Conventional fencing used to encircle and protect small seedlings, flowers and plants is typically constructed of metal wire and is relatively inexpensive, light weight and highly compactable into a rolled configuration for storage. Yet, despite the many advantages associated with fencing of this sort, they tend to suffer from significant shortcomings making their use less desirable.
Seedling fencing typically has a plurality of incrementally spaced downward projections which are intended to be inserted into the ground in order to hold the fence in place. In practice, however, the metal wires frequently bend when their insertion into the ground is attempted because of their relatively long length and small diameter. Moreover, difficulty of insertion is exacerbated when the ground is hard or when the wire makes contact with small obstructions in the soil because the thin wires simply lack the structural fortitude required to be driven through these impediments. Additionally, the degree of protection actually afforded by conventional fencing is often unsatisfactory because their thin wire support extensions are easily uprooted and overturned by exposure to moderate winds or even the slightest contact with gardening implements or an accidental kick, for instance.
Heretofore, users of such fences have attempted to resolve these problems by driving stakes or posts into the ground adjacent the fence and secure them together with twine or wire. This remedy, while somewhat effective, requires considerable time and effort to cut appropriate lengths of string, one at a time, to tie knots, cut off loose ends, etc., and is considered by many to lack aesthetic appeal.
It is clear that a significant need exists for a solution to the above described shortcomings without sacrificing the many advantages associated with conventional garden fencing. The subject invention completely obviates all of these shortcomings by providing a separate support apparatus to which conventional fencing may be attached.