Fruit Cage Steel Very Large

Garden supply firm Harrod Horticultural approached The Veg Patch People ® to help a client of theirs whose vegetable garden was being decimated by pigeons and other pests. The brief was to provide an attractive cover without disturbing the existing raised beds and pollarded fruit trees.

Our primary challenge was the sheer size of the garden – over 20 x 12m. It meant installing one of the largest protective cages that Harrod had ever produced. Furthermore, we had to build it around a large tree in one corner of the site.

Before we started, Harrod Horticultural invited us to RHS Wisley to see some of the large fruit cages that they had fitted there. We then precisely measured our clients garden and marked all the existing beds on on our plan and combined this with Harrod’s technical drawings. With these plans we were able to precisely work out the best places to put the cage supports in order to avoid disruption to the beds and to save our client money by minimising the amount of bespoke metal supports.

Our careful planning meant that we only had to put cage legs in two of the raised beds (the client was very happy with this and is putting both to use as growing supports). By avoiding placing any on the pathways, we helped make future maintenance of the garden much easier. For ease of access from both the house and tools shed, we installed doors at each end of the fruit cage structure.

"Working closely with Harrod Horticultural and using their quality products made a huge difference and meant that two of us were able to complete the project in three-an-a-half days, in line with our original estimate."

The Veg Patch People, East Sussex