Happy Gardeners. Disappointed Wildlife.

When it comes to hungry wildlife and organic gardens in the Charlotte area, we’ve found that no two backyards are exactly the same. 

One grower can’t give away her surplus of vine-ripened tomatoes, while the next-door neighbor’s dreams of harvesting even just one ripe tomato are dashed every summer by squirrels or birds - often just days before harvest, making the loss sting even more.

Our first suggestion for keeping wildlife out of an organic garden is a simple wildlife barrier made with flexible fiberglass rods, covered with plastic netting that’s pinned to the soil with sod staples. This low cost option is especially useful when seedlings are first planted ; giving them a chance to get rooted and put on new growth before becoming a meal for rabbits or deer. 

The seedlings can be watered through the netting and the barrier can simply be removed once the plants reach the top of the enclosure.

 

But the height of this wildlife barrier design is limited to only about 16” above the soil surface, making it fine for seed starting, and growing some leafy green varieties, but too small for edible plant varieties that grow taller.

Another inexpensive, remarkably effective - and rather amusing -  way to keep wildlife away from your raised garden beds is to place realistic-looking toy snakes all around your organic garden.

We’ve heard many instances of this low cost wildlife deterrent ending overnight, what had been relentless garden incursions from squirrels, rabbits, birds, and chipmunks. If you try the rubber snake method, remember that you really can’t have too many toy snakes out there in the garden. And the more realistic-looking, the better. Have fun with it.

But rubber snakes, and tent poles with plastic netting aren’t for everyone.

Many of our customers live in upscale neighborhoods in the Charlotte area - places where the bar for architecture and landscape design has already been set very high. This makes it essential that whatever we bring to the table - cedar garden beds, a cedar-framed greenhouse, chicken coop, cedar compost bin, etc. - enhances and harmonizes with what’s already in place on the property.

And for this reason, we offer attractive and sturdy wildlife enclosures and fences for everything from one raised bed with a 3’-tall rabbit barrier, to 8’-tall deer fences - framed with red cedar and clad with 1/2” galvanized hardware cloth - that enclose large organic gardens with an array of cedar garden beds.

Organic gardener Kristin Hinson lives in just such a place ; Charlotte’s iconic Eastover neighborhood, known for its elegant homes with beautiful landscapes. 

Just a few years before, we had installed three 4’x6’ Kitchen Garden raised beds with drip irrigation, and a cedar compost bin in Kristin’s backyard.

With her edible garden site already carefully selected to maximize sunlight, and the automated water supply to her cedar raised beds, Kristin’s organic garden soon thrived - and in both cool and warm seasons, too. Summer plantings quickly showed healthy new growth and flowering - those promising signs of rewarding harvests ahead that every organic grower looks for. 

In the early spring and fall growing seasons, well-timed plantings of leafy varieties like collards, kale, spinach, and chard started out just as promising as Kristin’s summer garden.

But Kristin and her family weren’t the only ones who noticed how well their organic garden was thriving. Rabbits, squirrels, birds, and deer had also taken an interest in those vigorous, edible plants growing in the family’s cedar garden beds. 

And predictably, all that hungry wildlife soon took far more than their fair share of the garden’s produce. 

Nearly-ripened tomatoes were pecked at and chewed off of their vines, just days before harvest. 

Broccoli and kale plants were razed to the ground overnight.  

Discouraging. Frustrating. Heartbreaking. 

After a few growing seasons with this disappointingly familiar  pattern, the Hinson family felt all of the above, and was finally ready to take action.

One day, Kris sent us a photo she had found online, that showed a cedar-framed wildlife barrier placed on top of a garden bed. 

The concept was already familiar to us, as we had built versions of this design many times before.

But the wildlife barrier design Kris show us featured a gable frame with a much steeper pitch than our typical forty-five degree gable structures. And the steeper pitch Kristin’s example photo substantially increased the height of the frame, allowing for taller plant growth inside the enclosure

“Could we build something with a steep pitch like that? With a hinged lid on both sides for easy access to the garden?”, asked Kristin.

“Certainly”, we replied. 

We’ll even make them a littler more robust than the example in Kristin’s photo - framing her new wildlife barriers with burlier pieces of rough-sawn red cedar and cladding the frames with 1/2” galvanized hardware cloth steel mesh.  

We sized Kristin’s gable-framed wildlife barriers to fit neatly on top of her three existing 4’x6’ Kitchen Garden raised beds, and anchored them down to the cedar garden beds with structural steel screws.

