Vegetable Cage

I am pestered with rabbits and pigeons, so have given up growing brassicas peas etc. but I like peas and brassicas! So I think i will invest in a cage, and wondered whether anyone had bought one/made one recently? There seem to be stainless steel ones and aluminium ones on the market. I don't need a huge one but want it to be tall enough to take brussel sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli etc

Husband scoffs at buying one, says he can make one, but I'm a bit dubious as I'd want to move it every year for rotation so want it to be fairly light but fixed in deep enough to keep the rabbits out

Any suggestions appreciated

Best wishes

Aria

 

You can get netting to keep the pigeons at bay but it won't stop the rabbits. I had some success with a simple mesh enclosure, with the mesh buried about 9 inches into the ground and folded out over, to stop the rabbits digging their way under it.

There are also plants that rabbits don't like the smell of. I have been running a little experiment growing foxglove in a rabbit infested patch. They haven't touched it but have clearly been near it, so the jury is still out on that one.

 

Hi Aria,
How about a designer veg cage on the cheap?
Locate an unwanted 8, 10 or 12ft trampoline frame from Freecycle, ideally including the worn out jumpmat if you can get it.
Trampoline frames are very sturdy 1.5" galvanised steel tube, easy to relocate and about the right height for the stuff you want to grow. Paint it green so it blends into the garden.

Hubby will need to fit some rigid mesh panels to the outside to keep the bunnies at bay. Removable netting on the top sorts out the pigeons and provides access, although you will have to cock your leg over the rail
To convert the old jumpmat into the removable top net, cut the bulk of it away leaving a circular border with the eyelets intact and replace the cutout with netting. Use the waste circle as a guide for cutting the netting.

 

No matter what you do, unless the bottom few inches of mesh are buried, the rabbits will just drive you to your wits end when your mesh cage remains perfectly intact but the evil demons have effortlessly dug a route under it and dessimated your veg crop.

 

We have chicken wire (make sure you get "rabbit wire", rather than Chicken wire - its a different mesh size) all around our garden, and [within that] round the veg patch too "just in case". We had it professionally installed, and they just bent the bottom 6" or 9" outwards and trampled into the grass, which has since grown through. Lifting the turf, and putting the wire under, would be better - but it doesn't need to be buried deeply, just "outwards" as the Bunnies come up to the wire and start scrabbling.

The first fruit cage we had collapsed and was ruined by the first snowfall, so make sure you remove the roof net in the Autumn. Snow is heavy, obviously!