GARDEN ENCLOSURE VIDEO 1 OF 3
Video 1 – Garden Fence with Raised Beds Overview
Tour the finished enclosure and learn how its modular raised beds, braced posts, gate and wildlife barriers work together before construction begins.
Quick Access Video Guide
* Select a topic to jump directly to that part of the video.
0:36 Understand the no-dig enclosure
See how perimeter raised beds support the fence without driven posts, concrete or buried 4×4s.
1:31 Scale the modular raised-bed layout
Use repeatable bed sections to change the enclosure dimensions while keeping the system consistent.
1:50 Adapt the design to uneven terrain
Step the raised beds as grade changes, or level individual areas with careful ground preparation.
2:35 Keep fence posts aligned and braced
Attach posts after the beds are positioned and use angled braces to control movement over time.
3:20 Create a barrier for smaller animals
Use the three-foot raised-bed width and buried barriers where beds do not continue around the perimeter.
Double the gate posts and connect them to the raised-bed structure to reduce movement and sag.
5:39 Handle fence sections without beds
Learn how Henry supports and protects openings where the continuous raised-bed barrier is interrupted.
7:07 Plan fence height and bear deterrence
Review the tall fence, mesh and optional electric-wire strategy used to discourage larger wildlife.
Build the Fence and Raised Beds as One Structure
My design begins with multiple raised-beds that make up the garden perimeter. The fence posts attach to those completed beds, and angled braces keep the posts plumb and strong. Because the beds create the base, the main enclosure can be built without pounding fence posts or setting 4×4s with concrete. The basic steps are:
- Choose the overall enclosure dimensions and gate position
- Lay out multiple raised-bed around the perimeter
- Attach and brace the fence posts after the beds are positioned and level
- Decide on fence height, horizontal rail height for your mesh before final cuts
Adjust the Layout to the Garden
The project in these videos is large, but the design is not tied to this one size. As noted in the plans, you can adjust this enclosure to suit any size garden – add or remove beds as needed..
A bed should be level from end to end, but adjoining beds can step as the grade changes. Prepare and compact localized areas before setting the raised beds. This sloped customer enclosure shows how far this design can be adapted to suit your property.
Close the Gaps Used by Smaller Animals
The raised beds make underground tunneling into the growing area much more difficult. We also used chicken wire beneath the beds, and sections without a bed, like the gate platform need their own mesh buried underneath. NOTE: if voles are an issue, you may need to use 1/4″ x 1/4″ mesh on the bottom of beds to keep them out, and a mesh cover over the top of the beds.
A gate tends to pull away and put stress on the posts. Doubling the gate posts and fastening them securely to the bed structure as shown in videos, provides enough support and will keep the gate from sagging over time.
Additional Wildlife Deterrence
The completed enclosure provides a 7½-foot fence, durable mesh, secure rails and strong posts, and optional electric wires. This is intended to discourage deer and bears, but it is not an absolute guarantee, you may need to add an electric fence line around the top and maybe along the middle rail to keep determined wildlife (like bears) from getting into your garden.
With this design, you can also add framed covers to each bed if gophers or similar critters become a problem. They did for us and we built 2×2 framed covers to the height of the first rail and hinged it to that rail. Then added a hook to top rail and chain to hook to this – it works!
FREE 24-PAGE PROJECT GUIDE
Download the Garden Enclosure Plans
Use the videos for the construction methods and the plans for the project layout. The PDF provides adaptable design options, material list, ground preparation, raised-bed layouts, post spacing, cap and rail details, bracing, gate construction and wildlife-deterrence considerations.
PDF · 24 pages
FROM HENRY’S TOOLBOX
Tools Used in the Videos and Henry’s Recommendations
I’m often asked which tools I used and what I would choose today. You do not need every tool below—or the exact same model—to build this project. These are the ones I have used, prefer or would personally choose for this work, along with the practical reason behind each recommendation.
STABILA 100 ft Steel Tape
Why I use it: For a project this large, a 25-foot tape simply does not reach far enough. I use this steel 100-foot tape for the overall layout because it is durable, easy to read and does not stretch like a fabric tape.
STANLEY FATMAX 25 ft Tape Measure
Why I use it: This is the tape measure I reach for most often. The blade is durable, the markings are easy to read and it extends a useful distance before bending—something I appreciate when I am working alone.
DEWALT 360° Green Laser Level
Why I use it: I use a green 360-degree laser because I can see it outdoors much better than a red beam. It makes leveling the beds and carrying elevations around a large enclosure faster and more consistent.
