Honey Tree Orchard & ApiaryCedar Bluff, Virginia
Rows of berry plants leafing out inside the timber berry cage

Life on the farm

The Berry Cage

Raspberries, blackberries, grapes and gooseberries, growing safe from the birds, with strawberries in raised beds just outside. Here is how the cage came together.

Our berries

From bare frame to leafy rows

  1. March 2025

    The frame goes up

    It started with a big timber frame on a bed of wood chips. Post by post and rafter by rafter, the berry cage took shape, tall enough to walk through and built to keep the birds off the fruit.

    The bare timber frame of the berry cage standing over wood chips
    The X-braced timber frame of the berry cage standing on the hillside in March sun

  2. May 2025

    Roof and walls on

    By early May the clear roof was on, the wire mesh walls were up, and a row of raised beds sat along the outside.

    The finished berry cage with a clear roof and mesh walls, raised beds lined up along its side

  3. June 2025

    Screened beds and first plants

    By early summer the soil was turned, the screened beds were built, and the first little plants were in the ground. Rows of young canes went in along the trellis wires.

    A wooden bed covered in wire screen with small green seedlings inside
    Young berry plants growing along trellis wires in fresh soil

  4. April 2026

    The canes leaf out

    The next spring the whole cage woke up. The canes leafed out, the rows filled in, and the trellis wires and posts got ready to carry a summer of fruit.

    Two long rows of berry plants leafing out inside the timber berry cage
    Green posts and trellis wires running down a row of young canes
    Berry bushes leafing out under the open rafters of the cage
    Spring canes and fresh soil inside the berry cage
    Rows of young berry plants in fresh soil under the cage roof
    Staked berry plants leafing out along the cage wall
    Berry vines climbing a post in dark fresh soil inside the cage

  5. August 2026

    Summer in the cage

    By late summer the cage was full of green. Wire mesh walls and X-braced posts keep the birds out, a clear roof lets the light in, and raised strawberry beds with screened lids sit just outside.

    The berry cage in summer, with wire mesh walls, X-braced wooden posts, a clear roof and a screened strawberry bed outside

  6. Growing inside

    What's in the cage

    Inside the cage we grow raspberries, blackberries, grapes and gooseberries, all safe from hungry birds. Just outside, the raised beds are full of strawberries.