[jazzbyrd]

Would someone please help me ....yet again!
I am so confused as to what I cover my veg with and why
I have strawberries lettuces and cabbages at the moment and I am not sure what is best for what! Some of my allotment neighbours have green woven netting over lettuces!! why is this.

Jazzbyrd

[DD.]

It depends on a few things.  

What's you're local biological hazards? Apart from butterflies, ours is pigeons & squirrels. If I didn't net the plants mentioned, they, or their crop would disappear. (The strawberries when ripe, of course).

Budget? I use a fairly fine mesh nylon net, about 10mm. This seems to be small enough to keep the butterflies out as well,  especially the cabbage whites! Others use 'Enviromesh' which keeps out even smaller pests, but is more expensive.

Not all things need to be netted, but a list of net/no need to net would go on for pages. If in doubt - stick your hand up!

[fibilou]

fleece - keeps tender plants warm after planting out adn stops birds, butterflies etc making a meal of them  
mesh - stops rabbits, insects adn birds making a meal of your plants
plastic - again protects from animals but also makes an impromptu cloche to keep tender plants warm

[jazzbyrd]

Thanks !! guys !!

[noshed]

Enviromesh is great for keeping everything off but it is expensive. I use spinning CDs to keep the pigeons off - partially effective - and leave most everything else out in the open, due to laziness.
I will mesh up a cabbage bed soon though, when my spuds are out and I can plant them.

[compostqueen]

I'd netted my onions to keep the rabbits off as surprisingly they love a good chomp and on the leeks  :roll:   Well, I've not been to the plot for ages due to work and I couldn't get the damn netting off as the onions had grown so had the flipping weeds.  My cauli netting is the same and I gave up on trying to look at them as it was too much trouble  

I find that rabbits and pigeons don't like lettuce and leave it alone  

[Sadgit]

I don't fleece onions/spuds/strawbs/squashes/etc but I fleece everything else.
i.e.
any brasicas, any peas/beans till they are a few inches tall, all salads.

i would love enviromesh but it is really expensive.

[compostqueen]

I have to cover strawbs against blackbirds. Blackbirds hoik out everything including beans and squashes  :roll:   I do love them though and patiently replant stuff. They particularly like loose, dry manure which they can rummage about in, so where I have it I've tried to cover it over with soil.  Bit of a faff though  

[fluffybunny]

This is my first year on my allotment and I've just chucked stuff in and the only thing I've had a problem with so far is slugs eating my brassicas.   Everyone else's plots are pretty much all meshed over though so I think I will probably join them soon!

Are you sure it's bunnies eating your onions, they're poisonous to them so buns normally wouldn't go anywhere near them (apart from to snip off the shoots and leave them lying on the ground nearby!)