Fruit Cage

NMA designed this unique outbuilding for a longtime client, an avid and expert gardener, to protect the fruits of her labor from the deer and other wild animals that roam the grounds of her family’s rural compound, the site also of our Guest House project. To add a note of visual harmony, we echoed in miniature the Guest House’s distinctive timber-frame structural scheme. The 520-square-foot cage encloses two large planting beds separated by a central brick walkway. Security is provided by a continuous cage of rabbit fencing, extending three feet into the earth and sandwiched between the post-and-beam frame and a layer of vertical battens, all of sustainably grown cedar. Custom blackened stainless steel door hardware will contrast with the cedar as it weathers to a silvery gray. A traditional hand-operated pump affixed to the exterior supplies water.

Photographer: Taggart Sorensen