Flexible garden hoops for netting

[veggiechicken]

...........or lash the frames together with string made from nettles or Phormium, which could also be used to weave netting.

[Jay-ell]

So we are at a point where the best way to keep the pigeons off the cabbages is
Plant a small copse of willow and hazel, underplanted with nettles
When large enough coppice or pollard the trees.
Gather the long stems of the nettles in autumn
Ret the nettles in a nearby stream
Card the fibres of the nettles, spin them and twist them into thread
Hand weave a net
Cut the rods of hazel and willow
Form the frame, tieing it with the nettle twine
Put the net on.

[veggiechicken]

The thing is - I've never had to protect lettuce and beetroot from flying pests - its the slugs and snails that do the damage and no amount of netting will stop those.

[Jay-ell]

What are mossy nets made from? Or even lace curtains?

I suspect polyethylene for both. Probably not UV stabilised though as the glass in the windows filter out UV light

[Forage420]

Sorry about the late response I'm really not on the web that much at the moment.

Just an update on this.

I feel it turned out well.

I managed to source some 6mm steel from a metalworks, these are not stainless and will rust, but I am expecting them to maintain their integrity for at least 2 years despite this.

They are £2 each and 3m long.

I am able to achieve a much better span and height than with conventional kits, and it will be especially easy to get at the area to maintain it. What you see is purple kale and cabbage. The netting is old garden netting and works well enough at the moment although I will be upgrading this netting to the UV netting I mentioned earlier over the next 12-18months.

[Forage420]

The thing is - I've never had to protect lettuce and beetroot from flying pests - its the slugs and snails that do the damage and no amount of netting will stop those.

The site I am on is surrounded by smaller nesting birds that peck holes in the leaves of beetroot, sparrows especially.

Slugs have not paid much interest to my beetroot although they destroyed all my kohl rabi last year.

I think pests are site specific and there is not really a hard and fast rule.