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I had planted a coffee tree a year ago and the winds in my area are fierce. I Figured another wind break but this time made out of Gabion baskets.
I wanted it two baskets high (800mm) with maybe a third layer but was unsure how stable it would be. I could always go with a piece of timber either of the baskets and taller then the cages. Then put slats across between them if I needed the height.
Materials
4 of Large Gabion Cage
A Bunch of broken concrete path pieces
Tools
Shovel
Level
Long nose pliers
Leather gloves
Steps
Step 1
I have a slopping block so needed to make a level space for the baskets to sit on. From past experience trying to line up baskets so they appear straight is a pain in the neck (Have figured oout how to make it right half way through!)
I have a high clay content in my soil so hopefully I wont have to excavate too much for a solid base for the baskets.
I wasnt worried about water runoff, just the wind.
Love these baskets. I'd say cost effective to use compared to buying a large sheet and having to make them up yourself. The new version appears to have smaller gauge wire (I havent measured it but it looks smaller)
Mostly level. Will use my tamp bar to compact the fill areas to make it level across the whole width.
Placement of cages, making sure they look right. It was a paint to get them lined up to each other as the slightest movement would shift them.
This is to show how much I shaved off the ground to make a level terrace to sit the cages on. Its pretty much clay under the grass.
Step 2
Once I was happy with how the cages sat I filled them up. I didnt put stay wires in them as these were bought ones (prob should have but figured the distances and height shouldnt allow for bulging)
Filled cages, they are bulging as I haven't connected the lid on all sides. When Filling I tried not to overfill and also kept in mind to face the viewable sides with nicer, flatter pieces of concrete.
I kept an eye on how they looked as I filled them.
This is to show how far cages tend to bulge even when not overfilled. I Use a couple of ratchet straps looped over the back to the front halfish way down to bring the sides together. Then slowly move them along as I wind the spiral (connecter piece) on. I use a long nosed pair of pliers to help with this as sometimes its a really tight fit. Use a cheap set of pliers as they will be abused. The spiral you see is for the far basket. I hadnt thought that through with the concrete wall being there so this was the only way to thread it on.
Step 3
Its easier to fix things that are out of alignment then to leave it and come back. I used the pound hammer (small sledgie) to adjust the width sometimes. Hit but not to hard as it would deform the steel squares.
With the ratchets it made life a lot easier to wind that spiral on. When it didnt want to bring the sides together I would have a few taps with the pound hammer.
You can see how easily the spirals wind on, I just had to keep leap frogging the tie down ratchets to allow the spiral to wind onto the next section.
I threw in smaller gravel waste from the concrete breakup to get rid of it and also as fill (think of a castle wall) I knew another cage was going to be placed over the top so anything unsightly would be covered.
Pretty happy with the lining up of the two cages.
Only issue I had with the precut cages is that putting them together and then picking them up would let the corner spirals spiral out. A little pressure pulling the sides outwards when lifting the empty cage would stop that happening.
Happy with the foundation row of the cages. If there is any settling I would expect the whole row to settle together. These two cages are completely seperate, just sitting next to each other.
The precut cages being laid out and then spiraled together.
See the spiral standing up. When I would pick up the cage these would sometimes spiral straight out. So when picking up put outwards pressure on the cage sides and they would hold in place.
The hardest bit.... Trying to line up the cages so they looked like a continuous piece.. I spent an hour at least trying to adjust them but as soon as I looked away they would shift. The solution was to actually only use one spiral to tie the two front sections together and the two rear sections together. So instead of two seperate baskets sitting next to each other they had a common spiral holding the two together. It worked a dream and held together nicely. It was also easy enough to wind the spiral down on three pieces instead of two.
Step 4
Filling the top baskets and tidying up.
My waste rock pile, one of many I have.
The top two cages look great, the bottom almost but not quite right. If I had done the same trick with the middle section on the bottom row i think it would have sat perfectly. No worried tho. And no way was I removing all that concrete!
Really happy with how it was coming along.
This is where I started making sure the top of the cage would look "pretty", So flatter topped pieces of concrete were used to roughly level out the lids surface.
I used the gravel pieces and also smaller pieces as "fill" after the lid was fastened down. It really makes for a solid structure.
Looking West. This is where my strong winds come from.
Ground level and yeah no wind made it to me as i sat there. Very happy with the windbreak and 6 months later the coffee tree has and has kept a bunch of new leaves. I may actually put a third row on. I have the concrete still. Might buy a cage and see how it looks empty first.
