“Never a horse that couldn’t be rode,
Never a rider that couldn’t be throwed.”
–Cowboy Proverb
I had an old, neglected planter box in my yard. It was full of weeds, and the last couple of times I have tried to plant something in it, the voles took out the roots of my plants, and the deer and raccoons took out the tops.
When we had tree cutters take down a dead cedar tree, they cut the trunk into 16 inch logs. I had an idea about using them to revitalize the planter and discourage the critters from eating everything. There was no guarantee that this idea would work, or will work for every critter– But, worth a try!
Here’s the planter, somewhat before renovation:
The borders of the old box were nearly rotted into mulch;
The old box was 4 x 8 feet. It had good soil inside it, although full of weeds and roots.
1) Strain the soil.
I laid down a blue tarp and put a piece of metal hardware cloth on top of it. I shoveled dirt from the planter box on top of the hardware cloth and used the wrong end of a steel rake to force it through the sieve. Roots, bulbs and rocks were removed.
This took a few days of work, and left a large pile of fluffy topsoil. I put another tarp over the top of the pile, and removed the rotted wood border.
Next, I split the cedar logs and lined them up on the edges of the planter;
The logs weren’t going to stay there by themselves. To reinforce the box, I got some 5/8" plywood, cut two 1 x 8 foot boards and two 1 x 4 foot boards, and used them to anchor the cedar. I joined them with angle irons at the corners. Wood deck screws anchor the cedar logs onto the boards.
2. What about the voles?
I got a roll of hardware cloth, 4 feet x 25 feet to make a liner for the box. I cut two strips, 10 feet x 2 feet, and put them into the box to line the long sides. I bent the cloth 6 inches in, along the long side to have an overlap of screen on the bottom, and bent the ends to overlap at the corners of the box;
I cut another piece 11 feet x 4 feet, and bent the ends to nest inside the box on top of the side pieces. I folded the edges down behind the cedar logs for the right height.
I had 8 bags of topsoil, potting soil, manure and compost left over from last year, so I put that into the bottom of the planter. Then I added the screened soil back into the planter. It still wasn’t enough to fill the planter box, so I got more soil and manure, and mixed it in. A couple of bags of black mulch on the top completed the soil bed.
3. What about the raccoons and deer?
I got four 6-foot iron garden stakes, a bundle of light metal garden stakes, and a roll of chicken wire, and proceeded to make a chicken-wire corset:
I pounded the four iron garden stakes in at each corner of the garden bed. The cedar logs helped stabilize the iron stakes, and the iron stakes reinforced the cedar log walls. Win - win.
I wove and wrapped the chicken wire on one end of a light garden stake, and unrolled it around the outside of the planter box. The bottom edge of the chicken wire overlaps the top edge of the hardware cloth. After going once around the outside of the planter box, I wove and wrapped another light garden stake on the other end of the chicken wire, then tied the ends closed with some light rope.
Once the chicken wire was in place, I wove additional light garden stakes into the long sides for additional stability. I found that it was easy to slide them down between the cedar logs and the reinforcement boards for additional strength.
And Voila! A cage on top that should at least slow the critters down!
When I want to pull weeds, plant or harvest, I can untie an end of the chicken wire and roll the chicken wire back. When I’m done, the chicken wire gets put back into place.
4. Frequently Asked Questions
OK, it’s true. I just wrote this so no one has asked me any questions yet. But here are some I thought of;
Q: Those cedar logs are going the wrong way. Also, they are going to rot in a couple of seasons.
A: Yep. Cedar logs are what I had at the time. They look good, and I thought I’d try them. When they rot, I’ll have more mulch. Use what you’ve got, buy what you have to.
Q: Wouldn’t it be better to make wood frame chicken wire gates? The plain chicken wire looks kind of crappy....
A: I might get around to making frames for the chicken wire. Haven’t decided that yet. Crappy though it looks, at the end of the season I can roll up the wire and store it. You can’t do that with a wood-framed gate.
Q: The top is still open. Won’t crows get in?
A: Maybe they will! It remains to be seen... We also have bears, and I'm not sure my fence, or anything, will keep out a determined bear.....
Gardening is a learning process and I hope to get better at it. Knowing how to grow food is a useful skill that may be critically important one day.
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