This article will describe how to use netting to protect plants (such as baby hazelnut trees!) from creatures that would otherwise eat them.

Purchase

This netting can be purchased, for example, off ebay from the seller 'nautical-nets-bouys-and-more'

From the seller above, here's a few costs points

$80.00 10' high x 100' long x 1" mesh
$100.00 25' high x 100' long x 2" mesh

The first item would be good for deer. The second for chickens

Chickens

If you have free range chickens, you may need to enclose your garden to protect your plants. This can be done by installing very tall posts in the ground, attaching them at the tops with a strong braided cable, and hanging a poultry netting from the top of the cable. The bottom of the netting can be buried in a trench.

Michael Altfield did this with his backyard garden (there was enough foliage poking through the fence for chickens to munch on, without killing the plants).

Deer

10' netting could be purchased to keep deer out of a tender, young edible forest garden.

Edible Flower Wall

The same netting that is used for protecting plants from animals can also be used to vertically grow plants up.

Michael Altfield did this on the south side of his home in Florida to shade the house, create a beautiful flower wall, provide privacy, and grow food. In this example, 16' 4x4 posts were sunk 3' in the ground in concrete, then a 5/8" wire rope steel cable spanned the posts, threaded through the netting.