Category: DIY

In addition, be sure to check out our older DIY posts.

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How to Build a Critter-Proof DIY Hinged Strawberry Bed

Critter-Proof Strawberry Bed

When Mark and I moved to Ohio, I was excited to continue the strawberry plants I’d started growing in Virginia. Everything was going great until the chipmunks came along and ate my entire crop. After trying everything, I was ready to throw in the towel. Then Mark came along and said, “Anna. No. We’re not giving up on strawberries. I can fix this!”. 

His solution was an ingenious critter-proof strawberry bed, outlined in full detail in my new book, Building a Better Garden: DIY Gardening Projects. Essentially a raised bed with a hinged cover, it works great not only for strawberries but also for melons and any other short plants critters like to nibble on. To build your own:

  1. CoverConstruct two rectangular frames out of treated decking boards, which will serve as the base and the cover for your bed.
  2. Under your bottom frame, attach a layer of hardware cloth. This prevents chipmunks from digging into your plants from underneath.
  3. Fill up your bottom frame with soil.
  4. Use two door hinges to attach your rectangular frames together.
  5. Attach a plastic mesh to the top of your upper frame using exterior screws and small washers. The mesh should have holes large enough to let in water, light, and pollinators but small enough to keep critters out.
  6. Plant your strawberries and enjoy your delicious, chipmunk-free harvests!

For more information on the critter-proof strawberry bed, as well as five other great projects to keep out pests and grow a bountiful organic garden, check out Building a Better Garden: DIY Gardening Projects, available as an ebook and in print. Plus, you can check out the video course for more hands-on construction details if you prefer that format over reading. Enjoy!

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Plastic bottle bee keeping

Advoko MAKES on You tube has been experimenting with using plastic bottles to farm bees.

It seems to be cheaper and easier. That big bottle is a European recycled beer keg.

He has even configured one of his hives to make the top bottle reachable from inside his house!

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How to cut fiberglass insulation

I learned the hard way during some recent insulation work that a pair of scissors is painful.

The standard method of using a utility knife on a hard surface is good if you have plenty of room.

An electric meat carving knife is much better and quicker. It’s light enough to use with one hand while you use the other hand to hold on to the insulation.

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2×3 mistake

I chose 2×3 over 2×4 boards in an effort to make our caterpillar tunnels lighter.

We now know this makes them a little too heavy and prone to decay faster than expected.

I was able to fix the problem with some brackets but needed a whole new design.

The new version takes advantage of the light and strong steel rails used to support ceiling tiles in big buildings.

I also decided that a smaller structure is easier to move and less prone to damage.

Stay tuned for a more detailed post on the smaller and better caterpillar tunnel after we’ve finished driving it around the block a few times this year.

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Propping up anti-bird netting

Propping up anti-bird netting

Blackberry

Our berry enclosure has been unsuccessful at keeping out chipmunks but successful at keeping out birds. So we moved our strawberries (aka chipmunk magnets) to a different setup and are using the space left behind for blackberries, raspberries, and gooseberries.

This year, we’ve had great harvests from all of our berries, which means I visit the berry enclosure a lot. And that also means bird netting rubbing against my head every time I take a step turned into a drag. Time to solve that problem once and for all!

My first step was to look back through old Walden Effect posts, where I found this great solution in another gardener’s berry area. Now, how to recreate it to mesh with our existing setup?

A PVC pipe on top of a fencepost

We had a lot of 10-foot PVC pipes lying around, purchased when we thought we’d need to extend our garden fence to 10 feet to keep out deer. That turned out to be unnecessary, so I decided to repurpose the pipes into berry-netting supports.

Next, we need to find a U-post that would slide easily inside the pipes. The cheapest, shortest ones were a fit!

Berry enclosure

I ended up cutting a couple of feet off each PVC pipe before sliding it onto the post since there was only so much wiggle room in our existing system. If you’re starting from scratch, you can probably use the full height.

Last step was to plop old plastic flower pots on top of each pipe to spread out that pressure point and prevent pipes from poking through netting if leaves fall before we take our setup down. If you repeat this, be smarter than I was — don’t stare up at the flower pot as you raise the pole into place or you’ll end up with an almost black eye!

We’re thrilled with the result, although the enclosure still has one big flaw. Honeysuckle has taken over the fence edges and each season it expands to twine into our berry netting. We’re still working out solutions on that front. In the meantime, eating lots of berries is a great reward for not-so-hard work.

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Kohl Wheelbarrow update details

Some of the problems with restoring a wheelbarrow is the damage around bolt holes which prevents the round headed bolts from biting in so you can tighten them.

An exterior screw with a washer isn’t exactly flat but it seemed better than a traditional nut and fastened in nicely with the wood of the handles.

Zip ties helped me hold it all together without needing a second hand while I tightened everything down.

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Kohl wheelbarrow wooden handle repair

The wheelbarrow repair was not as easy as it first looked.

Holes in the wooden handles did not match up with the modern Kohl design.

Wooden Handles               19 dollars

Rustoleum Spray Paint    7 dollars

Nuts, Washers, Bolts        10 dollars

EvapaRust                              13 dollars

It also took more time than I originally planned for.

Prepare surface of parts for EvapaRust, Apply EvapaRust, Wait, Wipe off, Paint with spray paint.

Drill the additional holes, and put it all back together.

Would’ve been much smarter to buy the 79 dollar Truper wheelbarrow with a plastic tray at Menards.

I did discover that Evaparust was a useful product with zero toxic smell that does what it says.

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SharkBite connectors for amateur plumbers

Fixing a plumbing leak behind a washing meachine

We got a good deal on our current trailer in part because the pipes had been allowed to freeze over the winter. Our first round of plumbing repairs seems to have held up great, but a new leak popped up behind the washing machine recently.

I love small spaces and Mark hates small spaces, but he’s the DIY pro while I’m a rank amateur. So he figured it was worth splurging on two SharkBite connectors to turn the project into child’s play.

This child didn’t push the new pipe into the top of the bottom connector hard enough the first time, so I got a big spray of water in my face. But a little more elbow grease did the job and, in the end, I was very proud of my accomplishment.

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Growing in the gutter

One challenge of our deck growing area is the shade it gets from close by structures.

The new experiment is to see what we can grow in this gutter area that escapes some of the shade.

A 10 foot section of aluminum gutter is about 15 dollars with another 15 on end caps and hardware.