right through the thing without even trying, eating your prized “whatever”.

The electric wire and barbed combo works fine for range applications but not so well for small gardens (unless you use multiple electrode strands which will require constant clearing). The pigs tend not to roam far from the Sow should they (pigs) wander across an electric fence setup (making the electric fence ideal for range applications), in a small area application (garden), the wandering pigs can do a lot of garden damage since they’re still close to the sow outside the electic fence.

In reality grubs and tubers are the main food source for feral/wild hogs, garden soil is ripe with grubs and the hogs can smell the soils that the grubs are in. Field Fence is your best option if you want to protect your garden properly from "hogs". You can always spend the several years to establish a natural fence within or outside the field fencing, then when complete, remove the field fencing. In the meantime you can grow your lettuce etc in peace (less the insect and weed invasions).

Now, with all the above cited, one might think I'm advocating a simple fenced garden here in Puna. In actuality, an improperly protected open air garden is mostly a waste of effort here in Puna. Best of all possibilities for here... grow in a no-thrips screen house via. aquaponics so you're not wasting any of your efforts and make damn sure you and other articles enter it "cleanly" with no potential hitchhickers (that's Puna's reality).

Note all the empty greenhouses,screenhouses and gardens about Puna? There's good reason for that. Many people come here with great gardening and farming dreams and finally give up through the many battles they faced. This is why we have GMO papaya fields, etc. One needs to be very selective on what and how they grow here, otherwise the nature of Puna will derail such efforts... just like everything else here.

E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.