Last fall, squirrels, birds, and cats played daily in my garden. They dug holes, dug up plants, and did who knows what else in there. Every day, I’d come outside to a new thing to fix in my garden. This spring, I decided to wage my own war. Using The Square Foot Gardening book, I built a cage to cover my raised bed garden.
I bought:
- 1 x 2 pine boards
- 48″ x 10 ft chicken wire
- plastic ties
I also used:
- electric drill/screwdriver
- measuring tape
- screws
- pencil
- gloves
- wire cutters
- saw
- sawhorses
- a safer person would use eye protection…
In the picture above, you can see what’s left of my winter/fall garden. You can also see my Square Foot Gardening book, the 1 x 2 pine boards, and the chicken wire.
I measured and cut the pine boards to the length of my raised bed (36 x 30).
I screwed the boards together to make a rectangle and laid it out on the chicken wire (hint: hold down wire with bricks). I used a double layer of chicken wire so that I could fold the edges over all 4 sides (layer the wire like a plus sign +).
After pulling up the edges of the wire, you remove the wooden rectangle, and then use plastic ties to secure the two layers of chicken wire together.
You also turn the wire cage over and secure it to the wooden rectangle with plastic ties. I used several ties to make sure that no critter could get in.
Here is how the cage fits on my raised bed.
Check back tomorrow for how I planted my early spring garden!
I hope I move in time to start a garden this year! I plan on doing it the sfg way as well. Nice work on the cage!
I’ve been trying to figure out how to keep rabbits out of my garden (they’ve always wreaked havoc, and my fall garden was COMPLETELY eaten by them), so I might try this. I don’t have raised beds — rather, I have two long, narrow ground level beds that encompass about 350 sq ft — so I’m not sure how expensive all that chicken wire would be. I’m a newbie, so I’ve never even bought chicken wire before. Then again, what’s a small investment for some food security? 🙂