-
- strawberry netting hoops pushed over canes into the ground
-
- strawberry nets over irrigation pipe hoops
-
- tunnel house carrots mid July – a month after sowing in June
-
- tunnel house carrots lifted October
If you don’t want the blackbirds to eat your strawberries, keep them well covered. I plant strawberries 30cm apart in each direction, mulch well with pine needles to keep the fruit clean and to deter slugs and snails then cover with bird mesh. Nails in the side of the raised beds keep the mesh in place.
These carrots were sown in mid-June, harvested late October from the tunnel house. About 20 carrots from a 30cm square planting (twenty five seeds sown in a five by five block).
What did you use to make the hoops to support the netting over the strawberry beds? Don’t the bees have trouble getting in to pollinate?
Hi Kathryn,
I used black, plastic irrigation pipe (about 20mm diameter). Grey water pipe works better as it’s stiffer – the hoops bend less when you stretch the mesh over them.
I pushed lengths of steel reinforcing bar into the ground and slotted the tube over the top at each end. You could use short (600mm) bamboo canes but they would probably only last a year before they rotted.
Windbreaks (http://www.thekitchengarden.co.nz/index.php/2008/08/do-things-at-the-wrong-time/windbreaks/) with bird-mesh over the top work better than the hoops. They’re quicker to remove and replace when you’re picking and weeding. They are also much more likely to stay ‘bird-tight’.
The holes in the bird mesh are large enough for honey and bumble bees to get through.