Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Pony Girl on December 30, 2011, 08:36
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What is the best way of securing Environmesh to cover crops?
I'm thinking for crops like cabbage etc later in the season. I'm new to gardening and haven't actually planted anything yet. Itching to get started! You can tell what I got for Christmas! :)
Has anyone tried out Tri-pegs or would you just weigh it down with stones?
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This is my carrot/parsnip cover, recently put in place. I weigh the edges down with bricks or 4 pint milk containers filled with water.
It's a non-invasive procedure, unlike pegs.
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c182/G4IAR/P1000987.jpg)
Sorry - forgot to link in photo.
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Like DD I would secure with bricks or similar (planks if you have any etc)
Thinking of treating us to some envoironmesh this year but it is a little bit too costly to be putting holes in to secure it.
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Bricks for me too
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it is a little bit too costly to be putting holes in to secure it.
Exactly!
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Enviromesh is quite tough but I agree with DD that any pegs I have tried do damage to the mesh. I have not tried the clip on tags that you then peg down but they work out expensive. I usually hold down the edges with poles or pieces of wood. Most brassicas will support light netting themselves but need a few pegs to hold it up when they are small.
My carrot cover is built as follows. Do this after sowing so that you know where the rows are. I usually wait until the carrots are up before covering.
*Bury one long edge in a 3 inch trench about 6 inches from the outside row.
*For supports cut 2 foot lengths of 1 inch plastic pipe obtained from a skip. Better than wood as the net will slide over them without catching.
*Push the supports 6 inches into the ground spaced at 1 yard apart. Better in the rows than between so that they are not in the way of hoeing.
* Drape the net over and weigh down the other edge and ends. Because one side is buried this is easy to do as you can pull against it. This also makes it easy to fold the net back for weeding. Using long poles to hold down the edges makes it quick to remove. I find stones or other small weights tedious.
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Sorry, forgot to link in photo before - it's there now.
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Your plot looks absolutely vast in the picture!
How big is it exactly?
Or is part of it really Mrs Digger's? ;)
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Your plot looks absolutely vast in the picture!
How big is it exactly?
Or is part of it really Mrs Digger's? ;)
That's mine about 30m x 10m.
Mrs Digger's is next but one, because of the way the plots taper, hers is about 31m x 11m.
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Jolly decent of you to let her have the larger one :) :blink:
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Decent of her to let me dig it!
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Here's a badly trimmed & labeled piccie from Google Earth.
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c182/G4IAR/Untitled-15.jpg)
Sorry for going OT.
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OT on this occasion is gooooood!
and as you say, Mrs Digger is very kind to let you dig her larger-than-yours-plot :lol: :lol:
Now I want to find my plot on googe E --- wonder how old the photo will be?
Check out my plot -- still grassland in the photo, so it is at least four years old, as I know that area started to be given out as plots around then :(
So no excitement there, then :lol:
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DD, have you ever had dark thoughts about annexing the plot between your plots? :)
Or is a little distance a good thing?
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Would be nice to get the middle plot, I admit, but with the current waiting list of about 240 in Loughborough, it's a bit of a pipe-dream!
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I've got the tri pegs & they do make holes. I have buried the edges & find that tedious plus weeds tend to grow through the mesh. I am going to use the milk bottles & water method this year if I don't get round to adapting the edges of the mesh with large button holes as the debris netting has,which I then used plastic tent pegs through or Weed membrane pegs
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I don't make holes in mine! Well, not deliberately anyway. I did get a few holes from having a bonfire on a breezy day :blush:
I weigh mine down with planks, bricks and water filled bottles
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i found some old wire coat hangers an made some hooks
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You still have to force those though the mesh, though, as it's much finer than a coat hanger. The weighing down/digging in methods don't damage the mesh.
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I use the plastic pegs sold by Wilkinsons and others in their gardening departments - they have a right-angled "hook" at the top which means you can peg the edge of the enviromesh down without puncturing it.
Quite easy to loosen the edges when you need access by slightly lifting the pegs (don't pull them right out, especially if you have hard soil because they're not very strong.) :)
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I roll the enviromesh edge in a metal tube and clip the material to it by using plastic pipe clamps that plumbers use. Stretch the material over a frame and repeat on the other side and ends, tuck the corners like a hospital bed and its job done. The tubes were old metal electric conduit and the clips were £2.99 for a bag of thirty. The weight of the conduit holds the fabric down in windy conditions and is easy to lift when I need to water / weed / harvest.
I did try the same method using bamboo canes and bricks as the weights, however the wind didn't think much of that and I ended up pegging the bamboo down, not always successfully. At the end of the season simply unclip, clean the enviomesh and store until required. :blink: