Hi all: does anyone have a row crop cover design that I can make to cover our raspberries to keep the birds out of them. I saw one that looked pretty good made out of pvc and bird netting. Just thought I'd ask to see if one of my Stewbie family might have a good design that I could try. This year is a bust as the birds have gotten a lot of our berries. But they will continue for a few weeks yet so a row cover would help save some.
Mike made a pvc frame to hold the netting over our broccoli this year. We used Enviromesh that will last a long time so he made it a permanent set up. If you want to be able to take it apart you could just make a U shape out of two pieces of pvc the height you want and one piece the width you need, glue together and stick the U shape in the ground and cover with the netting of your choice. That way you can take it apart when it's no longer needed and it would be easy to store for next year.
2ofus-sounds like a good idea. But now, do you have any photo's that I can look at? It would be greatly appreciated if I could see how it looks.
Toots---Here are 2 options. Obviously though for raspberries you would need taller hoops. These are only 2 feet tall. Good luck!
Here is a picture. For raspberries a simple U shape stuck in the ground would keep the netting above the berries and would be simple to raise it up to pick them. Sticks with a tennis ball stuck on top would also work and would keep the sticks from poking holes in the netting.
Cayuga-----love the pic's. Gives me some great ideas. 2ofus----WOW what a massive tree stump in the background. That tree had to be huge when it was still standing. Was it some kind of Oak tree? I would try and carve it into some kind of a water feature. I like the lattice divider at the ends of your rows. Would be great for peas or other vining veggies to climb up.
T2S, the stump was a golden willow. There were 4 of them all the same size when we bought the house and they were OLD and huge but had not been cared for and were in bad shape. We kept 2 stumps. One is cut off at 3 feet tall and I use that for my St. Francis statue and his animals. The one in the picture was to be made into a chair but Mikes chain saw isn't long enough and we haven't asked any one to do it for us....yet! The last 2 was cut off at ground level.
You could try and keep it simple and sink four tall fruit tree poles in the ground an the ends of the row. Span twine all the way around it (between all the poles). What I then use for netting is old sheer curtains. I throw as many as necessary over the tops and if the go to the ground, U make them fast with pins , bricks logs or whatever is available. If you do not have enough curtain or netting material, then you must bind them up from under...I use clothes pegs for this, and clip them onto the stems of the raspberry plants or the wires that you have as supports and leads for your plants. You want to get the underside as bird-proof as possible, as they will find holes and go in and clean you out. You can often buy sheer curtains inexpensively from second hand, goodwill or thrift shops and so forth. Hey, I hope that this helps as well. Good luck.
