DIY cheap temporary outside enclosure

[Andee]

Here's another short update. I think this took me like 30 minutes to do? I have one wall up. Definitely need to put another stake in to keep it stable on the other side. It's height measures to be Just over 42 inches. So I am very happy with that. I already have some branches ready to go, and have figured out the perfect way to do my door I think. Though I do need to plant the other plant first. Just so everyone knows I have not spent a dime on this habitat. I used stuff lying around the house that we either had extra of from old projects or just weren't being used. The only thing I think I would buy would be the new plant, and also the fake plants I will use to fill in the gaps until my others grow large enough. I am getting all my branches from my nature trail and so don't have to worry about that at all. I am not positive I will be using slate or river rocks at the bottom. I won't likely be feeding out here and if one of them falls they would have a ton of eco earth under to keep them safe... any thoughts on that? It's taking me a bit longer to get this one done, due to the tight money issue at the moment, (I hate having to deal with this right now) but the chams can still sit outside with me on my lap safely and get some sun. Other wise the plants will grow in the meantime. My hibiscuses had a lot of dead branches that I ended up trimming back until I saw green, hopefully with the nice weather and good rain we have been getting (and the new larger home) they will start growing and healing.

 

[Kboz1991]

Kind looks like the same idea as mine. Can't wait to see the finished product

 

[Andee]

So I found some attachments for the stakes in our garage that I think may help with branch stabilization. I don't know if the make any longer ones or not. If I can find some I will likely set at least another three on the longer side that is already up and will not have a door in it. I need to still attach the shorter side you see in the picture, to the bin with some holes and some zip ties. It should help with the wavy affect and also keep the chams inside the enclosure.

 

[Andee]

So here's an update. I was sitting outside with Ryker when I decided to work on the cage. So I placed him on the top while I put the last plant in. The Bouganvillia (sp?) I used is a semi-thornless variety that has thorns only appearing at it's base and are easy to keep up. I trimmed them all off and checked the rest of the plant for any wanderers. I have started to attach it to the gutter guard and various parts or the outdoor cage. It will start winding around it soon. Later today I plant to at least put on the other side with the weird bars I don't know the name of, so that I can start adding some branches if I can find what I want in our house to attach them with. If I don't find it in the house I will skip out to buy it.

Can you find my helper?

 

[Andee]

Cost of this entire enclosure (if I had actually bought everything I used) this is mostly estimates

Depending on storage bin size - 10-25 dollars, this once is around 12.00
Gutter Guard roll- usually 20 or so dollars.
Stakes and weird bars for stakes- 8 dollars
Eco earth bricks- total of 14 dollars
Cypress mulch- 10 dollars
River rocks to help drainage- 10 dollars
Individual plant costs- 20 dollars each
Cable ties- 6 dollars
Branches that will be added- zero cost XD

and this enclosure is totally adjustable for larger height and larger length. In fact if I had started with freshly cut gutter guard I would have easily reached a height of at least 4 feet. But I didn't want to go too high with my guys yet.

This is a super easy enclosure too. I mean I know it doesn't look great but all I use as a power tool was a drill, and then scissors or clippers for anything else. It allows for plenty of UVB to penetrate and is safe for a temp outside enclosure. This is honestly super cheap. If I had an entire bag of cypress mulch to use I would only have spent 10.00 dollars on the soil to plant in.

Total cost adds up to...

140

You could likely remove 34 dollars depending on the plants and the dirt. I also have a rather large amount of usable things left over, like cable ties, and gutter guard (never seem to run out of that stuff).

 

[Andee]

Hope enjoying the partially done cage with me watching.