Building garden bed--- question about groundhog protection

Hi everyone, I built a 4x4 garden bed with 11 inches height. I have a groundhog living under my deck currently. He hasn't been digging anything that I know of--- nothing in my lawn that I can tell.

I am finding it difficult to dig a trench around the perimeter of the garden bed to lay the 1 foot perimeter hardware cloth underground. It is a hard area to dig and will take forever.

My question is... can I just lay chicken wire at the bottom of the garden bed? Like a 4x4 ft piece of chicken wire? The groundhog won't be able to get in right? And the vegetables will be able to grow thru the chicken wire and even if not, there will be 10 inches of soil above it anyway.

 

Yes, you can put chicken wire in the bottom of the bed before filling it with dirt. Make sure you nail down the edges of the fencing so the critter can't push between the fence and frame.

Now, for the big problem. The groundhog. He needs to go! He will eat your garden veggies above ground and the burrowing under your deck is bad for your house's foundation.

 

Thanks for your reply. I agree about the groundhog. I did trap it last year and paid someone to relocate it. Now I see another one living there!

We are planning in the future to redo the deck in the future to eliminate the groundhog and its home. This will cost a good amount but we hopefully can do it in the next couple years.