New project - Crop protection.

Hi All,

I am planning on making some removeable crop protection for the raised beds. The bases will be timber and use a hoop system using blue water pipe. There are 3 reasons why I want to do this.

1) Hate the faff of setting up and cable tying netting in and also removing the netting to get in and work on beds.

2) To keep cats from using as a toilet.

3) I have all the materials (exept netting) and some spare time to do.

My question is what is the best netting to use? Would it be the black butterfly netting or the green greenhouse shading netting?

Rusty

 

I used Scaffolder's Debris netting. Probably free if you can blag it after they finish a job as normally they chuck it away.

Here's how I did mine:

Brassica Netting – against Cabbage White Butterfly

 

Hi Kristen,

There is a new development down the road so will see if I can get some off them. As I have loads of timber left over from other projects I am going to build a base out of 2x2 and drill into it to make a hole the same diameter as the pipe and push it in and screw through timber into pipe. I will then put netting over and staple to the timber. I can just remove the whole thing if I need to get into the bed.
Rusty

 

Good idea ... someone has some lift off frames ... can I remember who it was? Can I heck ... my recollection was that it was here on GC ...

 

I reckon it was @Steve R - but past threads images have gone (Photobucket ...) and link to his Blog doesn't look like that exists anymore. Might be that he has a photo somewhere else - on his YouTube maybe?

 

Nah..it wasn't me...

Steve...

 

That's the boys, thanks

Very smart.

 

If you have a mains water supply, then this works for me.

For raised bed type of areas where I cannot use the spray, I just peg down some stiff fine mesh black netting and where I want to plant , just cut a hole.
They may walk over it, but seldom foul as they hate catching their claws on the netting,
Cheap and easy enough to replace each year or two,

 

I wonder if it would work for rabbits ... My garden is completely fenced, but a few get in now and again. Trouble is, now that much of the garden is mature they have plenty of places to hide, so getting rid of them is much harder than back on the day when the fence was first built ...

Particularly where I plant annuals - they are fine once big enough, so just need protecting initially.

Maybe some Bang scarers too, hooked up to movement detectors.

 

That’s the sort of thing I am planning. Have you had any issues? Would you change anything on the design??

Rusty

 

No issues really, I used them for a few years then made a big brassica frame and gave the tunnels away to a plot neighbour. Lifting them up at the end like this worked okay, but it would have been better leaving space on one side to roll the frame over. Space to me though needs plants

I made mine with 1 inch by 2 inch tile battens, would have been better with 2x2. You do need the top piece as in the heat of summer the pipes can sag a little.

My reason for eventually abandoning the idea was because things like sprouts and broccoli require more height and that is why I went for a brassica frame.

Steve...