Making Raised Garden Beds Question

[Mackay]

We are thinking of putting in raised beds for the garden for a number of reasons. We have molls and volls on the land and I saw that someone here made her raised beds lined with chicken wire or something similar on the bottom to keep the critters out and I thought "COOL"

But then I started to notice how these wire materials start to corrode over time, rust, etc. then I started to worry about heavy metals in the soil where I was planting veggies..

any opinions on this concern? any type of wire mesh that would be most suitable for such purpose?

 

[MorelCabin]

Well chicken wire will not keep out moles, but hardware cloth might...I wouldn't use either to be honest, you are right about the corrosion.
Moles don't eat garden vegies, they are only after the grubs. They may disturb the roots of the plant somewhat though.
In summer their 'runs' are pretty shallow so you should be able to keep them out of your garden area by just making the outside of your raise bed go down 12 inches with a board

 

[inchworm]

I have lanscaping cloth on the bottom of mine. That might help keep the critters out.

 

[Mackay]

Morelcabin, you mean place a board 12 inches below the surface line on the perimeter?

and inchworm, you don't think moles would eat through that fabric?

 

[TanksHill]

Humm, interesting. Makes me want to go dig up a corner of my bed and see just how rusty it is????