It’s Time to Get Cagey in the Garden

This easy-to-make cage protects a small Pawnee Buttes sand cherry from attack by marauding rabbits.

As weather turns wintry in Colorado, it’s prime time for installing cages over young shrubs to protect them from critters.

In my yard, critters are mostly rabbits and squirrels.  In your yard, critters might include deer, as well.

I’ve noticed that rabbits particularly savor new growth on my young Pawnee Buttes sand cherries.  So I protect these shrublets during their first two to three years with cages from early winter to late spring.

Sand cherries aren’t the only victims when it comes to nibbling.  Other young shrubs reportedly favored by wildlife include:

• Barberry
• Burning bush
• Forsythia
• Hawthorn
• Koreanspice viburnum
• Lilac
• Serviceberry
• Smokebush
• Eastern redbud

Fortunately, some of these shrubs become less attractive to wildlife as they mature.

All you need for making and installing a garden cage is 1/4″ hardware cloth, tin snips, wire, 3 landscape pins, and gloves. If you can’t push the landscape pins into the soil, you may need a mallet or hammer, as well.

Personally, I’ve never had a problem with rabbits attacking my young serviceberries or smokebush.  But I’ve seen squirrels decimate my young burning bushes.  Hence the need for cages.

Cages are easy to make.  First, decide the size of cage you need.  Mine are 16” in diameter and 18” high.  Then buy a roll of ¼” hardware cloth and use tin snips to cut the cloth to the size you need for the walls of the cage.  Curl the cut piece into a circle and secure the ends with lightweight wire.  You now have a circular base.  Then cut another piece of hardware cloth for the ceiling.  If you want to get fancy, you can cut the ceiling in a circle to match the top edge of the base.  As for me, I simply cut a square large enough to cover the base.  Then wire the ceiling to the to the base.  To secure the cage to the ground, I thread three strategically placed landscape pins through the landscape cloth at the base of the cage and then push or pound the pins into the ground.

When you remove the cages in the spring, you can either store them as they are or unwire them to store them flat.