The Fruit Cage

 

I've been working on building a Fruit Cage for months now with a great deal
of help from the under-gardener.  I think we started this project in early
Spring.

It's coming along but I don't know if I'd have ever started if I'd realised
what a big job it was going to be.

Our veg garden is on the north western side of the house (it'd be about a
fifth of an acre I guess).  It has a 6 ft high fence along the western edge
with shade cloth all along it to stop the westerly winds.  Outside this
fence is a windbreak of wattles and smaller native shrubs.

One day I was in the veg garden and wondering whether I should plant more
trees shrubs on the northernmost end of the windbreak when I suddenly
realised that there was a perfect spot for me to punch out the fence and
build a big fruit cage out into the windbreak area as there really was no
more space in the veg garden for one.

Great idea, but then came the work.  Pull down the shade cloth on that end
of the veg garden, drop the fence.  Think about the structure and realise
that if we put in a long post to support the remainder of the fence, we
could use this as the corner post of the fruit cage.  Put in 5 more posts.
Put up sheep wire on western and southern side of fruit cage, cover that
with shadecloth.  Put fence back up and put shadecloth back on fence.

Start putting timber edging in for beds starting on southern side - do some
soil improvement on that side.  Beds will be in a 'U' shape.  Realise that I
have a Sultana grap in a pot that has been in the pot too long.  Put it in
the fruit cage on the southern wall and start training it up the wires.
Realise that I need to stop snakes/lizards getting in around edges behind
where the timber sits to hold the soil in the beds - pefect spot for snakes
and lizards to get in.  Stuff cheap black bird netting at bottom of
sheepwire/shadecloth and top it with large pine chunk mulch from another
part of the garden weaving birdnetting over and through mulch.  Mulch path
with fine wood chips.

At this stage I still have 2 sides of the 'U' beds to finish and the
northern wall is till as bare as a bobies bottom but for for that side I've
bought a roll of 6ft high bird netting.  To think how many berries I coul
dhave bought for the cost of that wire - not sensible but then what gardener
ever is sensible.

We need to put something across the top to support a roof (steel/2 inch
plastic?  Yet to be decided.)  Roof will probably be of white bird netting.
Then I have to get a door shape welded up so that it fits closely into a
door frame (again to exclude snakes) and cover that with bird wire.  So much
to do still....... Perhaps it will be ready by next spring Sigh!

 

FarmI wrote:

What specifically are you excluding?  I have some toothy beastie eating my
ripe tomatos right now.  I think it is rats because there are holes with
scrabble marks in the garden but cannot tell for sure.  I have put down
ratsak but the chomping continues and no corpses appear.  I don't think it
is birds as we never see any birds on the bushes and the attack is always
from the underside. What else could it be?   Any ideas?

David

 

David Hare-Scott wrote:


I've seen a blue-tongue lizard eating tomatoes! I kept wondering why my
tomatoes never got past the size of a cherry: they kept dropping and
'disappearing'. Then, one day I saw Mr Bluey climb up the fence (helped
by my excellent tomato trellis) and gobble up the little green tomatoes
with great gusto. The look on his face as he swallowed was something
between smugness and religious ecstasy. I left those bushes for him and
grew a batch of cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets for the family.

--
Trish Brown

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

 


I know that look.  We had a huge Bluey in our garden who used to look over
his shoulder as he schlepped out his tongue and took in a whole huge
strawberry at a time.  We got a whole 6 strawberries the year he was around
but he was so gorgeous, we considered the strawbs were a fair trade for his
company.

 


I'm trying to exclude all birds, all snakes, blue tongue lizards.  Skinks
would be OK.

I have some toothy beastie eating my > ripe tomatos right now.  I think it
is rats because there are holes with

Rats, bush rats (is there a difference?), mice, blue tongues, some of the
other bigger lizard varieties, birds of all sizes.  Dunno really.  Just
guesses but I'm sure we've had all of those things (except perhaps bush rats
because I have no idea whaatsoever what they are other than the fact that
some friends have complained of them).  Each year we find we have to cover
more and more things with bird netting to get a crop.