STABILA Three-Piece Level Set
Why I use it: I have used many levels over the years, and STABILA is the brand I trust most for accuracy and durability. The three sizes cover most of the work here, from checking a raised bed to plumbing a fence post.
BOSCH GLM165 Green-Beam Laser Measure
Why I use it: This is useful when repeated long tape measurements become time consuming. I now (not in video) use a laser measure to quickly check overall dimensions quickly, then confirm critical measurements with my Stabila 100′ “steel” tape measure.
Garden Enclosure Video 1 FAQs
Direct answers based on the project design and Henry’s demonstrations.
Why does the enclosure not need post holes or concrete?
The fence posts fasten to the completed raised beds and secured/plumbed with the angled braces. The raised beds becomes the base that holds the posts in position. Watch the overview →
Can the garden fence be built to a different size?
Yes. Adding or removing raised beds lets you shorten, lengthen or reconfigure the enclosure. Watch the sizing explanation →
How do the raised beds work on uneven terrain?
Keep each box level and step adjoining sections as the grade changes. Henry recommends leveling areas with gravel instead of digging out earth when practical. Watch the terrain section →
What helps keep smaller animals from tunnelling inside?
The three-foot-wide perimeter beds increase the tunnelling distance, while chicken wire under the beds provides added protection. Watch the barrier explanation →
Why are the gate posts doubled?
The gate applies leverage every time it opens and closes. Doubling and tying the gate posts into the bed structure creates a more stable entrance that is unlikely to sag over time. Watch the gate detail →
What discourages deer and bears from entering?
Henry combines an approximately 7½-foot fence, strong mesh, secure rails and optional electric wires. Results depend on installation, maintenance and local wildlife behavior (e.g. a determined bear wanting to get at your raspberries might be difficult to keep out – if you plan to grow fruit in the enclosure and bears are a concern – ADD ELECTRIC FENCE WIRE! Watch the deterrence section →
Video Transcript
Read the complete spoken lesson or use the timestamp links to return to the matching demonstration.
Open the complete video transcript
A lightly edited transcript of Henry’s spoken instructions. Obvious transcription and spelling errors have been corrected; the instructional meaning has not been rewritten.
0:36 Understand the no-dig enclosure
Welcome to Country Life Projects. I’m Henry Reinders. In this video, we’re going to take this old garden that’s basically falling apart. We’re going to take it from this and we’re going to transform it into this bear- and deer-proof garden enclosure. And it’s uh pretty unique. Uh this enclosure here you can build it almost any size. And one of the key elements here is that you don’t have to pound fence posts and you don’t have to use cement or 4×4 post to build this. You can build it on any type of ground because you’re not going to be going into the ground. And the way we’ve done this is we have our garden beds all the way around the perimeter. So it makes it difficult for any small critters or uh gophers and so on to go under and into the garden. So we’re going to go inside and I’m going to show you some of the really cool features of this garden enclosure.
1:31 Scale the modular raised-bed layout
So the concept behind the garden enclosure is pretty straightforward. What we have is we have these boxes that we’ve made up ahead of time. They’re all the same size and they’re the size of the structure we want, which is a big one. This one here is 40 ft by 80 ft, which shows you can build this to almost any size you wanted to. If you wanted to go 300 by 300,
1:50 Adapt the design to uneven terrain
you could. And as you can also see here as I walk along here that we step up. So, if you have uneven terrain, you can work with that. Although, I do recommend that it’s easier to shave an area level, use some gravel and do it that way. But if you can’t, you can do it like we did here. So, as you can see, we step up here. We step up over there. We come straight across here. And then down at this end over here, we’ve stepped down again to that corner. So, it’s it can work on any type of terrain as well. And one of the things that makes this really easy for making it look straight and
2:35 Keep fence posts aligned and braced
plumb all the way around the perimeter, straight on the top, is that in the next video, we’re going to show you how to build the boxes. We’re going to be putting them in. And once you do that, then you attach all your posts and everything afterwards. And it’s once you get the boxes in place, it goes fairly quick. Now the other thing we have these braces that we have attached to every post over time that ensures that your fence posts are not going to move. They’ll stay plumb all the time. Uh with a bit of settling you might get some movement but not much. So as you can see with everything we have here, it’s a fairly simple system. There’s a couple more things I want
3:20 Create a barrier for smaller animals
to show you what we did where we don’t have boxes. What the boxes do is they make a distance. We have a distance of three feet from the outside of the fence to the inside. If you use regular fencing, you have to put some kind of skirting into the ground to keep gophers and rabbits and animals like that out. Here, they literally have to go underground 3 ft to get into your garden. Also, at the bottom of our boxes, we have chicken wire, 1-in chicken wire that prevents any gophers from coming underground and up into your boxes. And we have landscape cloth to prevent any of the grass or the weeds that are present from coming through. So, I’m going to go over to the gate, just show you a few things there. And another section that we didn’t use boxes to show you how we did that.
