How to protect walk-in garden fruit cage
- Heirloom tomatoes
- Zucchini flowers/zucchini
- Cucumber
I love to garden but am surrounded by squirrels where I live so I decided to purchase this fantastic product from the UK:
http://www.henrycowls.net/fruit-cages
It's not cheap but definitely the best for the money because it is clean and gives a great look for a walk-in garden. It comes with a door and good quality netting.
I built it alone and ordered it with custom dimension to fit perfectly in a small patch alongside my house. I left enough space to walk around but because it is close to my neighbor's fence but a problem came along the way....
From spring to August, no squirrels were able to get in with the normal installation but then one squirrel figured it out and oh boy, it was game on!
I wanted to protect my garden without killing the squirrels and I won that battle!
Squirrels
A squirrel is a dangerous animal - They carry disease in their feces and fleas which can bite you and give you bubonic plague or other diseases. They are rats with a bushy tail. Sure, they are cute to look at, but they can be a real problem rodent for many people. They will try to burrow under or into your home and they can eat up electrical wires can even cause your house to burn down. Not so cute now, huh? The multiply faster than rabbits. In springtime you may see one, then suddenly in just three months you will see 14 and that can double again in July. They can overrun your property and they will steal your bird food, cat food, fruit and vegetables and just make life miserable for you. The also have amazingly powerful teeth and those fangs are really long fangs too. One bite from a squirrel and you will be visiting the emergency room for stitches. Some squirrels can become aggressive and attack you or your kids.
"Squirrels have caused more than 50 power outages in 24 states in the year 2013 alone. Squirrels caused the blackouts and small explosions that shut down the New York Stock Exchange, twice!"
How I made my walk-in garden squirrel proof
The net is not squirrel proof so to make it squirrels proof you will have to
I purchase a pack of 100 back zip tie and add a lot of them for the vertical pole to make sure no space is left for a squirrel to get in.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-8-in-UV-Cable-Tie-Black-100-Pack-GT-200STCB/203531910
Then to make the size netting Squirrel proof, all around I recommend you purchased deer Block netting
http://www.homedepot.com/p/
http://www.amazon.com/Plastic-
Attach the mesh around for half the height of the cage. Secure them with zip tie and at the bottom place a bunch of Pavel stone on the ground above the excess of mesh net.
This ne t is great because they can't cut it with their teeth. Think about them as fishing net.
Finally for the side area close to the fence where they had lots of time to cut some hole in the net, I purchased red wood bins and I glued some bird pike with adhesive glue
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bird-B-Gone-10-ft-x-5-in-Enviro-spike-Stainless-Steel-Bird-Spike-100516567/204626790
and I added 2 row of wooden nail. Results is very clean and they can't walk around the net on the side along the wooden fence.
