Caging season

Last fall, my gardening friend, Ruth, and I visited Ken Nordlund's beautiful garden. We bombarded Ken with questions, including wanting to know how he kept rabbits out of his mostly unfenced garden. His plants did not appear to have been randomly munched as in my garden.

He took us inside his garage to show us his plant cages. While I was spending lots of time hooking cut edges of wire together to make round cages, Ken slipped a pair of bamboo stakes through the coasted material he used to bind his cages together. Then he pushed the stakes into the ground. When he didn't need the cages, he flattened them and piled them up in the garage. 

Ruth and I both went right out looking for material similar to Ken's. I bought a small roll of plastic poultry netting. I already had a stack of old bamboo stakes. As it was the end of the season, I didn't make any cages with this new material last fall. When I discovered rabbits had already munched on the emerging foliage of a trio of Viola 'Irish Elegance,' I grabbed my green netting and went to work over the weekend. 

The net is 2' wide and I cut it in half as that's much taller than I generally need. The cut edges are still sharp but I put that end on the ground, since most of the cages had a smooth edge as well. 

I made five cages in two sizes in nothing flat Saturday afternoon. I made a few more yesterday as I saw Tulips and Fritillaria thunbergii pushing up. I know those plants are rabbit candy. I am thrilled at how quick and easy it was to make cages using Ken's method.

I used sod stakes to hold the other edge of my cages securely to the ground as I have lots of those. At this point the green cages are much more visible than my old wire ones. But that means I can see them, so I am less likely  to trip over them. I'm hoping they will be less visible as bigger green plants grow up around them. Truthfully, these were so much easier and quicker to make, that it is unlikely I'll go back to making wire cages. Thanks again Ken for showing us your cages. 

Comments

[Barbara H.]

Brilliant!

[Kris P]

I'm glad you found something easy to work with - and store, which is equally important. I've used store-bought gopher cages, placed upside down and anchored in the ground using lawn staples but those can't be sized to fit as your cages are.

[Cat]

Genius! So thankful you shared this method.

[Beth@PlantPostings]

Wow, great ideas. Thanks for sharing! These are great for various sizes of cages. Another idea is to use upside-down wire wastebaskets from the dollar store, but their size is limited to smaller plants. The bamboo stakes are awesome. I've been using bent wires, but they work their way out over time.

[Linda Brazill]

KRIS & Beth — I've tried other kinds of containers but making my own when I need them seems to be the best way. I'll see how these hold up during the winter. ​

[danger garden]

With the word "season" in your title I thought perhaps I was going to learn that cages only need to stay in place for a certain bit of time, but it sounds like perhaps they're on for the rest of the gardening season? As our bunnies are back I'm learning fast what I need to do to minimize the damage.

[Linda Brazill]

DANGER — ​It's gotten very frustrating and I really need to try to capture some rabbits and take them to the country. I've found they eat lilies as they emerge but once they're a foot or so tall they ignore them and I can take the cages off. But I have a ton of things caged at the moment, mostly because they've been munched other years. I need to plant more of what's ignored.

[Kristin]

That's genius!!! I have pricked myself so many times trying to hook together chicken wire! Thanks for sharing this.