Recently on my allotment plot I made a basic cage to protect my crops from the dreaded cabbage white butterfly! This little butterfly loves to lay its eggs on your brassica plants and the caterpillars will devour your entire crop overnight! So this year, I decided to work on the protection before I planted out my baby plants!
When I first got my allotment plot, I used to see so many of these structures around the place and had no idea how they were made. Well recently I found out that blue piping used over raised beds is actually water piping! I found a big old role of it in B&Q and got a little overexcited to make my own brassica cage.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be blue water piping. You could use any piping or even a Hulu hoop cut in half would work well! There are also some pre-made hoops you can pick up on Amazon. But I love to make things myself, so I gave it a go myself and I’m happy to say, it worked out really well!
I started by measuring the piping against the raised bed and cutting with a saw. Apparently, you can get pipe cutters which cut through it like butter, but I knew that was a tool I would only ever use once, for this very project! So I stuck with the saw.
To secure them to the bed, I dug in some bamboo canes and then threaded the piping over the top. It needed a bit of tweaking and trimming, but I soon got there with it.
I put 4 tubes over my raised bed to ensure the netting didn’t sink in the middle of the bed. Then I threw over the netting and secured it with some rocks.
The netting will protect mainly against the dreaded cabbage white butterflies. It will stop them from being able to get to all the brassicas inside whilst still allowing in lots of light and airflow. I’ll even be able to water through the netting, so no need to lift it up at all!
I’m planning on putting in some cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli and sprouts. Hopefully there will be enough room for them all to live happily. I will have to protect against slugs and snails as well and will probably use some straulch around the bed, something I’ve found to be really effective at slug prevention.
Have you ever made this structure before? let me know in the comments!
