[Rich Z]

Has anyone considered natural plantings of particularly agressively defensive plant life as a barrier around the homestead? The wife and I put in a few plantings of this demon plant called Cherokee Rose a while back that is determined to conquer the world. It's kind of like kudzu with thorns. Kind of a climbing rose, not exactly a vine, but quite aggressively spreading.

If you were to somehow get yourself INTO the center of that mess, someone would have to come in and cut you out of it. Those thorns are very effective hooks and the branches tend to wrap when you get caught up on it. A fence made of this stuff would be basically impenetrable to anyone on foot trying to get close to your home. Yeah they could hack through it, but you would hear their noise and cursing LONG before they got through it and could deal with the interloper easily.

Heck, intersperse some Spanish bayonnet amoung the Cherokee Rose and it would be a formidable defense, I think.

Of course, YOU will be trapped on the inside.........

 

[RIKA]

Ever see Day of the Triffids?

RIKA

 

[tuna]

If you don't want to surround your entire place with it, you can always just plant large thorny things around windows. I use raspberry bushes: tall, thorny and open enough at the top to let me see out the window, while anyone at ground level will have a tough time. Not perfect, I know, and of course the doors are clear but Gen. Murphy always said, "make it impossible for the enemy to get in and you can't get out".

 

[krept]

Out here in the desert, we have planted a couple of occotillo... kind of like a natural fence. If you really wanted to deter someone, cholla is hard to beat... it spreads when the arms fall off and in a couple of years it will be everywhere... NASTY spikes because they break off, go in very deep.

Ocotillo here: http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/images/ocotillo.jpg

Cholla here: http://archaeology.asu.edu/vm/Education/stanley/images/garden/cactus3.jpg

Kind of what you are touching on, I believe, is the concept of layering your system of defenses... making yourself a hard target, deterring would be theives or worse.

An interesting concept that touches a little on this as well as others is CPTED - Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. Here is one of many sites... http://www.cpted-watch.com/ ... some stuff applies to commercial and multi unit housing but there is also stuff for single family dwellings there.

cheers

 

[Glenn Bartley]

Ocotillo, one of my favorites when I was in Calexico.......

 

[John in AR]

Never have tried it, but from what I've read about it, Mesquite should work very well for a natural security fence.

Grows gnarled, up to something like 8-10 feet tall, has thorns, and its beans are among the highest in protein of any bean or legume, iirc.

Discourage and slow down outsiders, provide a source of high-protein food, and that food source should entice animals to it at the same time...

 

[brass hammer]

the mesquite grows [in time] to a mid-sized tree.

it has wicked/fierce thorns,needlesharpe in excess of 2" long.

i have [2] at my place [1] 10' out my window from where i sit [the rabbits eat the hell outta the beans, we watch]

the other at the end of main loop driveway[it's been hit by lighting twice that i know of]

trimming acsess through /under them always draws blood


thanks

it is the best wood for grilling rib-eyes/rabbit/rattlesnake, when your 'camping'