Here is this week’s progress on the cutting garden. Heather has been busy painting and on Saturday we put on the wire.
Paint on and wire up.
Start on the doors.
Example of the planter boxes that will go in the cage. There will be 9-12 of these. We’re going to do a combination of flowers and some vegetables.
We get a lot of wild animals wandering through our yard – in addition to cats we also have squirrels, raccoons, roof rats, and skunks. All of which like to dig up and otherwise wreak havoc on our plantings. So the cage is designed to keep all those folks out. We got the idea from visiting the gardens at Filoli. They’re near woodlands and have a section of gardens in deer proof cages. Known as the cutting garden, these cages produce many of the cut flowers used in the main house.
This next week in the shop I have to circle back to the little libraries to finish up a few last details.
If you need me – I’ll be in the shop,
Andrew
Andrew's View of the Week 
I’m watching your building project with interest. I may have missed it in an earlier post but what are you doing below soil level to protect plant roots from moles, voles and underground varmints ?
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The plants are going into above ground planter boxes. The boxes will be sitting on gravel and have wooden bottoms. Hoping to avoid the whole underground problem by not putting anything into the ground.
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Yep, that should do it. Are you water proofing the planting boxes ? The planters I made had plenty of drainage holes but plants suffered until I realised the wood was holding onto moisture, just enough to make young plants die from “wet feet”.
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I’ll post pictures of the planter box soon. The ones I’ve built so far have a slightly slanted bottom boards with a long slot for draining water. This is covered with a weed block fabric to keep the dirt in but let water drain. That with the drip system, we hope to avoid the “wet feet” problem, but that takes work to make sure you get the balance right. Interestingly, I read a gardening article that stated most gardeners kill their plants by over watering rather than under watering.
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This is a lovely pro get. Makes me think that I still have hopes and dreams. It must be rewarding to enjoy life with someone. Don’t take it for granted, some of us live in a sad and lonely world…
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Yeah, a kitty sneaked into a photo!
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You win, first one to mention the kitty in the garden!!! Hopefully when the doors are up, this will prove to be his last trip in there.
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Hmm… He’ll have to find other places to sneak into where the camera is pointed.
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He’ll figure that out. He’s a photo bombing kitty.
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🙂
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Thank you for the explanation because I’ve been wondering why you needed a cutting garden enclosed, but now I understand. You do nice work. 🙂
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Thanks!
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You’ve given me a great idea – have been having issues with some Raccoons tearing up my water garden ponds (that are in pots). Seeing your work, realizing it wouldn’t be too hard to build some small framing with chicken-wire to try and keep them out!
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Raccoons can be destructive to a water garden. The only thing to watch out for is that the little critters will dig, so make sure you structure goes in the the ground to discourage digging. I had a pod for awhile with a wire cover and they mostly left it alone, but there was always evidence of them trying to get under the wire.
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That’s a great suggestion about putting it in the ground – thank you for that! I’d just kind of planned to set it over the pond but will now be sure it is really in the ground too. 🙂
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Refreshing to know that someone else calls them roof rats! However, I also refer to squirrels as tree rats. 🙂
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I have heard squirrels called tree rat, but it’s not a common term in my area. I like it though.
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I can’t wait to see it finished. We put rubber snakes in our strawberries to keep the animals out. Works on all except birds.
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I didn’t think about rubber snakes. Birds aren’t as big a problem for us as the little critters that come by at night.
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I can’t wait (she said with her tongue in her cheek….!)
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Love how it looks! I think we all want to see pictures of the “cuttings” when you are at that point… And what the heck are roof rats?? That’s a new one for me. Who knows, we may have roof rats and not even know it! Yikes!
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Roof rats are a California thing (a variation of the black rat, think plague), instead of hanging out in swears, they live in trees, attics, roofs and the are big suckers, up to 10 inches long – big enough that my cats go running at the sight of one. And yes, more pictures will be coming.
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Looks nice! Good idea to combine flowers and vegies – those zinnias look pretty!
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The hope is that if it’s really critter proof, we might get to eat some of the veggies.
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I really like the choice of paint colour. It’s really coming along nicely.
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I’d like to say we spent hours on selecting the paint color, but really we had a gallon of paint left over from painting the house so …
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Effortless with excellent results is so rewarding, though I know the project is far from light work. It makes great sense (and probably aesthetics too) to match the house and use what’s already on hand.
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and it saved me a trip to the paint store.
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This is such a great idea. A self contained veg and floral plot. I love it!
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We’re hopeful this solves our critter problem.
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What a great idea! Bill just “took down” our veg garden. It had raised beds and a sturdy fence. The deer figured things out and Bill conceded. Your caged cutting garden may be the answer. Can’t wait to see your final results.
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What’s not shown in my picture is that the “roof” is covered in wire too. Deer can jump over very high objects and be very persistent. I don’t have to contend with deer, but I’ve heard they can be difficult to keep out. A wire framework might be the answer.
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I always come away from your posts feeling like I’ve accomplished something. Well done.
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Sometimes I feel like I’ve accomplished something.
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Ingenuity, due to necessity….
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and as my daddy use to say, “Keeps me out of the pool hall.” Although, I’ve never understood why that is a good thing.
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Very nice Andrew!
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Thanks.
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