BLOG: Protecting Your Crops From Pests and Critters

Well I need to brag a little. Last Friday (April 27^th) I enjoyed the first substantial salad from my garden (see photo). There was a nice variety of leaf lettuces, mesclun blend, bok choi, beet greens, radishes, green onion and yes, pansies are edible! There was even Thai basil, tarragon, “hot & spicy” oregano and flat-leafed parsley for the dressing.

It was easy to protect my Square Foot Garden from the low temperatures we’ve been experiencing lately—although lettuces and pansies love the cold. We talked about row covers a few weeks ago. 

Today we’ll talk about protecting your Square Foot Garden from critters. This is also easier since the space is only 20% of a regular row garden.

Remember that we talked about putting a heavy-duty weed cloth on the ground to stop weeds then putting your raised bed on top of that? If you have burrowing critters such as moles, voles, etc. you will want to use 1/4” wire mesh (also called hardware cloth) or aluminum screening under the weed cloth. I’ve seen plastic mesh of the appropriate size, but that material can easily be chewed by those varmints. Be careful when using the mesh or screening as they can tear your hands up (and we talked about tetanus last time). I would advise wearing gloves any time you’re working with sharp metal edges.

Now that you’ve taken care of burrowing critters, what about the ones that attack from above including insects, birds and animals such as my Beagles Scout & Sophie? 

Of course putting a short fencing around the bed is a simple solution for most four-legged creatures. Since this stopped the rabbit that’s living under my shed from munching on the “leafies," I couldn’t figure out why Scout and Sophie were STILL going into the garden until I saw that a pair of ducks was nesting in my neighbor’s yard. They are SO lucky that they are cute, and that I hadn’t planted yet, or they would be dead now ... the Beagles ... not the ducks. Aw, who am I kidding? I wouldn’t hurt my “kids."

One way I protect my crops is by making a critter cage using chicken wire (I prefer the plastic-coated variety). You can see that to protect a 4' x 4' bed it's easy to make a frame using 1"x2"s to make a simple frame. You use two lengths of chicken wire and bend it to make |_|-shapes and attach them to the frame. For your 2' x 2' beds you don't need a frame. You can use cable ties to "stitch" the sides together (and attach it to the frame if you're using one). Cable ties can also be used to make "handles" out of cable ties—one for a 2' x 2' critter cage and two for a 4' x 4'. This will make putting it on & taking it off easier.

My other solution is the Garden Commander gardencommander.com/ (see photo). These wire “A-frames” are perfect for my narrow 2’ wide Square Foot Garden, but two can be put side-by-side in a 4’ x 4’ raised bed. Of course I’ll only need them until the plants fill in a bit.

In addition to protecting against furry critters and larger birds, you can use row cover (check out my March 26, 2012 blog post) to protect against insects. In that post you can also see photos of an easy dome structure made from PVC pipe on which you can attach a variety of cloths to protect against sun/heat, frost, etc.

BONUS: If you have problems with cats using your raised beds filled with that wonderful Mel’s Mix as a litter box, the solution can be as simple of putting forks with their tines upright in any squares that haven’t filled in yet.

What tips and tricks do you have to protect your crops?