Taking care of plants requires a lot of heart and a lot of work. Pinoys know that and probably hum the folk song “Magtanim ay ‘Di Biro” when they propagate or transplant their cuttings or set up garden nets in their backyard gardens. Simply put, garden nets serve as a blanket of TLC for your plants to keep them warm, protected, and ready to grow.
If you have a spacious garden with raised beds, it makes perfect sense to install cages with garden netting to protect them from pests and wild animals, and control temperature, humidity, and light.
Do-It-Yourself garden cages can be a whole weekend’s work but once you get everything down to a T with a few PVC pipes, a quality yet inexpensive net, your plants will surely thank you for all your hard work.
Why build garden netting frames?
Raised beds are usually prone to wild animals chewing on your crops and seedlings. While you may opt to use repellants, it’s difficult to be sure if the chemicals won’t hamper your plants’ growth eventually, and placing a huge scarecrow across your garden is just plain ridiculous.
With that, your best option is to design a protective cage with garden netting for your raised beds so your plants can grow uninterrupted. They’re inexpensive, easy to build and offer a lot of benefits for your plants.
What you’ll need
Most of the items you’ll need to build your plants a great garden netting usually lay around your tools shed. First, look for eight pieces of PVC pipes, four of which are six inches longer than the other four.
You’ll also need four pieces of 90-degree elbow sockets to connect your top and bottom frames and some snap clamps to hold the garden netting in place.
The most important item you’ll need of course is your garden netting. Refrain from using low-quality nets or DIY fishnets that are weaved by cloth as they won’t be able to withstand changing seasons. You can find the right garden nets that are durable and with the right mesh size from Philippine Ranging Nets so you can ensure that you get your money’s worth for the long term.
Building your garden cage
The bigger your raised garden beds are, the longer PVC pipes you’ll need to make your frame sturdier. For this example, let’s just imagine a standard four by five feet garden bed where four pieces of four and a half feet PVC pipes for your top frame and another four pieces of five and a half pipes for your bottom frame are enough.
Set aside your frame pipes and cut 30 inches of PVC pipe for your vertical supports. Once you’re done, fasten your elbow sockets on each end of your vertical pipes so you can link the other lengths for your bottom frame. Lastly, place your side supports to your bottom frame and connect the top frame so you build yourself a cage.
Reducing your cage’s depth also allows you to place irrigation tubings on top of your raised beds, but do consider how tall your plants will grow into. Around four feet in depth is fairly ideal.
Setting up your garden netting
For your garden nets, wrap its corners around your top frame and use your snap clamps to secure them in place. Make sure you fasten your garden nets properly that no pest or wild animal can come through them. If you don’t have any snap clamps around, you may use stainless staple wires too but make sure they go all the way through the pipes. To be sure, hammer them down thoroughly.
When choosing the right garden netting for your plants, consider how much sunlight they need and which temperatures are ideal for them to thrive. If you are growing plants that are sensitive to too much sunlight, use a garden mesh with a 50 to 60% shade factor.
For plants that love the sun, however, a regular 30% shade will do. Your garden netting should not only block too much sunlight but also reduce aeration and serve as a windbreaker for better plant growth.
Check out various quality garden nets and other gardening needs at Philippine Ranging Nets and send them a message at [email protected] or call +63977 007 0228 to order.
