DIY: Rabbit-proof Cage

By Alexa Silverberg

Bunnies seem to come from everywhere to eat those delicious berries and greens you’ve been growing. See below for easy how-to steps to create a bunny-free zone in your garden.

Materials:

• Drill
• Screws
• Wood*
• Staple gun with heavy-duty staples
• Gloves
• Hardware cloth
• Wire cutters
• A helper
• Safety glasses
• Measuring tape

*we used boards taken off a few old pallets

Steps:

1. Measure your growing bed for how wide and long you need the box to be. Create a bottomless box with sides about 2-3 feet high. You can adapt a raised bed frame.

2.  Have a friend help hold the wood steady while you screw the wood corners and braces securely together with the drill. Repeat this until you have all 4 sides of the box finished.
3.  Put on gloves and safety glasses, they will protect your hands while you drill and while you are handling the wire hardware cloth.

4.  Start wrapping the hardware cloth around one side of the box.

5.  Have a friend securely press the hardware cloth flat onto the wood, while you begin stapling the wire down with a staple gun. In order to get the staples to stay, the hardware cloth must be as flat and taut as possible on the wood.

6. Staple the edges first to make sure they are secure before stapling the side. Repeat until all 4 sides of the wood box are wrapped in hardware cloth.

7.  Cut any excess of the hardware cloth with wire cutters and crimp/roll the cut edges over, to ensure you can easily reach over the box without catching your clothing and cutting yourself.

8. Place it around the plants you want to protect. There you have it -- a bunny-free box, perfect for protecting all of your favorite crops!

About the Author: Alexa Silverberg is a senior broadcast journalism major at the University of Maryland and is from Short Hills, NJ. She is an editorial intern at Washington Gardener Magazine this spring semester.