4:11 Strengthen the gate area
Now, another nice thing about the way we’ve set up this garden enclosure is that when you put a box on either side of a gate, and gates, as most people know, are the hardest thing to keep opening properly, keep them plumb. And uh what we’ve done here is we’ve doubled up just like we do on our corners, which we’ll show in future videos. We’ve doubled up our post here. So, we got two 2 by sixes here, and we got the same thing here. And then we have a cap going across to make sure that this distance doesn’t change with the boxes on the bottom. That distance doesn’t change. And because we have the gate here, we don’t want any critters coming through underneath. We put this platform in here. And just below the gate here, we have 16 in of 2 by material going into the ground. And then this is filled with landscape cloth under here as well to prevent stuff from going through. But that prevents animals from coming through here as well. Also, if you find that over time,
because you have the structure like this, you can also brace on either side if you needed to, but I don’t think you’ll you’ll need to do that. And it works very well as long as your gates brace properly. This is the hinge side here. You come up like that and back here. Or you can come up straight from the bottom to the top. Your gate should never sag. Now, we have one more section that I want to show you, and that’s where we don’t have garden boxes. What we did there,
5:39 Handle fence sections without beds
so this section here, we don’t have any garden boxes. The reason for that is that we kept this old shed here temporarily, but sometime in the next 2 or 3 years, we’re going to build a new shed with a bit of a greenhouse attached to it, and we’re not sure how far over we’re going to come. So, we want to make sure we can remove this later. But we also want to in the meantime make sure that no animals can get in at the bottom here. So what we’ve done down here is we’ve got two 2x8s going down into the ground. By the time this is back filled, it’s going to be about 16 in below ground. So it’s a pretty good chance there’s not going to be too many critters that are going to be able to get under there and into the garden. We also added some finer mesh here because it’s close to the ground to make sure gophers and rabbits can’t get through or any other small rodents. Up here we have our 2 by 2 stucco wire. That’s pretty strong. We didn’t use chicken wire.
We wanted to use stucco wire so that if a bear’s grabbing this, pulling on it, it’s going to take a bit to wreck it or even pull it off, which we doubt will happen. So that’s why we’ve done this this way. Two 2x8s at the bottom and the smaller mesh. We also put the smaller mesh on the gate because that’s the same situation. It’s low to the ground, prevent any animals from getting through. I’m going to show you one more thing in relation to the fencing and the railing for bears.
7:07 Plan fence height and bear deterrence
Now, we built this enclosure 7 1/2 ft high to make sure that deer can’t jump over, but bears can climb over. So, we haven’t done this yet, but what we’re going to be doing, and one of the reasons that we have the middle rail in addition to being able to fasten our stucco wire, it’s also we’re going to be putting electric fence at this level here and at the top here. We’re going to run it around the whole perimeter of the garden enclosure. So, we’re feeling that a bear’s first instinct will be to put his paw down low here, climb up, and then maybe grab up top here. So, we feel two runs of electrical wire or electric fence should be sufficient to keep bears out. We can’t say that with 100% certainty, but uh I’d say 95% sure. We’re going to find out over the course of this summer. On the outside, we have our cap, our top rail, middle rail, and a bottom rail that’s attached to the boxes. And the reason that we have the top rail here, it gives this a little bit more stiffness because put the wire on
the outside here and you’re pulling it tight. If you just had the top rail here to attach to, it would pull down and bend. So this helps keep the whole garden enclosure nice and straight. And so when it’s everything’s done over time, it’s still going to look good 3, four, 5 years down the road. Final few uh things that I wanted to point out that are handy with this design is one, not only do the braces allow you to increase the strength of the uh fence post, but when you’re working on your garden, it’s really handy just for leaning over weeding your garden. You don’t have to push into the dirt with your hands. Also on the back of the boxes with the rail at the bottom, it’s very handy for putting your water lines all the way around the perimeter of your garden. And the boxes themselves, because they’re deep and if you keep the soil about four or 5 in down, you can actually put clear covers on these in the spring and use the ones you need to for cold frames. So, it’s really there’s a lot of nice little features to this and you can
build this any size you want. Small, really large. And in the next video, we’re going to start building the garden boxes. So, we’ll see you then.
Ready for the Next Step?
With the enclosure concept and site strategy established, the next lesson shows how to cut, assemble and level the raised-bed modules.