Lafayette Organic Gardening

As with most aspects of the garden project, the garden team is constantly trying to find ways to be as sustainable as possible, especially with large permanent decisions like the fence. Our first inclination was to purchase a deer fence online with the plastic screen and black metal fence posts that come with it. In our constant quest to find a cheaper and more sustainable option, we looked into lumber posts, but then realized chemically treated wood was not exactly organic. When we looked into untreated wood, it was harder to find and more expensive then its metal counterpart.

Paul Creme, Annette Diorio, Scott Stinner, and Art Kney installing the fence posts.

It was then that Professor John Wilson told us about the black locust trees he grows at his farm. Black locust trees are native to the southeastern United States and provide a sturdy wood, perfect for fence posts.

John Wilson “farms” black locust posts by harvesting wood for fence posts and planting new ones trees in its place. These trees have a rapid juvenile growth period, reaching fencepost size in on average fifteen years.

The garden team thought this idea to be a perfect solution to our sustainability woes, and we purchased the fence from John Wilson’s local farm. We thought this solution to be great because it’s a local, and sustainably managed tree farm. We purchased the plastic screen fence online, and put up the fence within a few weeks.