It's time to plant the vegetable garden! Imagine the fresh bounty of herbs, greens, beans, cukes, tomatoes, etc.,that will be on our tables this summer. Of course, it's also the time of year when the insect population is exploding and the hungry critters are after the seedlings when they're just beginning to grow.There are a number of ways to try to control and maybe even prevent the anihilation of the vegetables. They include: hand-picking, spraying with insecticides and the use of row covers.
Hand-picking, although a rather unpleasant task, is actually quite effective if you have the time to do it once or twice a day-every day. Insecticides come in organic and inorganic forms and work very well, too. The downside, however, is that they kill the 'good' bugs along with the bad. Row covers are a relatively inexpensive and effective alternative to consider.
Row covers are made from a woven fabric and are available in light, mid and heavy weights. The thicker weave is mainly used for frost protection, whereas, the lighter and mid-weights are used to control insect infestations and discourage birds, deer, rabbits, skunks and woodchucks (to name but a few) from devouring the crops. Light and mid-weight row covers admit 85%-95% of the available sunlight and are permeable to water. A bonus to the already mentioned benefits of row covers is that their protection allows for a slower bolting of some crops like lettuce and spinach. When combined with a good layer of mulch row covers can increase the yields of some crops by as much as three-fold. Picture that table again!
When purchasing row covers, bigger/wider is better. If you intend to raise the cover above the plants, you'll need the extra width to sit on the ground to be stabilized by boards, bricks, sandbags or stakes. There are a number of ways to erect frames, hoops and the like from the use of quite elaborate structures made from copper pipes to cutting young saplings for the same purpose. ** Row covers need to be left off of some plants to allow for polination. Crops that set flowers before fruiting (squash, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes, for eg.) need return visits from bees to polinate them. This can easily be accomplished by leaving the cover(s) off when you're working in the vegetable garden.
Row covers, unfortunately, get dirty. They can be hosed off to be cleaned or, if you just can't stand the look, replaced in mid-summer with wedding net, a.k.a. tulle. This product, readily available at craft stores, functions in much the same way as the woven row covers. There is very little heat build-up under the tulle and it can also be used to wrap blueberry bushes to keep the birds from harvesting the berries before you get to them. Now, that is worth the effort!
There are, surprisingly, a lot more uses for row covers than I ever expected. Check out the complete article in Mother Earth News .
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