To make it easy for Kristin and her family to reach the entire garden area in each raised bed, we limited the height of the 6’ sides of the wildlife enclosures to about a foot. 

With the enclosures anchored down and hinged lids installed on both sides of each enclosure, it was time pack up our gear and to hand the keys of the newly secured garden over to Kristin. 

How are things going over in Kristin’s organic garden, now?

Disappointing. Frustrating. Discouraging.

For all the relentless wildlife that used to raid Kristin’s organic garden.

And for Kristin and her family? 

You could say that it’s a whole new chapter in their organic gardening adventure. A much more rewarding chapter. And with a few successful seasons of growing - and harvesting - edible varieties under her cedar-framed wildlife barriers, it looks like this will be an organic garden story that’ll ‘live happily ever after’.

We Want a Rematch!

We’d like to think that every greenhouse we build here in the Charlotte area can handle all whatever Nature decides to heap on it -  from tropical storm winds to piles of snow and ice. 

And they usually do.

But our undefeated record came to an end, when one of our cedar-framed greenhouses finally lost a fight with Nature ; KO’ed by a towering, ancient long-leaf pine tree that fell right on top of  the greenhouse during a high-wind storm. 

And it wasn’t a light jab, either ; Lisa’s cedar-framed greenhouse sat right in the path of this colossal tree - it’s massive trunk landing on the greenhouse’s gable roof like a clean right hook to the chin. 

Fortunately, the giant pine tree fell away from the couple’s home, and no one was injured.

The portion of the greenhouse’s red cedar 2”x4” rafters, 2”x6” ridge beam, and 8mm twin-wall polycarbonate roof panels that lay in the path of he tree were predictably crushed.

But, when we first saw the wreckage, we had to give this rugged little greenhouse design some credit, as its 5’-tall sidewalls - made with rough sawn red cedar 2”x4” -  remained fully intact. Almost if to say, “we’re not going down without a fight!” 

And we were equally impressed to find that greenhouse’s base, made with two courses of 

4”x4” red cedar timbers was unaffected by the impact of the huge tree, and could be reused. In fact, we saved Lisa a little money by building her new cedar-framed greenhouse right on top of the existing base of 4”x4” cedar timbers.

Of course, unforeseen events like this are the reason that there’s such a thing as homeowners insurance, and Lisa’s insurance company quickly approved our quote to replace the damaged greenhouse.

This 8’x10’ gable greenhouse design is framed with rough sawn red cedar, using 2”x4”, using 2”x4” for the gable and side walls, and 2”x4” red cedar rafters joined to a 2”x6” red cedar ridge beam for the gable roof. The greenhouse’s wall studs and rafters are spaced 24” on the center - giving tremendous strength to the structure, while minimizing shadows cast by the roof frame, and increasing the amount of sunlight into the greenhouse.

Just like with the first greenhouse, we glazed the new one with 8mm twin-wall, clear polycarbonate.Twin-wall polycarbonate glazing has outstanding insulation value, and this material is virtually shatterproof. Choosing this high-performance polycarbonate greenhouse glazing instead of single pane glass not only delivers better insulation value, it eliminates the risk of injury from shards of broken glass.

Twin-wall polycarbonate is far less likely to  even be damaged at all, when compared to single pane glass. And polycarbonate greenhouse glazing is easier and safer to clean up, remove, and replace if it ever is damaged - say, by a falling tree limb. Or even a whole tree. 

In the case of Lisa Smith’s crushed greenhouse, for example, while the twin-wall polycarbonate was damaged so much that it couldn’t be reused, there were no dangerous shards or splinters of the material to clean up after the tree crushed the greenhouse. In fact, twin-wall polycarbonate greenhouse glazing is designed to crumple, bend, and in extreme cases, tear from extremely heavy blows ( like Lisa’s ogre-sized pine tree ) - as opposed to shattering into small pieces and shards, like glass glazing can.

As with her previous 8’x10’ gable greenhouse, we fitted Lisa’s new 8’x10’ cedar-framed greenhouse with two automated roof vent windows, and a single 36”-wide hinged entry door centered on the front gable wall.

To help waterproof this gable greenhouse design, we first tape all of the seams between polycarbonate panels, then cover the taped seams with red cedar trim, and seal the edges of the trim with a premium, exterior-grade silicone.

Replacement greenhouse completed. Mission accomplished.

But will Lisa’s replacement greenhouse hold up to whatever Mother Nature might

throw at it next? 

