[justviolet]

Hi everybody. I'm enjoying digging over and clearing my new allotment. My root section is now prepared and after reading posts on here I have sent off for some enviromesh off of eBay. I just wanted to check, is it right that I can just tuck the ends into the ground, weight the edges and just have it draped on the ground? So I don't need a frame or anything over the roots? I'm thinking carrots, onions, beetroot etc.

Are there any other crops that need it? I am going to build some sort of protection for the brassica bed but I have been told that the main bother is the pigeons so will it be something tougher that will be needed to protect them? I'm trying to be organic so want to protect from caterpillars too I guess. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[stompy]

For brassicas most people now use the debris netting thats used on scafolding it's strong and prety cheap, this is suported by canes with a small plant pot on the end to spread the weight of the mesh.

As for the flece/enviromesh for your carrots i've seen it done in a number of ways from being just draped over the leaves to being soported by blue water piping with each end pushed into the ground to create an arc.

[DD.]

I support it on short posts, just to take the weight off the carrots and peg down the edges,  but some just throw it straight over.

I don't find the need to protect onions or beetroot.

Enviromesh is tough stuff and more than adequate to keep pigeons off. However, it's quite expensive and for that reason I use the far heavier debris netting over brassicas, but well supported.

[savbo]

We inherited a sheet of enviromesh with our plot, I have it tacked along the long edges to wooden battens to weight it down, and then over blue water pipe hoops every metre. Got a cracking carrot crop last year despite never weeding it!

[Goosegirl]

Like the wooden batten idea salvo. I use old garden hose-pipe cut longer than the width of the bed and push it onto some decently-thick bamboo canes which I then push into the ground at regular intervals, then drape that black netting from Wilko or wherever you can buy it on a roll, over the hoops. I also tie the middle of the netting to the centre of the hose to help keep it tighter lengthways so it doesn't sag.

[gillie]

I find that  small seedlings do not do well if environmesh or fleece is touching the leaves.  I suspect that the constant brushing as the protector moves in the breeze damages them and may even knock them out of the ground.  This means you will have to devise some method of lifting it. 

Once the plants reach a height of a foot or so they can tolerate the mesh resting on them.  I have some old and very rickety cold frames that I cover with mesh.

[savbo]

john's book recommends plastic milk bottles on short canes for holding fleece off the crops, would work just fine for mesh too

[Doddy]

8' by 4' beds, each with 8' by 4' wooden frame, 4 hoops of 20mm water pipe forming arches and bamboo tie-wrapped across the top of the hoops to space them. Enviromesh stapled to the frame and over the arches. Frame is then removal, when needed, and provides an effective barrier against most pests that live above soil.

It helps that the wife bought the mesh in bulk (think around 100m x 2m) - a big one-off expense but we're looking at a low-maintenance allotment this year (we hope).

Next step... nemaslugs.

[Gandan57]

I bought some Gardman Insect gard 0.6mm mesh in The Range, 6 metres x 2 metres for £10.

I intend to cut it in half lengthwise i.e. 6m x 1m twice, make a frame around my carrot bed.( I grow carrots in a 3ft wide bed, seed broadcast to maximise space.) The frame will be 30 inches high. Fix mesh to top of frame, bury bottom of mesh in the soil. So there will be a barrier around the carrots but nothing on top.

[lucywil]

i have a frame that is made from scafolding planks that i put where i want to grow carrots and i put the enviromesh over the top, securing it with drawing pins

[justviolet]

Thanks everyone, that is really helpful. I really appreciate being able to ask these things