Ingenious DIY crop covers!

[Florence Fennel]

I use 2 litre plastic bottles for individual young plants to keep out the weather and the snugs until the plants are strong and it's amazing what you can build with tennis balls atop bamboo canes covered over with fleece or plastic!

[Euan]

I make some but we have just purchased one of the new saver cages from Harrod Horticultural. We bought a size that will work across all of our raised beds. What was particularly appealing is that it allows for easy access to the crops to weed, harvest, etc and will pack away nicely to store in the shed over winter.

[Penellype]

I tend to buy things but often find that I use bits of them for slightly different purposes. I have 2 blowaway greenhouses - one of them is permanently on the patio, held down by a "bed" made by putting plastic drip trays on their sides and filling the space with soil/compost - this currently has autumn fruiting raspberries in, with strawberry plants on the shelving above. The other is in bits in the garage, but last year I used the wire shelves on top of canes with flexi balls on to make a temporary support for polythene to cover my tomatoes, and ended up letting the tomatoes grow through the shelves for support. I use the covers separately for tomatoes, over 6ft stakes hammered into the soil to prevent them being blown over.

I also bought 2 fruit cages, which I use for their intended purpose, but as they were too big I only put up half of each, and use the assorted remaining poles and connectors (along with bits of the 2nd blowaway greenhouse) to support veggiemesh to cover my brassicas.

Basically I can put together things that are intended to be put together, and use them in other ways, but I am utterly hopeless at constructing things from scratch.