Allotments 4 All

HI Guys,

I am looking to put in a fruit cage thats approx 14 feet by 34 feet to put at the bottom of my plot.

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view&current=Allotmentnewplantoscalev2picture.gif&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1

or

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/?action=view&current=Allotmentnewplantoscaleplantingplan.gif&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch2

I am not sure if i need to use 3 by 3 or 4 by 4 uprights and i was wondering whats the best way to get them in the ground? I was going to hire a hole borer and pack it with a hardcore and cement mix as its going into heavy clay and there is a gental gradiant down the site towards to fruit cage area i cant use the steaks.

I was also going to use more wood to ring the top of the fruit cage to provide stability and to add frames to the front and side facias which will again provide stability and allow me to put a door in.

Any advice is appreciated i just want to make sure i am ding the right thing.

Inside the fruit cage i have 2 raised beds and some tyres sunk into the weed membrane which i will be planting into ;-)

lakeviewallotment

Remember some diagonal cross bracing if you can to help keep it square in high winds. Get the thickest uprights you can find/afford/scrounge. I would put it on a subwall.. two layers of brick should be enough, shouldn't need foundations, use the bigger Metapost type things, the subwall should keep the lowest horizontal timbers out of the wet and so reduce rot damage on your heavy wet soil... Personally I don't net any fruit... there is more than enough free on our site for the wild life, but I'd put my brassicas in it to kepp the Bl**dy pigeons away!
;D

Thanks for the reply.

My problem is not with pigeons but with crows, rooks, geese, swans, rabbits and harvest mice.

As were so close to the lake its a magnet for wildlife and my plot as the wildlife park on 2 sides.

i'd be quite happy to have a few harvest mice; the only one I've ever seen was a corpse the cat brought in once in Cornwall.

yuck.

Nope we just burried the local hedgehog so i know what you mean.

HI

Further to my post i have contacted some scafolding companies who might be able to help me with the fruit cage. I was wondering if anyone else has used scafolding poles in this way?

L