Contemplating building a prototype cage around each of the two 4' wide brassica beds with removable chicken wire covered panels down the sides and ends. No top.

Any suggestions how tall I should make the sides? Maybe 4' ? It would be too narrow for any deer to want to jump into it.

First find out what widths the chicken wire comes in. And, how about plastic bird netting as another option?

I would think that chicken wire or row cover (or netting!) over your low hoops would be a better solution. Then they can't reach in.
The biggest PIA of protecting the vegs is that it affects your access too. I always have to stop and plan how I'm going to get in there myself. I could see top open as the best if the main maintenance is watering vs weeding, which requires better access to the ground.

Bower wrote: ↑Sun Oct 09, 2022 7:09 am I would think that chicken wire or row cover (or netting!) over your low hoops would be a better solution. Then they can't reach in.
The biggest PIA of protecting the vegs is that it affects your access too. I always have to stop and plan how I'm going to get in there myself. I could see top open as the best if the main maintenance is watering vs weeding, which requires better access to the ground.

I already have netting over the hoops and a lot more of it on hand to use. After looking at the prices of chicken wire I probably need to figure out how to make the plastic netting tighter without bending the hoops on the end yet make access to the bed easy.

I need 44' length to enclose each bed. At Tractor Supply:

36" x 150' = $94.99 (would do three beds)
48" x 150' = $129.99

Wood to make frames for chicken wire would add a lot more to the cost. That's a no-go.

TBH @GoDawgs I find chicken wire to be the most troublesome material to work with, in terms of my own access. Except for rigid panels, the wire gets misshapen over time pretty easily and is a PIA to straighten out. And as I mentioned before, the animals here don't see it, the small ones run into it and then decide to beat it down. This will further deform the shape for future use. Moose have terrible eyesight so it's safe to assume they won't see it before they tread on it. I wonder if deer are similar in terms of their sight?
The only really good use I have for the wire, is to batten down the mulch over the garlic. This keeps leaves from blowing away and small critters from digging up my cloves only to decide they don't want to eat it after all.
I don't have any plastic netting but it sounds like a better bet - more flexible, easier to remove for access, probably more visible too? IDK.

Next door deer feeder gone.
Lady next door literally on her death bed.
As far as I know it may have already happened.
I have and will miss her but not the deer feeder.
Seeing the deer was about the only thing she had left being a prisoner in her own home.

OK, I'm taking a page out of @JRinPA 's play book only applying it to tomatoes. With a ton of acorns to eat and pine cones to shred, the squirrels had pretty much left the last tomatoes alone until one just couldn't resist grabbing the largest, still totally green Fish Lake Oxheart. There are still five on that poor plant.



So I got out two pairs of old socks and put them on four of the tomatoes. So we'll see if they can make it to the finish line.



This is a shot of what's left of the Contender beans.



On the other hand, I pulled a 29 pound Charleston Gray watermelon from what's left of the patch. It didn't have much flavor but is refreshing anyway. Next year, next year, next year....... things will be better. Gotta be.

I finally had a moose visitor, last night apparently, or maybe when my back was turned this morning. There were some clouds but even so the moon made it bright as day, as I noticed when I was going to bed. Anyway, my best guess is that it was a single sir that made his way to the buffet. Chewed all of the lettuce down to stumps, even a row that was bolted and nearly 4 ft tall. Sampled some wild apple, oaks, birch, withe, and just a few bits of hazel. It was a very gentle moosing of the shrubs, no broken branches just a whiffle of leaves. This is great news for the trees since they could still put on some further growth next season... that is, if the rabbits don't rind em.

I too despise chicken wire.

And I will re-submit that the socks were WORTH's idea. But yeah I will play that again next year, for sure. Right up until the early July squirrels start chewing right through the socks...

Danged voles.

JRinPA wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 1:09 am I too despise chicken wire.

And I will re-submit that the socks were WORTH's idea. But yeah I will play that again next year, for sure. Right up until the early July squirrels start chewing right through the socks...

I wonder if you sprayed the socks with a garlic/cayenne pepper spray if that would keep the squirrels away until harvest.

It might work by itself next summer, if not I will try the spray. This year was incredibly hot and dry for the July harvest...it was basically the only wet food for the squirrels. I can't wait to find out how it works next year. The socks in fall really allowed the corn to get to full ripeness for once, without loss. If it works for the summer crop, it's a whole new ball game. I might be able to do close succession crops again and get a few dozen ripe cobs every two weeks. That has been the goal.

Planted 2 store bought pepper plants in containers outdoors.
Overnight a skunk ripped up 1 plant left the other alone(side by side)
replanted
Last night the skunk ripped up the same plant.
replanted but put the container elevated.

Possums are good,We gots them all around.They are tearing up all my mangoes now,but they are welcomed here.I trap them,take them to our preserve down here and realease.
https://nextdoor.com/p/LGjMchCFHr5P

?utm_source=share&extras=MTk2ODc2Mjg%3D

Well I don't know what is doing it, but something is ripping my peas out of the ground and/or snipping them off at the ground.
Whatever it is, it got in for a second time, under the edge of chicken wire I threw down on top of the small seedlings after the first damages. Some holes dug there, some snipped tops on the ground.
Also today I went to check one of the big trellises where the peas were up 3-4 inches under row cover - and the row cover was completely flat to the ground. And when I lifted it up, the snips of shoots, every last pea it seems, laid waste on the ground under the cover. What the heck.
So I am at wits end here what it could be. I already slug baited heavily (and that all seems to have disappeared a day later, but no sign of a slug). I tightened up the row cover surrounds when I put the peas in. So, not a rabbit getting into the bed, although it almost looked like footprints. Then I'm thinking, a bird is digging them up and snipping off in the process. But then under row cover?? and every last shoot?? This is more like the work of a rodent, and if so I'm very very unhappy about that. We have some shrews and voles around, I can't imagine what it would take to keep them out. Just moved tomatoes outside as well, so if this is a rat hanging about, I'm in for a lossy year.

@Bower, time for a game cam so that you can deal with the right critter!

Rabbits took every one of my peas, cauliflower, and sweet potato plants at my community gardens plot! I replanted the peas three times before I surrounded the pea area with chicken wire. They are clever little rodents! If there's a way under or around, they'll find it. And they'll lay waste to the garden! Raccoons are also good for this. I agree: a game cam will at least tell you what you're dealing with. That can only help!

Yesterday vs today grrrrrr.

Oh boy, the voles were killing me with that in Fall of 2021. I got them under control last year and had little damage in 2022. Is that a rat or a cat's tail or what? Not sure what I am looking at there.

@JRinPA oh that’s just the grow bag handle, I didn’t catch the critter in the act, but I strongly suspect it was a squirrel. We also have a lot of chipmunks, so could be those as well. The little buggers got into my Sungold and had a feast there too. Picked as much as I could to ripen at home and covered some of the lowest fruit with cotton bags, hopefully they will go snack from other gardens next time they get hungry.