I’m planning to build some more raised-bed gardens (to augment the ones that came with the house) this fall or next spring.
My question for the assembled multitude is “Is there any sort of mesh or netting I can put at the bottom before I fill them with dirt to deter the moles from burrowing in from the bottom?”.
I’ve been thinking of using 1/2”-square hardware cloth (galvanized), but don’t know how long it would last before it rusted away.
We use chicken wire (1/2 inch galvanized) below flower/veggie beds here for mole-proofing. We have really sandy soil and the wire seems to hold up fine. I suppose it depends on soil type, but I am sure the galv. wire would last a couple of seasons at least.
Most articles that I have read have used the wire mesh.
They do make a water proof fiber glass mesh, but I don’t know if that would have any hazard to it or not. I know that fiberglass curtains, washed in a washing machine with other clothes could result in glass particles in those fabrics.
We use layered chicken wire. Lay the second layer offset of the first. We ‘redo’ our raised beds every 4 or 5 years (deconstruct, new soil, etc) so we just replace it then.
YMMV of course. If you hear of a better idea I’d love to hear of it, what we do is kind of a pain.
Yardguard Hardware cloth 24" x 50 ft. 1/4" mesh 23 gauge. I ordered it on the Walmart website. Seems to hold up.
There's a few videos on installing.
We have two stray cats we feed out back - they tag mice, moles, voles, etc. They don't eat them, just kill 'em.
It works out pretty good (it's almost as if they had little signs that said: "Will kill for food")
The hardware cloth should last a good, long time and would be a good solution. It won’t rust if it’s not exposed to air.
We line all of our raised beds with a thick layer of cardboard - but we don’t have burrowing critter problems; Patrol Cats on Duty 24/7. ;)