My wife and I are just starting to build raised beds. Our neighbors here in southern Poland have terrible problems with tunneling moles and mice. These rodents have killed fruit trees and wiped out whole patches of garden from below. I thought about building our raised bed frames, laying them in place, then digging down one spade deeper and fastening galvinized 1cm X 1cm screening to the frames and running it under the raised bed as a barrier. But is this healthy? I am having doubts about when the screening starts to decay and galvinized particles mix with the soil. Is there another way? A better way?

-- Steven Hylan (hylan@man.pl), December 10, 2001

Answers

Are you anywheres near Laskowa?

-- ron bulinda (rvbulinda@yahoo.com), December 10, 2001.

get a few cats.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), December 10, 2001.

We had a problem in the chicken coop with rats. I put down plywood with metal lathe stapled to it. It was the kind that ceramic tile installers staple down before doing a mud floor. We found that they were much cheaper than screening or chicken wire, it is a very thick wire, and easier to work with as it comes in flattened panels.

-- Bob Fade (Fadefarm@aol.com), December 10, 2001.

Zinc and iron are both essential dietary minerals.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 10, 2001.

This has been done for years and I haven't heard of any problems with it, you can just lay the 'screen ' down and fill the beds on top of it, then bending the screen up to fasten to the bottom of the frames on the outside, (or fit it to the inside but I think this way is harder than it's worth) The feeder roots go right through.

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), December 10, 2001.

Hi Steven, We have moles and most of the time I don't mind them, but for my special raised herb beds I use hardward cloth just as you mentioned, under the beds. That's also where I plant any really special bulbs or plants I want to propagate like Chocolate Cosmos. Works great! Good LUck, LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), December 11, 2001.

Can you get guineas. I know most rodent's i.e. Mice & rats can't stand the sound of guineas(hope I spelled that right).

-- Katie (Wi-cashcrop@excite.com), December 13, 2001.