Tag Archives: exclusion netting

Netted Nashi

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I showed you a few months ago in this post that we had netted the entirety of our three espaliered fruit trees – one nectarine and two nashi pears. That decision proved to be really successfully with us not losing any fruit to the birds and other wildlife.

We have removed it gradually as the fruit ripened on each tree. First, were the nectarines, then one nashi and a couple of days ago we removed the netting completely and picked the nashi pears from the last tree.

There were well over 100 fruit.

GMan had stewed and frozen all of the fruit from the first tree and did about another 40 of these. I am now experimenting with dehydrating slices of them for snacks and have given some to the Community Pantry.

The next job was to fold the netting up and put it away for next season. We spread it out so that we could remover any leaves or debris and it noticed a jagged hole of about 8cm across in the middle of the netting. I am not sure whether it was caused by an errant branch growing through or a possum munching through it.

Anyway, I decided to mend the hole before packing the netting up. It is nothing fancy but will work well.

A few days ago I saw an ad on Facebook for a hands-on workshop on ‘Summer Fruit Tree Pruning’ in a town about 45 minutes from us. This seemed like a perfect opportunity so GMan has signed up and is going along on Friday. Hopefully, he will be able to apply his new-found knowledge to our trees.

Netted Nectarines

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It is about a week since I picked the first of the nectarines from our tree. For the first few days it was a matter of picking 2 or 3 at a time.

However, the ripening process is speeding up and I picked enough this morning to fill a large bowl.

The slightly firmer ones are in the fruit bowl and we will have them to finish our meals.

I sliced up some of the others which had some slight marks or need to be eaten quickly. These will be the fruit I add to my cereal for breakfast each day.

There are still many more that are yet to ripen and be picked so we are going to end up with a bumper harvest. It will be much better than last year when the birds probably ate more than we did. The netting that we added about 2 months ago has made a substantial difference and was definitely worth doing. You can read about it here.

Beating the Birds

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I have been fully occupied for the past few days doing some writing that was not blog posts nor in any way blogworthy. It was administrative work for a local voluntary organisation that I belong to.

Today we ventured out in the garden to do a few jobs and one was to net the fruit trees to keep the birds at bay. Last year was our first summer in this house and although we harvested a bounty of fruit we did lose a portion of the crop to our local feathered friends.

We have 3 espaliered fruit trees near the side of the house – a nectarine and two nashi pears. They are now suitably enclosed for at least 3 months while the fruit mature out of harm’s way.

The raspberries are thriving in a patch near the back fence and we did cover them last year which resulted in most of the crop feeding us rather than the birds. Last year it was a pretty simple matter of throwing some netting over them. I have some slightly grander plans this time and will get onto that later this afternoon once it is a bit cooler.

Meanwhile, the building work in the pantry is complete and GMan is finishing painting the new wall and cornice. I have started rearranging some of the cupboards and shelves and I should be able to unveil it soon. Watch this space for details and plenty of pictures.

The Winter Garden

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A couple of months ago I was despairing of any winter crops as the citrus fruit piercing moth and white cabbage moth were wreaking havoc.

I decided that netting was the answer to both problems and you can read about it here.

My efforts appear to be paying off.

The first of the broccoli is almost ready to pick.

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Cabbages are growing nicely.

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There are no tell-tale holes in the leaves.

Kale seedlings are making slow progress.

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More seedlings for the next crop of bok choy.  They are ready to be thinned and transplanted.

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The bok choy and kale are much less susceptible to the cabbage moth but I will still cover them this time to see if I can get some perfect specimens.

There are no photos of my cauliflowers yet as although the plants are doing well they have not set heads.  I am still hoping though.

Finally, the other winter success which is not a member of the brassica family is celery.  We are enjoying full-flavoured celery soup from this crop.

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I am very pleased with the success of netting these beds.

Bug-Free Brassicas

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I have occasionally managed to grow cabbages, broccoli and to a lesser extent, cauliflower but it is a constant battle to keep them bug-free.  I choose not to use pesticides, therefore, exclusion remains the best option.

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After much research, I finally bit the bullet a couple of days ago and ordered a quantity of Vege Net from eBay.  I was particularly pleased to discover that the seller was located in my home state.

The order was dispatched promptly and I received it within 2 days of placing my order.

Then it was time to wrestle with 120 sq metres of knitted polyethylene fabric.

My plan was to make a reasonably fitted cover to slip over the hoops we had positioned over the garden bed.

I cut a large rectangle which would cover the majority of the bed and 2 semicircular pieces for the ends.  Pins are useless on this type of fabric so I used some old pegs to hold the pieces in place while I stitched the seams using a regular sewing machine.

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Once this was done, it was simple matter of slipping the cover over the hoops.  Because this is a raised garden bed the extra fabric simply hangs down to completely enclose the desired area.

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View of the new seedlings safely undercover.

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I anchored one end with some rocks so that it will not blow off.

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I am considering adding some lead weights to the other edges or making a long elasticised tie to go right around the raised bed.

There is another cover to be made for a second garden bed which is not raised so I will just anchor that one with rocks all the way around.

The total amount of fabric I used to cover the 2 beds was about 24 sq metres or 20% of the total.  The remainder is back in the bag for use to cover fruit trees or other garden beds in the future.

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I spent $125 on the fabric (including postage) and believe that it has been money well-spent as it is an investment in our future food production.

I would definitely recommend this product if you are considering exclusion netting for any plants.  It is available in smaller quantities and you could also simply drape it over the area rather than making fitted covers.

The New Arrivals

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On Thursday evening there was a card in our mailbox advising that there was a large parcel at the Post Office for us to collect.  We collected the box early on Friday morning before we went to work.  It was our fruit trees that we ordered online from Daley’s Nursery.  We ordered 12 blueberry bushes and a passionfruit vine.

New plants
Here is the box after I had slit one side open (as suggested in the attached instructions).  The plants were well-packed and in excellent condition.  Once again, we followed the directions and removed all of the wrapping and put them out in full sun.

Blueberry bushes
We watered them well and have placed them in the area where they will be planted  – hopefully tomorrow.  It may be a bit difficult to see in the photo but I had already placed rocks to mark where we are going to plant them so it will be a relatively simple matter of digging the holes.  The ground is quite soft as we have had some rain.  Blueberries thrive in a slightly acidic soil.  I have never actually tested the pH of our soil but the other indicator is that azaleas and camellias grow really well in our area and they like very similar conditions.

We have four other blueberry shrubs which are in the area which is now the chicken run.  You can read about them in this previous post.  We did not give them as much care as they probably needed but we still managed to harvest about 1.5kg of berries this summer.  That was predominantly from 2 shrubs.  We have now pruned them quite hard and mulched them thoroughly.

The other exciting news is that we have completely finished fencing the vegetable garden area.

Vegie garden and fencing

As well as the completed fencing you may also be able to see the black hoops over the garden bed in the distance.  This is some large poly pipe which I am planning to use as a frame for some exclusion netting to keep the white cabbage moth off the broccoli, kale, cabbages and cauliflower.  I am looking at buying the vege netting from Green Harvest.  We are fortunate that this business is located in Maleny so we are able to place our order online and then pick it up in person.

The chickens are rather unhappy that they are now permanently excluded from the garden area and all of the freshly dug soil and earthworms.