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Hydrangea Treehouse

home, garden and DIY

in DIY· Garden

How DIY Raised Garden Bed Cover to Protect Your Garden from Animals

DIY tutorial on how to build a protective cover with hinges for your raised garden bed to prevent animals from attacking your vegetables. This DIY garden bed cover with fencing is a beginner friendly project that you can tackle over a weekend, as it doesn’t require fancy tools or skills.

diy garden bed cover for raised bed photo

Why do you need a garden bed cover for your raised bed?

When I first started gardening, I didn’t know the importance of having a protective cover for a raised garden beds. Soon enough, I noticed a lot of my seedlings and vegetables got chewed up down to the ground. It took me a while to figure out it was the squirrels who ate up all of our vegetable crop.

It’s definitely very discouraging to see that happen so I tried numerous ways to repel the squirrels, such as spraying chili water over my plants, or adding an owl statue, but none of them worked.

One day I decided to design and build a protective cover for my raised garden beds that will serve as a cage, in the effort to protect my vegetables from small animals. And I’ms so glad with this DIY garden bed cover! My vegetables are thriving, no more loss of leaves or seedlings! Now I can grow whatever vegetables and fruits I like without worrying if squirrels like them as well. This DIY garden bed cover will work for other animals as well, such as raccoons, deer, and others.

For the first month after I built those garden bed covers, the squirrels got a bit frustrated that there’s no more yummy food for them, so they started to eat some of my tangerines from the tree (I was surprised to see those half peeled and eaten tangerines in my yard), and even one of my tender delphinium plants. But after a month, they seemed to get used to the fact there’s no food in my raised beds, that they just leave my backyard alone.

raised bed vegetable garden covers

DIY raised garden bed cover finished dimensions

For my garden beds, I have two standard 3′ by 6′ raised beds (similar one). The finished DIY garden bed cover is about 6 feet wide, 4 feet tall, and slightly less than 3 feet deep.

There are two reasons for reduced depth: 1.I have 1/2″ irrigation tubing sitting on top of the back edge of the raised bed; 2. the fence between our yard and our neighbor’s is quite old so the top portion is slightly leaning to our side. By reducing the depth I’m able to address those two factors.

In terms of the height, I need the garden bed cover to be fairly tall to account for large plants and vines, such as artichokes, peas, and cucumbers. I landed on 4 feet as the height.

how to build raised garden bed cover to protect your vegetables

In terms of construction, each garden cover has a pair of doors, attached to the cover frame with hinges. I also installed two latches on the top frame to make sure I can close them securely. Also this DIY garden cover is completely covered by chicken wire for all sides except the bottom.

how to build protective covers for raised garden beds DIY

DIY garden bed cover video

If you are a visual learner, I made a 5-minute video on our process of building this DIY garden bed cover with doors and hinges:

I recommend you watch this video to get an idea on what the whole process looks like, then continue reading for DIY materials and step by step instructions ๐Ÿ™‚

DIY raised bed cover tools and materials

The material listed below are for one 3′ by 6′ raised bed cover:

Exterior grade 2 in. x 2 in. x 8 ft wood board

Chicken wire. I use 3′ wide chicken wire because it matches well with my 3′ by 6′ raised bed. I used 30′ per garden bed cover.

Miter saw

1/2″ spade bit and drill

Wire cutter

2 1/2″ Exterior screws

Stapler. You can choose a electric stapler to save some elbow grease

Stainless steel staples

Brass hinges x 4 (exterior grade)

Brass barrel bolt x 2 (exterior grade)

DIY raised garden bed cover instructions

Here’s the diagram I created in SketchUp. This shows how the pieces attach together.

DIY raised garden bed cover plans

For my 3′ by 6′ garden bed (similar to this), I cut 2 by 2 boards to the following size.

Note that I leave 1″ out from the depth because I have irrigation tubing sitting on the back edge of the raised bed. You might need to adjust the number based on your situation. Each cover should be customized for your garden bed, I highly encourage you to draw a diagram on paper or SketchUp, to determine the size you’d like to cut.

DIY raised bed cover project cut list

Frame: (4) * 73″; (4) * 32″; (4)*48″

2 doors: (4) * 31.5″; (4) * 47.25″

Step 1. Cut 2 x 2 x 8 boards to size.

You’ll need to cut those 2×2 boards into two type of pieces, one for building the garden cover frame structure, the other for diagonal braces to support the structure.

All the frame structure pieces are straight cut. All braces are 45 degree diagonal cut.

One trick to quickly produce the braces is to align the board to a point on your miter saw (you can use tape to mark it), and flip it back and forth between cutting. In my case, I used the line(right) on my miter saw to align the 2×2 boards.

If you have watched the video above, you’ll know what I’m talking about. This way you will be able to produce a lot of those pieces in a short amount of time, also they will be exactly the same size without pre-measuring.

how to build garden cover - DIY project

To prepare the diagonal braces, I used 1/2″ spade bit to create a dent on each side, about 1″ from the edge.

photo of protective covers for raised garden beds

Step 2. Build garden cover frame structure.

