Suggestions for netting please

Hello,

I need to buy some netting this year and I am looking for recommendations if possible.

I need netting to keep the birds off the strawberries and other fruit and also netting to keep the butterflies off the cabbages, broccoli etc. Does anyone know what sizes holes the netting should have?

Also, how do you stake out the netting to keep it off the plants. I am thinking of making some frames which are covered in netting, but can be easily moved. Has anyone done anything similar?

Thanks,
Cath

 

I guess it depends on how much area you need to cover and how much you're prepared to spend.

As for the gauge of netting, my personal preference to keep birds off fruit, would be something with holes no larger than 15mm. The 'butterfly deterrent' net would, I would think, need to be significantly finer, although I'm sure someone will make a better informed suggestion than I.

For the cage - it depends whether you just want something for one season at the time as it were, or are looking for something more permanent.

At the bottom end, although I've not used them myself, for a temporary structure, you can buy things called 'Flexi Build Balls' , or 'Build a Ball' (both available on Amazon amongst others). These are plastic balls into which you slot canes or aluminium tubing and which enable you to join canes and make a frame of - presumably any size - without much effort. The 'Flexi Build' seem to come in packets of 10 at about £6.55 per pkt. which could work out quite expensive if you're making a large frame and of course, you'd need to buy the netting and ground pegs (if you want them) separately - although of course netting is pretty inexpensive. So far as I can see, this system is good for joining canes, but doesn't seem to provide anything for actually attaching the net to the canes.

You can of course also buy cages. Although there are innumerable places you can buy systems, at somewhere like William James and Co., for example,(http://www.wmjames.co.uk/fruit-cages.htm) you can buy a 1.2m high aluminium 'system' for about £100, which includes the self-assembly frame, netting and ground pegs. Prices for differing lengths and widths, vary.

The 'trouble' with the first suggestion is that you need to make a frame sufficiently large to 1 - keep the netting well above your plants, (which could mean lots of packets of 10!): 2 - you'd need to 'rig up' some system in order to keep the top of the netting taught and 3 - there doesn't appear to be any method of actually fixing the netting to the canes. The second suggestion is certainly the more expensive.

I've got fruit bushes dotted about in my garden so I use some wooden frames I've made up (rather like a cube with one side missing), for which I used some 34 x 44 mm softwood and covered with plastic net and which I just pop over the various bushes. They're only good for a couple of seasons, but were cheap and quick to make and light enough to move about easily. At the other extreme, my father - when metal was much cheaper - made a permanent frame just over 6' high which covered much of his veggie garden, he then covered the whole thing in wire mesh and made a wooden 'door' covered with plastic mesh to give access.

I'm sure others will have brilliant suggestions, but if you haven't got a huge area, what about making a frame, (something that ends up looking like a table but without a top) out of something like 2" x 2"? If you're handy with a saw, I'd suggest 'halving joints' at the corners. Screw, or even nail, the bits together and staple gun or wire staple some plastic netting to the wood. A rectangular frame (perhaps of 34 x 44 mm) also covered with plastic mesh could then be made to lay over the top, or alternatively just lay your mesh over your frame, pull it taught and hold it down with rocks or bricks.

 

i found this stuff pretty good - tough stuff as well. i got mine second hand as i understand that builders cannot re - use it due to health and safety regs

http://www.tarpaflex.co.uk/acatalog/debris-netting-scaffold-sheeting.html

i fixed mine over my cabbages this year - a simple wooden frame and then pegged down

loopy

 

oh just another thought - blue water pipe makes good cloche supports

loopy

 

Hi guys thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of using the building mesh.

Fidgetsmum I have been thinking of making small portable wooden cages which can be moved around the garden. I have spotted the connector balls, but they are very expensive. I am toying with the idea of being able to do something with the connecting rods from dome tents, but haven't quite worked out how and whether this would work.

 

Have a look at the Enviromesh at www.gardening-naturally.com :gnthb: