Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

had a rabbit problem and it was resolved with herbs and 5 hours of braising on the stovetop.

Sounds great!

We used to have dogs out where I live, but people moved away and currently nobody has a dog in the neighborhood. As a consequence, I can go out in the evening, look around the yard, and count a good half dozen to a whole dozen of rabbits in my yard alone. The chicken wire protective cages on the raised beds are enough to keep them out.

I see you have some chicken wire on panels on top of your raised bed. Is that for use as a trellis? Or, does it enclose everything like my cages? It's hard for my old eyes to see in the pictures how far the chicken wire goes...

 

[Smokerbill]

There's no chicken wire over the top, but I think you're seeing the framework I originally put in place to attach the vertical wood framed chicken wire panels to. I no longer use those panels, but that framework has come in handy for attaching trellises to. Last summer I used it to support some boards across the top, over the peas, to provide them shade during the hot part of the day. Seemed to help extend the pea season.

The chicken wire on the end of the raised bed framework, well, I attached it to the frame with narrow crown staples. Mistake. Too much work to remove it so it remains. Otherwise it would be gone.

My deer fence is an eyesore but it works. The lower part is old fencing I found in the woods and some of the panels that I built to enclose the raised beds. The upper half is just several strands of rope that the deer can see. It works, so that works for me.

 

[gtaus]

The chicken wire on the end of the raised bed framework, well, I attached it to the frame with narrow crown staples. Mistake. Too much work to remove it so it remains. Otherwise it would be gone.

Thanks for the reply. I am currently building another chicken wire protective cage. I was considering using some 1/2-inch narrow crown staples to secure the chicken wire to the wood frame, but decided to stick with my Arrow T-50 stapler - thinking that if I ever have to take that wire off, the narrow crown staples would be a lot of work. Glad to hear I made the right choice. I can use a simple needle nose pliers to fairly easily take out the Arrow T-50 staples. I think it would take a lot of digging to get out the narrow crown staples. So, I'm glad I did not decide to use them.

I bought an almost full box of 5,000 Arrow T-50 staples at our local Thrift Store. Paid next to nothing for the box. However, the box had been exposed to weather and there is some rust on parts of the staple strips. I get lots of misfires with those staples and have to reload them. If I was a contractor, I would not use them because time is money. I don't mind too much having to clear a misfire and start up back again. I'm not being paid on the clock.

My deer fence is an eyesore but it works. The lower part is old fencing I found in the woods and some of the panels that I built to enclose the raised beds. The upper half is just several strands of rope that the deer can see. It works, so that works for me.

No eyesore. What's an eyesore is going out to the garden early one morning and finding out that a herd of deer ate all your tomatoes and peppers the previous night!

I really don't care how my protective cages look on top of my raised garden beds, as long as they protect the plants and I don't get wiped out again this year. Eyesore or not to others, if they work, it's a thing of beauty to me.

 

[gtaus]

Just a quick update on the new 1X2X4 foot chicken wire protective cages I finished building this evening. Here is a picture of them on top of the elevated raised beds I have in the backyard garden space...

The idea was to make the cages tall enough to let the plants get well established before they outgrow the cage. That way, I hope the squirrels will not be able to dig up the grown plants like all the damage they have been doing to my young plants, bulbs, and seeds.

As to the build, I just ripped some 2X4's salvaged from pallet breakdowns, put the frame together using my air stapler with narrow crown staples, and reused some old chicken wire I had sitting outside behind a shed. Basically, a ZERO cost build other than my time and effort.

I don't like having to put a chicken wire cage on every raised bed, but those darn squirrels have been digging up just about everything out in the garden. I need to buy the plants some time to grow without the squirrels digging up the beds.

 

[Smokerbill]

Those cages look great!