I bought a reasonably priced steel cage from Two Wests and Eliot with butterfly netting (a must) three years ago. I sewed the top / shorter sides with fisherman's gut and move it every spring to one of my raised bed areas. I peg it down with tent pegs and haven't had a single caterpillar in that time, although there are many white butterflies about as I am a totally organic gardener. I also find the green 'Halo pots' useful as they help support the cabbages etc from the wind. It's taken years to build up different ways to stop the wild life from attacking my crops. I suggest you ask for slug rings for Xmas or ask around for an old copper tank and get someone to cut it into three inch sections, fold the top over (copper is sharp) and safeguard your plants this way. I never put seeds straight in the garden as I have clay soil and am steadily building up the quality with my own compost.
Last year i brought some cabbage plants, which meant they wete reasonably far along before they went in, as an experiment i just left them at the mercy of slugs, butterflies etc.
They looked like lace, it seemed a total didaster, hower as the season went on, the cabbages headded up and were absolutely fine, all i had to do was remove a few layers of the outer leaves that were munched or hiding slugs.
The cabbages were far too big for two people.
I dont think this will work with other brassicas, but it does show that everyone van have a bit.
Some great ideas here, thanks. I need to look in my garage and see if I can make do from bits and bobs I have. I need to think about those slugs a bit...a couple months ago I went out for a week at night with torch and dispatched an army of them, so less of a problem now, hopefully the remainder can be dealt with via coper or something as you suggest.
Come the rain I'm afraid the slugs will return. A plank left on the ground overnight may collect about twenty underneath, so a handy jar of salted water is useful.
As for rubber balls, I bought some aluminium rods and the green rubber balls many years ago and use them for several things. i.e two four feet apart supporting peas on netting, as I can't get sticks locally; for making cages around my broad beans with string, and as support for ramming plastic sheets up against my new peas to prevent mice eating them, also with string to keep my raspberry plants from falling over. The balls safeguard the eyes. They must be ten years old, not cheap these days but are everlasting so in the long run quite a good buy.
Welshonion - jam jars? - thanks for that tip! Got loads of honey jars stacked up on the kitchen bench ( I'm a honey addict and never throw anything out), - will try that.
Snowathlete - skier? - me too, good luck with your crops, my pet hate are the wood pigeons, they pull and rip at anything.
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I bought a reasonably priced steel cage from Two Wests and Eliot with butterfly netting (a must) three years ago. I sewed the top / shorter sides with fisherman's gut and move it every spring to one of my raised bed areas. I peg it down with tent pegs and haven't had a single caterpillar in that time, although there are many white butterflies about as I am a totally organic gardener. I also find the green 'Halo pots' useful as they help support the cabbages etc from the wind. It's taken years to build up different ways to stop the wild life from attacking my crops. I suggest you ask for slug rings for Xmas or ask around for an old copper tank and get someone to cut it into three inch sections, fold the top over (copper is sharp) and safeguard your plants this way. I never put seeds straight in the garden as I have clay soil and am steadily building up the quality with my own compost.
They looked like lace, it seemed a total didaster, hower as the season went on, the cabbages headded up and were absolutely fine, all i had to do was remove a few layers of the outer leaves that were munched or hiding slugs.
The cabbages were far too big for two people.
I dont think this will work with other brassicas, but it does show that everyone van have a bit.
Some great ideas here, thanks. I need to look in my garage and see if I can make do from bits and bobs I have. I need to think about those slugs a bit...a couple months ago I went out for a week at night with torch and dispatched an army of them, so less of a problem now, hopefully the remainder can be dealt with via coper or something as you suggest.
Come the rain I'm afraid the slugs will return. A plank left on the ground overnight may collect about twenty underneath, so a handy jar of salted water is useful.
As for rubber balls, I bought some aluminium rods and the green rubber balls many years ago and use them for several things. i.e two four feet apart supporting peas on netting, as I can't get sticks locally; for making cages around my broad beans with string, and as support for ramming plastic sheets up against my new peas to prevent mice eating them, also with string to keep my raspberry plants from falling over. The balls safeguard the eyes. They must be ten years old, not cheap these days but are everlasting so in the long run quite a good buy.
Welshonion - jam jars? - thanks for that tip! Got loads of honey jars stacked up on the kitchen bench ( I'm a honey addict and never throw anything out), - will try that.
Snowathlete - skier? - me too, good luck with your crops, my pet hate are the wood pigeons, they pull and rip at anything.