chickenlegs Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Morning All, got a small 1 x 2m raised bed installed, spent yesterday beginning to prep it, paying for that this mornin Planing on building something akin to a fruit cage over it to protect it from the chooks, has anyone else tried this, what would be the best type of netting to use and does it work Theresa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ain't Nobody Here Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 I bought a couple of different types of netting (the ones in bags rather than on a roll) from a garden centre. They are quite tightly woven and supposed to protect from sun as well as beasties. I toyed with the idea of buying Build-a-ball but ended up using some old plastic curtain rails that a friend was throwing out. They're quite flexible and push into the soil easily so worked well. I used bulldog clips to hold the netting on. It worked really well (until OH said we should take it off and my broccoli got infested with caterpillars ). I think I might get some Build-a-ball this year now I know (vaguely!) what I'm doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenanne Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 I have raised beds made out of spare timber. I attached green-plastic coated chickenwire as a mini-fence to the baords the beds are made from. If you attach it to the inside of the boards then it makes it easier to clip grass around the beds. I just nailed it in with fencing stuff. It works fine, and doesn't look too bad as the green-coated fencing blends in reasonably well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 I pushed short canes in each side and then cut up some old hosepipe to go from one cane across to the other, push the hosepipe right down over the cane - netting drapes across it easily. We aslo made some boxes with wooden trellis and covered the whole thing with enviromesh - and grew decent brassicas for the first time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 I have posts at the corners of my raised beds so I can drape netting over or add wire mesh round the sides The hosepipe trick works well though, a lot of people use the blue water pipe that you can get at places like Wickes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenlegs Posted February 5, 2010 Author Share Posted February 5, 2010 Some excellent ideas, did look into the ball connecter thingy's but after the amount I've spent so far, am now trying to keep down costs. Oh has decided to cannibalize our old tunnel tent posts, think it might end up looking like a giant net cloche but any offer of help is too good to refuse Thanx Theresa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 We have lids made of 2x1 wood with enviromesh stapled to it. Our beds are quite small though and we use the lids to keep the cats off, they are in the front garden well away from chooks and we grow our salad crops in them. We have got an area surrounded by chicken wire in the back that we have grown beans in but the chicken got in last year, they become more determined in their second year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