DIY raised garden bed enclosure fence, protect garden raised bed from animals and critters

Now it is time to assemble the garden bed cover. For each connection, we drill a pilot hole and then screw in the 2″ exterior wood screw. Pilot holes are important for this project as without them the wood will tend to split while screwing.

Since we don’t have a pocket hole tool, we used two screws per corner where three 2×2 boards attached to each other. We drilled each hole around 1/3 of the way instead of the exact center, that will give the second screw some space to pass through.

diy project raised bed protective cover photo

Attach a diagonal brace to straighten and strengthen the corner. You’ll need to attach braces for most of the straight corners except:

1. the front side. You want to leave it open so you can add doors.

2. the bottom side. This is to maximize the planting area of you garden bed without blocking the soil. Also the bottom side of the garden cover is just sitting on top of the raised bed, not really holding any weight by itself.

how to build garden bed cover to protect your vegetables from animals

We started by building the back side first, reinforced it with braces on four corners, then move to the front side. Note for the front side of the garden bed cover, that you’ll want to skip reinforcement to leave space for doors. You can reference my video to see how we were assembling the frame.

It’s recommended to dry fit your frame on top of your raised bed to make sure the cover fits well.

raised garden bed cover ideas

After competing the assembly,ย  you should have the basic frame structure of the garden bed cover and a pair of doors. For each door, we have all four corner reinforced with the braces. Now you are ready to attach chicken wire, also called poultry netting.

DIY raised garden bed protection

Step 3. Attach chicken wire.

diy raised garden bed cage with chickenwire, protective cage cover

To handle chicken wire, wear gloves to protect your hands. Because my raised bed is 3′ deep, I’m able to lay 3′ wide chicken wire along three sides of the frame continuously without cutting it – from one side to top, then to the other side.

chicken wire cover for raised garden bed

To attach chicken wire, we used stainless steel staples to make it weather resistant. We used a manual stapler because it is cheaper, but you can use electric stapler as it will make your life a lot easier.

Most of the time the staples won’t go all the way in the wood (at least for our manual one), so we used a hammer to hammer them in more for security.

chicken wire cover for raised garden bed DIY photo

For corners with braces, cut the chicken wire with wire cutter, then staple them with exterior grade staples.

chicken wire cover for raised garden bed

For the back side (opposite of double doors), we used two panels of 3′ wide chicken wire, attaching them vertically, then used the extra wire which came with the rolls to weave these two panels.

photo of diy project raised garden bed cover

Trim the excess chicken wire. Although both chicken wire andย  my raised bed is 3′ wide, there will be some extra chicken wire hanging out. I cut them and bent them with a plier to remove the sharp edge. I went into detail in the video on how I dealt with sharp edge after cutting it.

We Attached chicken wire/poultry netting to all four sides of the garden cover frame, leaving front side and bottom side free of chicken wire.

raised garden bed protection

Step 4. Install hinges and barrel bolts

Now attach hinges and barrel bolts. I used brass ones because they are more weather resistant than some other materials.

To ensure doors open widely, I unfold the hinge to its extreme, and marked the holes on the frame. Then drill and attach the hinge to the frame. I used 4 hinges per garden bed cover (2 for each door).

how to make a raised garden bed cover with hinges

After that, I attached each door to the hinges, and test to make sure it opens and closes smoothly. It is recommended to attach the doors after you place the garden cover on top of your raised beds, since your garden bed may not be completely leveled.

how to make a raised garden bed cover with hinges

Once the doors were attached. I installed the brass barrel bolts, one per door. I placed the longer part of the barrel bolts on the door because there’s more vertical space. If that’s the case with you, make sure you get the barrel bolts that can lock in position when installed that way.

raised bed fence with hinges and doors

Step 5. Attach garden bed covers to your raised beds

To attach the protective covers to raised garden beds, I simply let the cover sit on the raised bed structure. Originally I was planning to add a couple screws to attach the bottom frame to the raised bed, but I skipped it because the cover’s weight seems to be enough to hold it in place just fine.

Step 6. Test, tweak, and enjoy your DIY garden bed cover

That’s all the steps for this DIY garden cover and you made to the end, well almost! Now it is time test our the doors and hardwares, making sure everything function well. If there’s any glitches, don’t be afraid to tweak it until things open and lock smoothly. I did some tweaking on the door hinges and barrel bolts until the door open and close well.

So that is it! I hope you enjoy this DIY raised garden bed cover tutorial and leave me a comment if you have any questions.

how to build cover for garden beds
DIY raised garden bed with fence

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diy garden bed cover to protect your raiseds bed from animals - raised garden bed with fence

22 Comments

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Comments

  1. Lara says

    May 29, 2020 at 1:28 PM

    This idea is amazing! I have to build something like that in my garden because I have got a big problem with animals that come and destroy mine work. Last year I had a tough time as they destroyed all of my lettuce. Leaves were totally eaten, there was left only a waste! This year I decided to grow some but in containers on my balcony..It works but it’s not the same as growing in my yard where I have got much bigger space. This time I have grown only a few lettuces which seeds I ordered on https://gardenseedsmarket.com/butterhead-lettuce-edyta-ozarowska-large-and-vividly-green.html ..They are still growing, it’s amazing to look at them getting bigger every day! Thanks for your post, I have got it in my mind!

