Kitchen Garden Forum

Patience Richard, it will all come together in the end.

Beryl.

Looking great Richard!

I have never hemmed my enviro mesh, and we treat it quite badly. It seems to be ok still!

It's comforting to know that the mesh will stand for some action and abuse, I was convinced that it would fray badly it wasn't hemmed. Very gratifying .

The wind picked up a little last night in front of the rain, I was surprised how little wind got through the enviro mesh, it must be the next best to poly tunnel material and no condensation.

When I was considering the hemming process I tried to fold some repair tape over the edge of the enviro mesh but it wouldn't stick to it, I just realized I will have to protect the mesh where it goes over the sharp-ish corners of the end fittings.

I bought a very large roll of enviromesh over ten years ago and have sown it into tents to cover cherry trees, raised bed covers and all kinds of other uses. It is very tough and doesn't fray enough to worry about it. It also washes nicely in the washing machine if it starts to look a bit green. You can make patches for the corners if anything manages to puncture it.

I feel like a "Big-Girls-Blouse" now, (Midlands saying, BGB) hemming the ends. I'm sewing hems at the hoop-placing so I can slide some blue polyethylene tubing through for an alternative cloche. I see I can buy clips, surely if I slide the hoops through hems then I don't need clips and just need to tie the ends up.

when using water pipe hoops, we throw the mesh over, place long pieces of timber along the ground at the sides, then kind of gather and roll up the ends, so that they fit snugly and pop a couple of bricks or chunky piece of timber on to weigh it down. We don't have the luxury of time, so we generally make it up as we go along, with whatever dad has salvaged from work (landscaping & building refurbishment)

I have plenty of stone for weighing down, the timber sides, are they drilled to take the water pipe or are they there to help weight the fabric down. Then bricks or stones over the timber lath.

It's a rainy-old day here, nice and warm but every-time I pop my head out-doors it pixxxes it down and they are heavy showers. A good day to faff-about with a sewing machine.

The only clips I fancied buying were from an outfit called, "Posh cloche" but they would go rusty very quickly so it's hems and my dog is helping.

the timber down the sides is just plopped on top of the long edges to weigh it down, easy as!

Dear Retropants, your descriptive words are second to none.

I try to keep things looking tidy rather than just functional, I have huge admiration for allotment-eers this is part of my garden. I do try hard to stop the place ever looking like a suburban garden whilst also working towards some aesthetic considerations and this can be hard when 70% of planting is wildflower, right now the early flowering stuff looks a mess but I want it to go to seed.

I just completed my water-pipe and bits of cane cloche for a carrot crop, it looks a mess compared to the cabbage cover and I'm sure the manager will comment without even considering I used blue matching rope to tie the ends.

It's the boy-scout in me, I want that fabric to look tight and tidy. Fact-is, that enviromesh doesn't like being stretched at the stitching where the hoops go through. In hindsight some sort of clips might be better.

Looking splendid Richard!

And thank you OH! It is completely by accident I can assure you

retropants wrote:Looking splendid Richard!

Thank you.

I'm doubly-pleased about the first frame because those fittings and tubing that came from last years greenhouse tent mean I can make two such frames though I may have to add a little tubing.

Looking at the cost of tubing and the fittings it's actually worth buying the large greenhouse tent just for the fittings. Ok, the tubing is steel and will rust though if cared for will last a few years.

Harrods 16mm tubing seems about the best bet at the price unless I missed out in my search so please get me up to speed. I like that geometric shape better than hoops.

I use a similar system with my carrot box with the water pipe and canes and cover with the mesh.

What I use to hold the mesh down is bungee cables, I join several together with the hooks at the ends and stretch them around the base and tuck the mesh under the bungees. This keeps the mesh in place.

Tracie

I don't suppose I need that netting over my carrots just yet, any advise will be very welcome. I hadn't planned my rows very-well this year so that netting ha strawberries behind it and they are noticeably less productive that a row further along the bed. I problem is that strawberries are shaded by bunched-up netting where it reaches the soil.

If it's safe to do so I'll remove the cloche until the carrots are halfway to grown then replace the netting, what do you think ?

For two years I managed without netting relying on the close proximity of onions and garlic, I still lost 25% of my crop to grubs and of course my carrots have always been forked or twisted. I finally learnt about keeping the soil clear of compost and stones. The purchase of a rotosieve this season should mean a huge improvement, I'm slowly sieving each bed one row at a time.

To avoid the dreaded carrot fly I think they should be covered right from when they are sown.

Beryl.