Any "covered wagon" protection examples?

Hello,

I am interested to hear from people who have used Mel's PVC covered wagon approach to protecting your SFG. In particular I would like to know how you attach bird netting so that you can still access your plants, and how you incorporate a large plant support at one end of the SFG. Pictures would be great!

Thank you!

I'm using that method and it works just great.
Here's a pic:



I use bricks and rocks to hold down the plastic. I also use 2" binder clips to hold the plastic to the PVC - works slick!
I simply ran the plastic down thru the trellis on the sides - no big deal. Buuuut - when stuff starts growing up the trellis, I won't be able to use the plastic cover anymore. Hopefully, the plants will be established enough by then to hold their own.

So, if you're using bird netting - it would work the same. That could actually go up to the trellis and over the wagon. I bet I could use it yr round, but haven't yet.

Not sure why that photo is so small....here's another with the cover off:

Sorry my pictures are small.....not sure why.

My trellis sits outside of the box on the very end, and the PVC fittings are screwed about 2-3" in on the outside of the box (you can also put the PVC inside the box). So my PVC arch and the trellis don't "touch". I'll get a close-up picture later to show you how I did it.
Because I am so "high-tech" with the whole rock thing I have going on, simply folding the plastic up over the arch is easy to do when you want to check on your plants, or water them.

i hope this helps.

Hi,
I changed the code in your uncovered pic. You used the thumbnail code rather than the full-size image code!

Thanks for the reply. That is a beautiful wire cage cover you built! I didn't think I could make one as nice as that, and PVC is so easy, that I chose to go with PVC - but I am using it to cover the SFG with bird netting (not plastic) to keep the birds out during the day - so the whole thing needs to be on all the time as long as the garden is bearing.

If I made a wooden cage, as you did, I don't know how it would acommodate the trellis end - and it also seems like it would be very cumbersome to work with. My 8 yr old daughter tends the garden, and I need something she can work with easily (without lopping off plant heads in the process.)

How do other people cope with protection against birds?

I have a K-9 patrol that helps with the birds. So far I am lucky. no major bird problem.

Maybe it's the turkey wire that is my deterrent. I have it around three sides of 2 of my SFG and around 3 sides of my third SFG. I have my SFG in my front yard.

You can use shade screen (from the nursery) to protect your SFG from the birds and too hot of sun. Or even lattice which is another idea for the birds and the heat from the sun. (depends on the zone where you live and the spacing of the Lattice). Just some ideas for you.

John

Hi Lava
well, I should've paid attention to your location....Hawaii, of course - bird protection only!

The wooden cover with chicken wire is for my strawberry bed. I dont' need to remove it often, yet it is light and easy to remove. But, I wouldn't recommend that for a veggie bed.

the PVC cover I have could easily hold bird netting - in fact I will do that this morning and post pix later.
I think I'll be able to attach it to the trellis on the back and sides, and simply drape it over the rest of the PVC arch.

Maybe you could put some small nails or hooks at the very bottom of the box, then you could "hook" the netting on to hold it down. It may be easy enough for your 8yrold to just unhook one side and flip the netting back......?

You could try making the pvc hoops bigger. I made a larger one so that I can walk inside of it. I don't have a trellis in it, but I could fit one. I attach part of the netting with large binder clips so that I can remove it for access.

Wow - that is beautiful! I am so impressed. I love to see what other people are doing. I don't think making it bigger this way would work in my yard.

New2this - thanks for explaining about the chicken wire cover.

You have both given me some ideas, thank you. I will just have to see what works. It won't be pretty, but I don't care (too much).

Mine are nice and simple. I have not yet purchased the netting, only 6 mil plastic (and I stapled the plastic to my boxes.). But I will have strawberries, so I will be in the market.

My hubby and I made these last year. I pull them off and store on our back porch, which is covered, but not heated (screened in).

I have searched the forum for protection ideas for trellis / vertical gardening. Lots of ideas for boxes...and since I'm finding my chickenwire cubes cumbersome, may try the covered wagon deer fence / bird netting options this spring.

How though, Oh Brilliant and Most Creative Gardeners on the planet, can I protect my 5 foot trellis'? Each sits in a 2x6 box.....

I have rabbits, raccoons, possum, skunks, deer....all waiting for a free meal...

Planting those boxes without some sort of fencing would be fruitless...no pun intended.

Any ideas??

Personally, I find the large hoop affair unsatisfactory for me.

I like to cover individual areas, a foot to a few feet, with wire hangars that I push into the ground and then with clothespins I can attach either plastic to warm a space, cheesecloth to keep a space cool as for lettuce and spinach or to protect from sun when I newly plant seedlings, or row cover to protect against flea beetles and against bird damage, or in cold weather I use my heavier row cover that protects crops down to 28* and is very easily added or removed as needed.
You can get heavy gauge wire and make your half circles taller for taller plants.

young lettuces under cheesecloth protected against sun when newly planted.

lettuces under heavy row cover when frost was imminent.

tomato seedlings under cheesecloth to protect from sun a couple of days when newly planted.

here I've pulled back the light row cover from my cabbages checking to be sure they are safe from flea beetles. They were.

the long row covered in white is my strawberry bed covered with light row cover against birds that love to eat my fruits but now can't.
The white kitty litter buckets hold water warmed by the sun that I use to water my garden by hand and then refill the buckets so they can warm up for the next watering.
This method is a lot easier than for me than the big hoops over the whole bed.

And when I want to heat up a bed specifically, I just place heavy plastic over the bed and hold it down with bricks. The sun warms it thru the plastic so I can plant sooner.

I wasn't able to add the photo of warming my bed with plastic, so here it is.

I used clear plastic in March which warmed the beds up nicely compared to the uncovered raised beds.

WJB.....I found that with my metal fence posts up, I was able to wrap heavy row cover around vining plants to protect against an expected frost and it worked. I used clothes pins to attach the ends of the row cover to each other.

Here are my San Marzano Tomato 3's in October being protected from the cold. The sun still gets thru and the tomatoes still grew so I got several more than I expected last year.