Netting against garden pests

Ruth protects her brassicas from caterpillars and pigeons

- Ruth Hayes

Your Gardening Week with AG's gardening expert Ruth Hayes

I LOVE brassicas – cabbage, broccoli, spring and winter greens, even sprouts at a push – but we have had limited success thanks to the pigeons and cabbage white butterfly caterpillars that lay waste to our crops.

There are only so many hours you can spend removing caterpillars by hand, only to find that another batch has hatched the next day! So this year we have come to our senses and netted our raised beds, using an Agriframes DIY crop cage, an economical and easy-to-assemble way to protect crops.

We are using the structure over a raised bed planted with purple sprouting broccoli and it took less than an hour to put together. The netting is also easy to raise for weeding, watering and feeding.

Make sure the netting is taut, so birds don’t get trapped. Any ‘leftover’ bits of netting trailing on the ground should be knotted and tidied away to prevent pets and garden wildlife from becoming tangled. I’ll let you know how my brassicas get on! See 8 agriframes.co.uk or call & 0117 934 1790 for more details.