We’d like to think so, and you can be sure that we glanced around more than once to see if there were any  precarious-looking large trees looming over the new structure.

None of the other trees in the couple’s backyard stood out to us as suspicious, but Nature  always has the final say, doesn’t she.

But if the past performance of our cedar-framed gable greenhouse design is any indication, Lisa can feel good that - barring another fallen pine tree, a bullseye shot from a meteorite, or a careless flying saucer - her 8’x10’ cedar-framed greenhouse will stand up strong against all the wind, snow, and ice that Mother Nature will pile on it.

Shakeela's Garden Coop

Shakeela McNeely already had an extensive edible garden before we ever set foot on her property, which is just north of Charlotte. A thoughtfully arranged series of cedar garden beds fanned out into her sprawling backyard, and a compost bin sat conveniently nearby.

It was when Shakeela was finally ready for her own backyard flock of hens, that she first dropped us a line.

Her vision was a small flock of somewhere between three to five hens ; a manageable addition to her organic garden, with a small daily supply of fresh eggs and some fun new friends for Shekeela and her dog.

 

Now, Shakeela had already done plenty of research on backyard chicken coops, and she already knew that she needed a sturdy backyard coop design with robust protection from predators ; Everything from snakes and hawks, to rodents, foxes, raccoons and possums, on up to bigger hunters like dogs and coyotes would all soon discover her backyard flock, and quickly put the security of her backyard coop to the test.

So our objectives were to select the best site for Shakeela’s backyard chicken coop, then select the right coop design for her backyard flock.

 

The two primary traits we look for in a backyard chicken coop site here in the Charlotte area is a dry area -  a place that isn’t always soggy, or in the path of storm water flow - and that’s also near trees, a building, a tall fence, etc.,  that will provide shade from the Charlotte area’s scorching summer afternoons.

Keeping hens cool during the summer months is a far greater consideration in the Charlotte area than taking extra measures to keep a backyard flock warm in the winter months.

 

The supplemental heaters, wind breaks, insulation, and other measures to warm backyard coops in colder regions are rarely needed during the typically mild winters 

here in zones 7 and 8.

The primary objectives for Charlotte area backyard chicken coops is to keep those hens cool during the summer months, dry during the winter months, and safe from predators.

And at first sight, we were were delighted to find that Shakeela’s sweeping backyard already had an ideal for her backyard chicken coop ; a dry, shaded area, right beside a grove of trees, that was also convenient to the house and a nearby storage shed. In front of the site, there was a pasture-sized area of fenced-in backyard of for her hens to forage during the day.

Many city and suburban residents prudently seem to prefer backyard flocks of around three to five hens as they’re easy to manage and care for ; like pets that are fun to watch, and bond with, and happily lay a daily supply of fresh eggs.

In this common scenario, The Garden Coop design is almost always our first chicken coop design recommendation, and there’s so much to love about this excellent backyard coop design.

Large enough for up to eight hens, The Garden Coop makes a more spacious, comfortable home for smaller backyard flocks.

It’s sleek and attractive design satisfies even the fussiest neighborhood HOA boards, and next-door neighbors.

 

But the two features that make this backyard chicken coop one of our favorites, are the robust protection from predators and the fully roofed floor plan. We build the Garden Coop with rough sawn red cedar framing, clad with 1/2”galvanized hardware cloth, that’s buried a foot deep around the entire perimeter of the coop. This scratchy steel mesh isn’t exactly fun to cut and work with, but one it’s securely in place, it’ll beat back attempts from all manner of claws, paws, teeth, fangs, beaks, and talons. The Garden Coop’s frame frame sits on masonry 

blocks - preventing ground contact and greatly extending the lifespan of the coop.

The Garden Coop design features a roost box that we clad with red cedar. This spacious roost box gives hens shelter from harsh weather, and a cozy place to lay eggs - with a convenient egg access door placed right on the front of the coop. The fun, chicken-sized ladder allows hens easy access through an opening in the roost box floor, and the large hinged door on the right side of the roost box allows then coop’s owner easy access for thorough cleanings.

Tinted polycarbonate roof panels cover the entire floor plan of the Garden Coop, and with ample overhang on all four sides, too. This excellent feature of the Garden Coop helps keep your flock dry in harsh, wet weather. And keeping your backyard flock dry during the winter months in the Charlotte area does a lot to keep your backyard flock comfortable and healthy.

