Advice for a DIY fruit cage?

Hi all,

We're experiencing the exciting phenomenon of growing more fruit on our new plot and having most of it eaten by birds...I'm considering the value of building a walk-in-height fruit cage for next year. It feels like something we could do with some chunky posts and chicken wire, but perhaps I am being overly optimistic/simplistic. Does anyone have any advice or experience of building a <ahem> very cheap <ahem> fruit cage that was worth the effort in protecting your produce and not too much of a pain to deal with for weeding/harvesting?

We're pretty low-tech with tools, though we do have a circular saw. The soil is pretty heavy, but I reckon we could work with it when it's as wet as it is at the moment.

Thanks!

Nice post DJ

I will monitor responses as much as you do

Be prepared for the netting to be eaten by rats/squirrels to gain access at at ground level, which isn't much of a problem until the birds find the hole. We had to resort to reinforcing both cages around the bottom 12" with chicken wire.

Be prepared for the netting to be eaten by rats/squirrels to gain access at  at ground level, which isn't much of a problem until the birds find the hole. We had to resort to reinforcing both cages around the bottom 12" with chicken wire.

I'm thinking chicken wire rather than netting for this reason. Did you have to sink the chicken wire in the ground or just around the surface (if that makes sense!)?

We did dig it in as we get the occasional rabbit finding it's way in to the garden. From memory we bought rolls of about 3/4" chicken wire 2' wide and cut it into 1' wide lenghts. I will measure properly after dinner and confirm wire size. If you use chicken wire for the whole structure you will probably need to fabricate a hinged door. A plastic net is flexible enough to flap open and closed to get in and out.

What fruit do you want to protect?
Raspberries are quite straightforward to protect as you can grow them on wires.
Currant bushes need quite a lot of room as you have to be able to pick them from all sides.
Gooseberries are painful in a confined space!

Thanks, very much, JJB. And yes, I did forget to mention the hinged door in my fit of optimism...I think that would be necessary for what I'm envisioning.

Veggie, we have currants, raspberries, boysenberries, and strawberries. I even wondered about relocating the dwarf cherry tree to that area as it will be a few years before it's too big and I might get to eat one cherry in that time And then I might be inspired to actually buy a couple of potted blueberry plants. Between the birds and the baby and dry spring, I hardly got any strawberries this year!

Have measured and we used 1/2" chicken wire to stop anything but small rodents, and it was indeed 2ft wide sliced down the middle into 1ft lengths, so it ended up 8 - 10" above ground and about 2" dug in.

Have measured and we used 1/2" chicken wire to stop anything but small rodents, and it was indeed 2ft  wide sliced down the middle into 1ft lengths, so it ended up 8 - 10" above ground and about 2" dug in.

Thanks very much! I know our squirrels at home would easily manipulate the wire if it simply rested on the ground. I guess the size of my chicken wire will help me narrow down the suspects for any future animal thievery

I've never netted my black/red/white currants. It used to be that only the red currants were taken but for the last few years I have been bombarded with pigeons.
Not only are they taking everything but they keep sitting on the branches and snapping them. Mine are about 10foor away from the GH and I've been wondering if I could make something hooked on o that so it saves us from doing all 4 sides.
Pretty pointless at the moment having any fruit bushes - they have already had every gooseberry off several bushes!