A gardening presenter has revealed an “absolutely brilliant” item that can protect home-grown vegetables from garden pests.
Nick Bailey, a horticulturist who worked as head gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden, welcomed green-fingered Gardeners’ World viewers to his ‘eternal garden’ yesterday.
He explained how he had transformed “little more than a lawn” surrounded by stone walls into a beautiful garden full of flowers and plants after months of hard work.
Nick’s garden also has a vegetable patch where he grows brassicas (a family that includes cabbage), potatoes, turnips and spinach, but it seems he’s no stranger to garden pests.
Nick said: “This netting has been absolutely brilliant for protecting my brassicas, especially the cabbage white, but I’ve just taken it off as I’ve noticed one has somehow managed to get in.”
“And so there’s a bit of caterpillar damage, so I have to be really careful. This vegetable garden has been a real trial for me this year, mostly because I started it so late.
“So, the potatoes here, the first early ones, ended up going about three months later than ideally they would have, but I think it’s always worth a shot because they’re blooming right now.”
Nick said he was expecting a potato harvest in about two weeks before he moved into the spare bench where he plans to plant “masses” of winter vegetables.
Her veggies of choice include turnips and perennial spinach, which she explained will “hopefully” keep her “going” through the colder months.
According to the Royal Horticultural Society, insect-proof netting is a useful chemical-free method of preventing some invertebrates from eating your plants.
It’s especially handy for controlling insects like whiteflies, carrot flies and flea beetles, and it can even help protect your plants from the elements.
The netting is usually made of polyethylene and provides plant protection without much effect on temperature and can also help reduce harmful soil splashes.
However, the RHS urged gardeners to rotate their crops as some pests can still pass through the mesh, and other potential drawbacks include lack of heat recovery and increased humidity.
You can view the full breakdown on the RHS website here.
