Most importantly, it works! All of the mustard we had growing by the beans got attacked by Cabbage Whites, and subsequently caterpillars, as have the 2 Brussel plants that are growing outside the cage, in the old potato pots. I think it is pretty much inevitable, which is why we invested in the cage.
I can’t remember where we bought it from, but it consists of 6 balls, 6 vertical poles, and 6 horizontal ones, and each pole is split into two sections. The balls are made of plastic, and the metal poles easily slot into them. The covering is enviromesh, which does a pretty good job of keeping most beasties out, including slugs, snails and butterflies.
It began as a very small cage (shown here) to protect the seedlings, and worked very well. I used garden canes instead of the supplied poles so that watering would be easier. Amazingly, the water flows through the mesh like it isn’t there, which makes it easier than i thought it would be. I initially had visions of removing it everytime!
It developed into a cage as it was meant to be (shown here), with the metal poles supplied doing the job. It has finally become a beast of an entity, shown at the top of the post, as i have used much larger canes than supplied. I’ve had to attach an extra piece of mesh oer the left hand side to fill the gaps that came from using such large canes. Clothes pegs are used to keep the mesh attached to the poles at the top and bricks to keep it from blowing up at the bottom.
This is because the Brussels have grown to be massive, and the Purple Sprouting Broccoli isn’t far behind. Hopefully, i will be able to remove the cover next month so that the plants can be free! The reason i haven’t blogged individually on any Brassicas is because i can’t get at them to take any pics…soon this won’t be the case though!
Quite how i’m going to get in to harvest anything i’m not sure!
August 5th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Great looking brassica cage, I think I might copy this, our homemade one took ages to build. Where did you buy the enviromesh from?? The onions look fab too, I reckon the missus has a natural talent for onion stringing, does she have any French blood??
August 5th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Haha, she might have, her name is Danielle! The enviromesh was from Harrod Horticultural. Instead of the green balls, i thought about using tennis balls with holes in them but not sure if it would be as sturdy.
August 7th, 2008 at 11:53 am
That looks great! I wish I’d been equally vigilant last week, and I might have avoided this lot! I’m going to be a lot more careful in future…