The seven blueberry bushes on the east end of our garden had outgrown the individual cages we had built to protect our berries from the hungry little birdies that we enjoy seeing in the back yard. We feed them plenty of seed and suet to be okay with not sharing our precious blueberries with them!
Linda and I brainstormed and sketched out several different solutions, finally settling on the idea to incorporate the existing garden fence into an enclosure around the entire blueberry patch. We already had heavy gauge horsewire around the apple trees that could be re-purposed to support the netting needed to keep out Tweety and family. (We kept the apple trees protected from the deer with a lighter gauge horsewire that was a lot easier to work with.)
A few new seven-foot green fence posts and a dozen pressure treated 2x4s, along with a bit of netting, screening and some ash and maple out of my stock in the barn and Linda and I were off to the races. It’s a real pleasure to be able to walk into the enclosure and pick berries in our own well-protected blueberry patch!
Setting seven-foot fence posts
Top and bottom rails for new fence section
New fence section framing completed
Trusty pocket screws for 1-1/2 inch material
Adding new top rails at five feet all around
Top rails and new fence section complete
Four foot by twenty-four foot panels of heavy gauge horsewire – two down, two to go
Contemplating the finished fortress
Horsewire panels in place but not holding a nice arch like we had hoped
Long strips of white ash will add shape and structural support to the horsewire arch
Stop blocks to hold white ash arch strips
Before shot with arch strips ready to install
Five white ash arch strips did the trick
Good progress on the fortress with several steps yet to be completed
Field dimensions for the entryway framing
Entryway framing taking shape – more pocket screws
Entryway door frame will inform the required screen door dimensions
Entryway framing for a screen door and also supports the outward load from the white ash arch strips
This project is on the level 😉
Main garden gate and fortress screen door line up by design
Inside view of entryway framing showing two four-foot fence post supports
SketchUp design for screen door made of maple from lumber in the barn
Pocket screw construction for screen door, too
Screen door assembly – note the grooves for mesh screen and splines
Carefully marking the end cuts for the lower cross bracing
Half lap joint for the middle of the lower cross bracing
Lower cross bracing cut and fit nicely, then secured with glue and screws in the corners
Bird netting going over the heavy gauge horsewire, attached with nylon zip ties
The whole reason for this project – budding blueberries – and just in time!
One of the bigger blueberry bushes in the fortress
A protective coat of Sherwin-Williams exterior latex left over from a previous project
Testing the structural strength (and maybe showing off those guns a bit, too!)
Lots of fine work attaching bird netting over the entire fortress structure
Finished custom screen door ready for mesh screen installation
I was pretty sure I had a screen spline tool from a long time ago – it just took me a while to find it
Lower mesh screen installed – my spline groove was a little tight and needed lots of pressure to roll the spline in
Screen door with spring-loaded hinges and handle mounted – ready for installation
Another shot of the completed screen door
Linda experiencing the newly created space for protecting our blueberry crops
The Blueberry Fortress
View from inside the fortress – it’s so nice to have the blueberry bushes protected and so easy to access!