 

And you don’t need to be an expert carpenter to build the Garden Coop, either. If you’re handy and ready to roll up your sleeves, this is an excellent DIY garden project. Simple, step-by-step plans are available at thegardencoop.com , and even though we’ve built many Garden Coops over the years, our team still appreciates having that well-worn set of printed and spiral bound 

building plans to refer to, if needed. 

With the 6’-tall hinged entry door securely installed, our final task was finding and and installing the perfect-sized tree branch for Shakeela’s hens to roost on and take in the view. We’ve found that backyard chickens seem to prefer a natural tree branch over a milled pieces of lumber for their roost. And the right natural tree branch does seem to add just the right touch of nature to a structure with so much human artistry. And perhaps it isn’t just about comfort for the hens. Maybe they have an eye for good chicken coop design, too.

At any rate, we know that a happy flock is a healthy flock. And we’re happy to look around as long as it takes to find that perfect-sized, natural roost branch for them. 

Any Special Requests?

We’ve worked hard to offer a high-quality line of cedar garden products, and Charlotte area gardeners do seem to like what we build.

Cedar-framed greenhouses and chicken coops. Cedar garden beds. Cedar compost bins. Cedar arbors, trellises, and outdoor furniture.

And sometimes, we’re asked if we can ‘make something special’ - something that’s ‘not on the menu’. 

Could duplicate or modify a unique raised bed design that a customer found on online?

Would we consider building cedar arbor or pergola designs that were inspired from photos or drawings discovered in all those little nooks and crannies on the internet?

Whimsical cedar trellis. 

Cedar potting bench, with lots of extra features. 

 

Cedar Rose Arbor.

 

Cedar Obelisks.

 

Cedar Orangerie boxes.

 

Cedar storage sheds.

 

Kids’ Tree house.

 

Cedar tiki bar.

 

Cedar dart board cabinet

 

Cedar hexagonal-shaped planters.

 

Even a Japanese-Style Tea House, made with red cedar.

And our answer to special requests like these?

It’s ( almost ) always:

“Sure, we can! And we’ll be delighted to build that for you, too!”

 

Now, our Kitchen Garden raised bed design has a sleek look, with 1”x6” red cedar boards glued and screwed to a 4”x4” red cedar post in each corner. The 1”x6” red cedar cap board gives the gardener a comfortable, sturdy place to sit - and it gives the raised bed more visual appeal, too. 

 

Because of the 19’ height of the Kitchen Garden raised bed design, 2”x4” cedar reinforcing stakes are installed on any span on a cedar garden bed that’s longer than four feet. So a 4’x8’ Kitchen Garden raised bed, for example, would require two reinforcing stakes - one stake placed at the center of each of the 8’-long sides of the cedar planter.

 

These stakes help anchor the raised bed in place, and they also keep the long sides of the Kitchen Garden cedar garden beds from bowing out when the planter is filled with organic soil. The soil in a 19”-tall, 4’x8’ Kitchen Garden raised bed, for example, weighs well over 1000 pounds, and would easily push out the 8’-long sides of the raised bed, if these reinforcing stakes weren’t installed before adding the soil.

But in the standard Kitchen Garden raised bed design, these  2”x4” cedar reinforcing stakes are typically placed inside the planter, giving the exterior of the cedar garden bed a sleek appearance - and creating a little more room to walk around the planter, when space in the garden site is limited.

 

When Jennifer Robin called us, she already knew that she wanted three Kitchen Garden raised beds in her Charlotte backyard. But, before she called, Jennifer had prudently perused our Flickr photo gallery to see examples of cedar garden bed designs, and other Microfarm projects. 

In our series of garden project photo albums, Jennifer saw a modified version of the Kitchen Garden raised bed design that caught her eye. 

This adaptation of the Kitchen Garden design features 2”x4” cedar reinforcing stakes placed on the exterior of the cedar raised beds, and also includes a touch more overhang on the 1”x6” cedar seating cap board.

 

Otherwise, this modified version of the Kitchen Garden raised bed design is the same as the standard version ; made with rough sawn red cedar to a height of about 19”, and filled with a premium organic soil blend.

Now, Jennifer’s organic garden site gets practically all-day sunlight exposure, making an automated drip irrigation system for her raised beds essential for her organic garden to thrive during the summer months. So we fitted all three cedar garden beds with drip irrigation grids, routing the water supply to a single watering zone at the home’s primary landscape irrigation control panel.

This convenient set-up will allow all three cedar garden beds to be watered simultaneously on an automated watering schedule, whether the family is inside having breakfast, or away on a month-long summer vacation.

