Hows Garden Fence

I have 2 gardens.
One is unfenced and I can plant squash, cucombers, potatoes, tomatoes and onions without too much trouble from varmints. Maybe a nip here and there by the young ones till they decide "this doesn't taste that great".

The other is about 100' X 50' which I have enclosed with a pet type electric fence which works fo rabbits, groundhogs, racoons, squirrels and deer. I got my electric transformer at Southern States like 30 years ago but I have seen similay at Tractor Supply. It supplies like 20,000 volts @ .1 amp at 60 hz (very annoying!), as opposed to a cattle fence which sends jolts at 1+ seconds apart. Problem with those guys is the lean on a fence reaching for greener grass and break it, so during that period they are sure to get a zap. Small guys are fast and they can zip over quickly and once inside it's dinner time!
But with the 60hz it's constant likd house current. So the idea is the deer go up and barely touch it wit a wet nose (ouch) and the little guys crawl along and reach up to go over the bottom fence and grab that bottom wire and (ouch). evil laugh...

So the fence consists of:
1) 4 - like 6' heavier steel corner posts.
2) 3/4" x 4' fiberglass electric fence posts spaced 8'~.
3) A 12" tall band of 1" x 1" grid plasticoted wire at the bottom. I inherited a 24" roll of this and cut it in half. I stick the pointy side down of course. I have seen it at TS for sure and Lowes/HD I think since.
4) 3 bands of electric fence wire around the perimeter. 1 spaced about 1-2" from the top of the 1 x 1 fencing; 1 up at like 5' and one between. The bottom on gets all the little guys as the try to crawl over the 1 x 1, the top two are for the deer. The trick is with holding that bottom space. I'll try to show with pictures.

I have to appologize because I have had the fence off since early last year so it needs a spruce-up before it could be turned on. The frost rocks the posts and the grass grows up and grounds-out the fence.

This is the northwest corner post looking south.

This is the northwest corner post looking east.

This is the northeast corner post top.

On the left the supply from the transformer comes in.
- The blue wire is a jumper; I bent a hook in the end to hook on the top fence wire to energize the fence; the on/off:) You can handle it by the insulation without a shock, and btw the shocks are annoying but not lethal.
- note the use of the cheap yellow plastic insulators as turnbuckles at the corners and anywhere else you need to attack to a metal post. - those insulators are make to go with the fiberglass e-fence posts , find at TS.

This is a closup of what I did to space the bottom electric wire from the top of the fence. It is a piece of romex which I crimped to the fence at the bottom and to the electric wire at the top using channelock plyers. The plastic insulates ok. You can see that the green plastic coateing on the 1x1 fence is beginning to oxidate (turning white) after 20yr exposure.

This is my "gate" for rolling stuff in and out. This has been open since last year with no damage!
Note the 1x1 fence and bottom wire just rolled back against itself on the right.
I just pull them back accross and wrapp against what's at the post as needed.

Note that:

Grass or weeds touching the electrified wires will ground the fence out and animals won't get shocked.
It seems that after the resident varmints get "trained" you can leave the fence off till a newbie comes along:)
When a groundhog digs under the 1x1 I just put a hav-a-hart trap on the inside against the hole and they walk right in! Then I drive them over to the other side of prettyboy resevoir and let them bother those guys:)
I extented the electric across to the far garden to protect corn one year. It worked but it was a job trying to keep grass and corn leaves off of it and the racoons got in anyhow. It was just one strand of wire 4-6" off the ground. Half assed... Don't do that anymore...
I think this could be scaled up to as big as you feel like maintaining.
the first time I did this I used a treated 2x10 for the base instead of the 1x1. (left over from demo jobs) This was much easier to run a string-trimmer around. The wire eats string more for sure and takes longer cause you have to be careful not to get snagged.