    Reply
    • admin says

      May 29, 2020 at 2:47 PM

      Hey Lara,
      I’m so glad it’s helpful to you! I had the exact same problem as you last year – the squirrels ate all my pea, squash, bean leaves that I barely harvested anything from my garden. This year with the help of DIY’ed garden cover I’m finally able to grow vegetables again ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  2. Carole Parker says

    June 7, 2020 at 6:08 AM

    How did you attach the cover to the base? Or did you just set it on top of the raised bed? Trying to figure out how to refresh the soil in there if the cage is attached to the base

    Reply
    • admin says

      June 7, 2020 at 8:45 AM

      I don’t attach it because it sit on my raised bed just fine with its weight. Also with double door open you might be able to refresh the soil with the raised bed cover on. Hope that helps!

      Reply
      • Peter Beatty says

        January 10, 2021 at 4:24 AM

        Hi, I’m just wondering if you’re still relying on just weight to keep in place ? I made something very similar last summer,to keep cats out, but they blew off in the autumn storms so need attached. Pondering how to do so whilst maintaining detachability.
        Cheers,
        Pete

        Reply
        • Kelin says

          January 10, 2021 at 6:39 PM

          Yes I am, the weather has been pretty mild from where I live so I haven’t had any need to secure them, also I never take them out either.

          If I were to secure them, I will drive in a few outdoor screws but that doesn’t offer easy detachbility. You could try adding some bolt or latches to secure the bottom to the raised bed.

          Reply
          • Pete says

            January 15, 2021 at 2:40 PM

            Thanks – I think I’ll screw on an adjacent rail and use horizontal pegs through them to secure.

        • Judi says

          January 19, 2021 at 12:05 PM

          Maybe the barrel bolts on the bed and the cover. That way you can detach them but they wont blow away?

          Reply
  3. Denise Oliansky says

    October 11, 2020 at 9:03 PM

    Hi. This is awesome; however, I don’t see any instruction for making the doors, such as measurements and how you covered them with chicken wire. I look forward to building a couple of these for a new planting space. Thanks!
    Denise

    Reply
    • Kelin says

      November 5, 2020 at 5:24 PM

      I do t have door measurement in the post. also I include how I staple chicken wire to the raised bed cover doors.

      Reply
  4. Victoria says

    October 19, 2020 at 3:42 AM

    In my area ground squirrels and moles are a big problem, eating root veg from below. So I need heavy wire layers under the raised bed to protect my veg.

    Reply
    • Kelin says

      November 5, 2020 at 5:25 PM

      That’s probably a good idea! wire on the garden bed cover and also in the groud!

      Reply
  5. Doro says

    November 4, 2020 at 10:04 AM

    Do you plan to install barrel bolts at the bottom of the doors?
    Perhaps it would be good to do as the wooden boards tend to warp after a while.

    Reply
    • Kelin says

      November 5, 2020 at 5:28 PM

      yes that’s a very good point! I might need to install them in the future as the door frames started to warp a bit

      Reply
  6. Carla says

    November 18, 2020 at 10:05 AM

    Hi,
    This was very informative and I love your idea! I am trying to build this for a raised bed that is 18 inches tall, 4 feet wide, and 10 feet long. I am having trouble understanding how to convert your measurements to mine. Can you help me? I would like the cage with doors to be 5 feet tall.

    Reply
    • Kelin says

      November 27, 2020 at 11:17 PM

      Hi Carla, I’d recommend you draw it out on a paper with what your measurement and work backwards. It would take some time but totally worth it. Good luck with your project ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  7. Sarah says

    December 8, 2020 at 1:30 PM

    Hi! Thank you for these instructions. I’m excited to build some to deter squirrels from our many raised beds.

    I’m pretty new to woodworking. Could you tell me what the spade bit is for? Is it necessary to use it, or can I simply drill into the braces? Not sure if this matters, but I did buy a pocket jig to make angled holes.

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Kelin says

      December 9, 2020 at 12:41 PM

      Hi Sarah, so happy you are planning to build this cover for your raised bed!
      Regarding the spade bit, no you don’t necessarily need it. The reason I used spade bit is because 1. I don’t have a pocket jig. 2. If I don’t make a pocket, I have to use a super long screw for the joint.

      Reply
  8. Josh says

    December 29, 2020 at 10:12 AM

    Hi! Iโ€™m interested in building this for the spring. I canโ€™t seem to find a dimension for the diagonal braces. Am I missing these in the article, or does it not matter how long you cut them, as long as they have the correct angle. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kelin says

      December 30, 2020 at 8:18 PM

      It doesn’t matter as it is only used to support the frame ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  9. Masha Jeramaz says

    January 3, 2021 at 2:49 PM

    I love this!!! Can you tell us estimate cost of all this?

    Reply
    • Kelin says

      January 4, 2021 at 10:50 AM

      Hi Masha, it’s been a while so I don’t remember but I have linked the materials of this project so hopefully it gives you a sense of the cost ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply

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