With the two 4’x8’ Kitchen Garden raised beds and one 4’x10’ Kitchen Garden raised bed leveled, staked down, and filled with organic soil, and with the drip irrigation grids carefully placed in each raised bed, just two final tasks remained : place a border of steel edging and decorative pea pebbles around Jennifer’s organic garden, and build a 4’-tall garden fence with red cedar frame clad with 1/2” galvanized hardware cloth to keep out rabbits - and the family dog.

Done deal. Another special request delivered, and another happy customer. 

Do you have a special garden project in mind? Something you’ve seen that inspires you? 

A garden design that dares you to dream big? 

Or just dream differently?

Drop us a line. 

There’s a pretty good chance that we’ll delight in another opportunity to say, “yes!”

 

Raised Bed Upgrade

Even though we build and install cedar garden beds professionally, we still applaud the DIY spirit. We’ve seen everything out there,  from inexpensive raised bed kits with pieces that snap together, to more substantial efforts that are still commendable...even if they aren’t prefectly  level. And perhaps not exactly in the ideal location for an organic garden.

And when we first visited the Laundry family’s organic garden, there was already plenty there to applaud.

A 4’-tall garden fence surrounded the area, which had decorative pea stone pathways and an admirable lakefront view. 

Two 4’x8’ and one 4’x4’ raised beds had been thoughtfully placed inside the fenced area, with plenty of space to walk between and around the raised beds. 

These garden beds were prefabricated kits that we instantly recognized - having seen ( and replaced ) them many times before. These raised bed kits are widely available at Home Improvement chain stores, and to be fair, they aren’t a bad way to try your hand at organic gardening. 

The kits are typically made with kiln-dried cedar, and come in 4’-long, modular sections with cedar connector pieces that allow the grower the option to assemble various sized and shaped planters - without the need for power tools or fasteners. At just 4’ long, these ‘big box’ raised bed kits are easy to bring home in just about any vehicle, and the price is surprisingly low.

But we’ve found that these inexpensive raised bed kits usually only last a few seasons here in the Charlotte area. Sometimes less. 

Even though they’re made with cedar, the boards and connector pieces are thin and dry, and they soon decay in a wet organic garden environment.

Ryan Londry and his son had installed three of these same raised bed kits, and had already had a couple of successful growing seasons with them. This confirmed that the existing garden area gets plenty of sunlight for growing edible varieties

An irrigation system had already been installed in the family’s organic garden, with a water supply running to each raised bed site. 

With all of this infrastructure already in place, our objectives were pared down to:

-Replace the three decayed raised bed kits with three of our 19”-tall Kitchen Garden cedar garden beds - placing the new cedar garden beds in the exact same locations as the old ones. 

-Fill the new Kitchen Garden raised beds with a premium organic soil blend.

-Install a drip irrigation grid in each planter and connect each grid to the existing irrigation tubing at each raised bed site.

Easy enough. We’re Microfarm, and that’s what we’re here for!

We built two 4’x8’ Kitchen Garden raised beds and one 4’x6’ Kitchen Garden raised bed in our Charlotte workshop, and arrived on the appointed day with all three cedar garden beds fully assembled and ready to install.  Arriving with the  cedar garden beds fully assembled makes things go smoothly at the worksite, and by late morning, we had removed all of the decayed raised bed kits, installed the new Kitchen Garden raised beds, filled them with organic soil, and installed a drip irrigation grid in each of the three new planters.

 

By now, you may be thinking, “ Okay, Microfarm. You were gentle about it, but you still kinda threw the competition’s garden bed durability ‘under the bus’. How long will your more- expensive, way-heavier, way-harder-to-build, red cedar garden beds last in the same perpetually-wet garden setting?”

To that, we would say, “Our Kitchen Garden raised bed design is made with burly pieces of rough-sawn red cedar joined with premium exterior fasteners, and waterproof glue.

The Londry family can expect ten years of dependable service from their three new Kitchen Garden raised beds.

Maybe more.

And so can you."

Now, because so much of the beauty and charm of this garden had already been delivered long before we ever set foot on the property, we won’t take too much of the credit for the way it looks now. 

We simply installed three new cedar garden beds, after all.

But the three new Kitchen garden raised beds do cut a fine figure out there in the Londry family’s organic garden. 

Perhaps it’s fair to say that we may enhanced the garden a little ; we added a touch of timely polish to an already delightful organic garden.