Roots will have no difficulty growing through the chicken wire.

Yep. Do it. I need to excavate one of my beds to add wire. Something, probably a gopher, did for all my potatoes in that bed. I have onions & leeks in there now and they are constantly disturbed although apparently not worth eating to the varmit. Disturbing is not conducive to growth however.
All my other raised bed creations have hardware cloth (a wire mesh that comes in various sizes and that is somewhat stiffer than chicken wire and easier to work with, but more expensive than CW) covering the bottom of the frame. It is a precaution worth installing.

I agree with oregon...you need something with a tighter mesh if you are trying to keep out rodents...

lol oregon veg

LOL, agree with Oregonveg. My beds are 1' with study cardboard under them. Course, we've never seen an underground critter in our clay: no worms, no nothing.

Grace,
Carolyn P.

Chicken wire has worked for me to stop ground hogs.

Jim

I used a double layer of chicken wire in the raised bed at my girlfriends place. She has a big gopher population. They haven't bothered the garden at all this year but did a lot of damage to the one last year before the wire went in. I agree that gophers could get through a single layer of chicken wire, is why I used 2 layers.

I have successfully used chicken wire to exclude not only chickens but also rabbits. They can't squeeze through it (unless they're babies), and they also don't like to jump higher than about 12". So foot-high raised beds lined with chicken wire on the bottom is an effective method to combat rabbits.

Will galvanized chicken wire be ok to used in a raised bed, is there anything toxic in it? Is it made from aluminum which is pretty toxic?

I attached 1/4" hardware cloth to the bottom of my raised beds with staples, and I have not had any problems. Works great. It's made from steel. Certainly no more toxic than the landscape timbers themselves, I'd think! Make sure those don't have creosote in them, or that they are not treated lumber. That could be bad.

NoNoNo! #1 gophers will chew right through CW if not squeeze through! #2Voles will just saunter through like it was a hallway to the vege palace! #3 They will rot out in a couple of years. Do you want to dig out ALL of that dirt just to do it all again?
Do it right the first time and use hardware (or gopher) cloth! It is worth the extra $! Our origional 4 beds have not failed in13 and 10 years. We had a shovel go through accidentally in one bed, but were able to dig down and repair the tear in the wire.
All those tiny rhodents can squeeze themselves down to about the size of a fat thumb.Sorry I was so adament! LOL I hate gophers! LOL Nancy

NoNoNo! #1 gophers will chew right through CW if not squeeze through! #2Voles will just saunter through like it was a hallway to the vege palace! #3 They will rot out in a couple of years. Do you want to dig out ALL of that dirt just to do it all again?
Do it right the first time and use hardware (or gopher) cloth! It is worth the extra $! Our origional 4 beds have not failed in13 and 10 years. We had a shovel go through accidentally in one bed, but were able to dig down and repair the tear in the wire.
All those tiny rhodents can squeeze themselves down to about the size of a fat thumb.Sorry I was so adament! LOL I hate gophers! LOL Nancy

Y'all need to do a little research about lead leaching from chicken wire. No friggin way would i put it in a mat beneath the plants unless it was a stainless steel variety or specifically noted as lead free.