How to Create A Rodent-Free Planting Bed

Are rodents like mice and squirrels ruining the vegetables and crops you’ve worked hard to cultivate? Fear not!
Expert gardener Dani Baker has offered a few tips to help you keep a rodent-free planting bed this growing season.
The following is an excerpt from The Home-Scale Forest Garden by Dani Baker. It has been adapted for the web.
Creating A Rodent-Proof Planting Bed
Here are instructions for making a rodent-proof planting bed like the one I made for my saffron crocus crop. This size bed will accommodate 300 corms. You can adjust the length and width of the bed to accommodate the number and spacing of the bulbs you intend to plant, as well as the space you have available. I constructed mine on the soil surface because of drainage issues at the site I chose. An alternative, as long as your soil is well drained and does not have a high water table, would be to dig out an area equal in dimensions to the hardware cloth “cage” and set the cage into the excavated area. In that case, the cage does not need to be reinforced with an outer wood frame.
Materials
- Two 14-foot (4.25 m) lengths of 5-foot-wide (1.5 m) hardware cloth (1⁄2-inch [13 mm] mesh)
- Two 13-foot (4 m) 2 × 6 wooden planks, or one for no wood frame
- Two 2 × 6 wooden planks, each 4 feet, 4 inches (132 cm) long, or one for no wood frame
- Stapling gun and staples
- Two 13-foot 1 × 3 wooden furring strips Two wooden furring strips, each 4 feet, 4 inches long
- 3-inch (8 mm) and 11⁄2-inch (4 mm) galvanized deck screws
- Wire-cutting tool
Process
Step 1. Cut the corners. Using a wire-cutting tool, make a 6-inch (15 cm) cut at each of the four corners of one of the lengths of hardware cloth. To the extent possible, cut through the tines as close as possible to a crossing wire, which leaves flexible ends that can later be folded over to secure the corners of the cage.
Step 2. Fold the mesh along one long edge. Place a 13-foot-long plank on edge on top of the hardware cloth, parallel to one of the long sides and 6 inches from the edge. Use a hammer to bend that side of the hardware cloth around the plank so that a 6-inch portion of the hardware cloth juts straight up.
Step 3. Fold along the other edges. Repeat this for the other three sides of the hardware cloth. This creates a “bed” of hardware cloth that is 4 feet (1.25 m) wide and 13 feet (4 m) long with 6-inch-tall sides.
Step 4. Wrap the “flaps” of hardware cloth at each of the four corners around the adjacent upright edge. Secure them in place by folding the tines at the end of each flap through and around the adjacent upright edge of hardware cloth.
Figure 11.15. Constructing a hardware cloth cage, steps 1 through 4. Illustration courtesy of Turner Andrasz.
Step 5. To install the cage, clear and level a site of the proper dimensions. Place the cage on (or in) the ground.
Step 6. To reinforce the cage if above ground, construct a wood frame around it by lining up the 13-foot planks and 4-foot 4-inch planks. Using the 3-inch screws, screw the planks together to secure them in place.
Step 7. Staple the wire cage to the inside of the wood frame.
Step 8. Sprinkle a thin layer of compost over the bottom of the wire cage and nestle crocus corms (or whatever you are plant- ing) into it at the proper spacing.
Step 9. Cover the corms, bulbs, or crowns with more compost and top that with soil, from excavating the site if available.
Step 10. Top off the bed with a layer of semi-composted wood chips.
Step 11. Lay the second piece of hardware cloth over the bed. To secure it in place and thus rodent-proof the bed, use the 11⁄2-inch screws to attach the 1 × 3 furring strips (placed over the hardware cloth) to the tops of the border planks on all four sides. If your cage is embedded in the ground, you can use heavy rocks to weigh down the hardware cloth cover so that rodents can’t slip underneath it.
Recommended Reads
Recent Articles
Want to make the most of the slow gardening season? Lay cover crops to improve the health of your soil and plants! The following is an excerpt from The Celestial Garden by Jane Hawley Stevens. It has been adapted for the web. Benefits of Cover Crops Cover cropping is a management practice that benefits the…
Read MoreInterested in micro-farming, but don’t know where to begin? Believe it or not, you only need 9 tools to get started. These easy-to-find tools for micro-farming will set the stage for productive growing! The following is an excerpt from The Lean Micro Farm by Ben Hartman. It has been adapted for the web. Unless otherwise noted, all…
Read MoreSeeds are the foundation of agriculture. As John Navazio describes in this excerpt, America was once home to hundreds of small-scale agricultural seed producers, each of which developed seeds adapted to grow best in the surrounding region. Today, following the trend of most businesses, just a few large companies provide seed for farmers everywhere. With…
Read MoreLooking for a veggie to grow and harvest through winter? Try leeks! With some careful planning, a bit of elbow grease, and some insight from Eliot Coleman, you’ll enjoy leeks from your garden all year long. The following is an excerpt fromThe Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman. It has been adapted for the…
Read MoreWant to set up your own micro-farm? These tips will help you learn how to simplify your work, increase profitability, and shape your ideas so you can create the perfect tiny farm for you. The following is an excerpt from The Lean Micro Farm by Ben Hartman. It has been adapted for the web. Unless…
Read More