Building the fruit cage

Much like the chicken house, I have had practise building a couple in the past and learned some lessons. The first attempt was poor, to be honest, based on the belief that plastic netting would last a fair amount fo time. It doesn't and it catches leaves and birds in it's flimsy net.

Plastic netting ok for short term but mostly a waste of money

So I ripped all that out and put up stronger stakes, with chicken wire (2.5cm hexagonal) all around the sides and over the roof too. With a better door, also wired, the structure (below) was much better, didn't trap anything it should not, could even take a heavy snow fall. The one mistake I definitely made was to make the ceiling too low and not well enough supported. I was sure not to make that mistake again.

Better with chicken wire and a proper door

So when I moved and came to build my new fruit cage, I had a number of aims. A higher ceiling was the first thing. I also wanted to make sure it was bigger than the old one, so the plants have more room to grow (some of them kinda outgrew the old area after about 5 years). And I wanted a better door, which I would make myself.

First step - clear the turf

The first thing was to do was to clear the turf in the 4m by 8m area I planned to build the fruit cage. I used a turf cutter to do this and it was MUCH easier and faster than doing it by hand, which is what I did last time. Once the turf was gone I could start building the fruit cage, with a similar design to the chicken area, but without a solid roof. 

Similar structure to the chicken area

The same size chicken wire was used here all over, sides and roof. I use the spare wire provided with the chicken wire rolls to bind the chicken wire over the roof together. On the sides it is fixed with small fencing staples (yes, I hit my thumb many times and there was language). The key is, take your time, don't force yourself to do it when you are tired, otherwise you will screw it up and it will not be nice and tidy.

Fully wired, door on, paving slabs in

I used more gravel boards (the wide timber you can see on the sides) to build raised beds inside as well as using them to provide support for the wire over the roof; the roof this time is two metres high and it does not droop due to the lateral supports.

Support wiring and planting

Then, once the beds are in and the paths are down, I could put up some extra supports with tension wire (you can see in both the pictures above on the right hand side) to support the raspberry canes. I then dug out the central area and filled it with ericaceous compost so that I can plant blueberries (which hate lime soil) in there and they should do well. Everywhere else I dug in horse manure and planted all the fruit.

At the back there is a loganberry, then a green hinnonmaki gooseberry, 

a red one, another green one, then a tayberry.

One the left there are redcurrants, 

blackcurrants and more loganberries.

One the right there are raspberries; 

ten of each of Glen Clova (early), 

Malling Jewel (mid season) 

and Tulameen (end season).

Finally, down the middle there are four types of blueberry; 

Blue Gold, Spartan, Dixi and Gold Traube.