Another cloche/hoop option

Polytunnels, cold frames, greenhouses, propagators & more. How to get the best out of yours...

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oldherbaceous
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Dear Retropants, prevention is always better than cure.... :)
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

There's no fool like an old fool.
Beryl
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Pleased you are now going to use the enviromesh. But the idea was to soak the broccoli before it went into the saucepan. Sorry I should have made it clearer.

Beryl.
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Ricard with an H
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My enviro mesh arrived today, I'm impressed with the structure of the netting and I'm pleased to hear some of you have had it for many years. The selvedge is very compact and strong looking and whilst it's probably heavier X 2 compared to butterfly netting it's apparent strength gives me confidence.

A ten meter pack was £31 plus delivery so cheaper by £20 on the the price of some 2mm mesh from heavy marketing seed companies.

The 1.8 meter width goes over that frame I built from left-overs and with just enough to fasten the edges down. Do the little bugger creep under ?
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
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retropants
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Beryl wrote:Pleased you are now going to use the enviromesh. But the idea was to soak the broccoli before it went into the saucepan. Sorry I should have made it clearer.

Beryl.

No no! I understood, but it never worked!!! I left it swimming in cold salty water for ages. This was years ago though, our enviro mesh has been very well used.
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Ricard with an H
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I have memories of hating anything green on my plate because of your experience, even recently after washing sprouting broccoli I found cooked green things. Commercial growers can't possibly net their whole crop so presumably they use insecticide, which is worrying.

I tried to grow carrot for two years, each year the crop was lovely but I had to share it with my dog and underground things that eat them and my first years crop of sprouting broccoli was a complete waste of time given I had a couple of meals out of two eight foot rows.

Going back three years when this all started it was my partner who initially encouraged me though her vision was a couple of twee herb pots, now she's trying to discourage me because of the annual cost to grow-V-cost in the shops but its the taste of those cabbages that made it through last winter and the few carrots that survived.

As I keep repeating, I couldn't do this as a hobby/source of food-supplement without you people to bounce-off. We have enough space here to become self-sufficiant if I had the work in me, if/when my partner stops her involvement with the daily-persuit-of-gain and if she eat more vegetables her labours could be useful.

On part of our paddock the topsoil is deep enough for potatoes and other roots once we've taken the stones away, we have room for fruit trees/ bushes, chickens, ducks and geese so all that I'm doing at the moment is an apprenticeship with you lot as my mentors.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
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Ricard with an H
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This mesh is very difficult to tidy-up at the ends.

I had decided to hem the ends to cut down on fraying and to have a purchase-point for either clamp-its or those round things you can press into place.

It's all over the place and very difficult to achieve a straight line, it been raining all day so I cleared the lounge and got the sewing out. Yes I have managed some hems but it's very difficult. After three goes I have yet to sew a straight hem on the ends, only three more to go but I'll bin the project until next week.

I'm away for the weekend.

God save my cabbages.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
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Westi
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Gad to see your talents are so great Richard! Hemming - I've got a couple of trousers that need shortening! :D :D Seriously though I join my shorter bits with plastic coated wire sewn along through the little holes, then can take it out again & I run a lighter under any raw edges which melts to prevent fraying but even older bits I have when I wasn't such an anorak are just fine years later!

Only tip I do have is don't have a bonfire anywhere near the stuff - even the smallest embers cause chaos! :D :D

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Ricard with an H
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Oh-yes, nice-fella, makes his own dresses.

I'm quite good with a sewing machine, this started when I had three young daughters and couldn't afford to buy stuff like curtains. All my work-wear is patched up and yes I hem my own trousers.

Fortunately we have a large lounge area that I could clear then spread the mesh out, it's very difficult to handle in-order to get a straight line so I rolled it up on a ten inch plank of flooring. Then cut as straight a line as possible, fold it and turn the plank onto the fold and tread on it to compress the fold. I used heavy-duty polyester and a denim needle, it does clunk as the needle goes through.

I have 20 clingons or enough eyelets for one every 50cm to attach all around for holding-down though I'm hoping stones around the edges will suffice for a while. I'm not sure about eyelets, clingones don't tend to tear the fabric.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
Beryl
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For those of you who are so good at sewing and hemming your enviromesh, I thought you would like to see what one of our ladies who is into 'made to measure' can do. I believe she was a machinist but the patience to work with such a difficult fabric is beyond me.

Beryl.
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Primrose
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I can see that these made to measure bespoke fleece and fabric cloches must be really useful but I too would find it very difficult to sew with fleece. It is very fragile to work with and some I have bought in the past has almost disintegrated in my hands as I have handled it. When buying it it's rather difficult to know what you are getting. Does it come in various specific weights rather like togs for duvets ?
Beryl
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Fleece does Primrose but I don't know about Enviromesh. 17 grams seems to be the average but there are other heavier weights too. Best to check when buying.

Beryl.
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Ricard with an H
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As Beryl suggested, enviromesh is very difficult. The weave is loose so establishing a cut-line in the fabric and holding the line is almost impossible.

Caps off to the lady who does the bespoke stuff, this enviromesh seems very tough so I imagine it's worth the effort.

I've just arrived home from Devon, Ashburton area to be precise. The weather figures for us here on the the coast in north Pembrokeshire and the Devon area are almost the same wind strength though we are one degree. What a lot of nonsense.

I'm not suggesting it's freezing here at home but I got out of the van in shorts and T-shirt then quickly got back into the van for my expedition clothing.

Shame about the ash die-back I saw in Devon but Devon has a lot of lush tree growth and hedges, when you get to within a couple of miles of where I live you'll notice few trees and mostly bushes of blackthorn and gorse.

I feel quite proud of managing to grow what I grew over the last couple of years.

OH-yes, and my first three strawberries have been half eaten by an unknown assailant. I picked two that were were half-ripe, oh-wow, what a lovely surprise.

It's all worth it, isn't it ?

Even the wrestle with the enviromesh.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
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Ricard with an H
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I finally managed to get the ground ready and the cabbages and Kale in the ground, I'm not sure if the back-breaking digging or hemming that enviromesh was the the most difficult chore and I still have 5.5 metres of mesh to fit over carrots and other vulnerable crops so I'll have to do more sewing, I can't imagine the mesh lasting long unless the ends are dealt with in some way.

Here is the result for cabbages this year, next year I'll form a raised bed around that strip.
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How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
Beryl
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Wow, that's great Richard, well done.

Beryl.
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Ricard with an H
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Thank-you Beryl.

It's good that I could re-use those frame parts from that horrible greenhouse tent, how do producers get away with describing their stuff as stable in solar radiation when the fabric and those plastic fittings actually collapse after only a few weeks of sun. Most of those fittings are knackered and held together with tape. Just like an allotment holder, eh ?

The next one won't look so tidy, it'll be the net supported by canes with those rubber tops on for the carrot-covers. I would like to build another couple of those wooden mini-polytunnels to support mesh for carrots and I would like to do all-sorts but I'm burning the candle at both ends.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
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