We have had a lot of enquiries about our triangle garden nets which have been out of stock for a while.  We are pleased to let you know that new stock will be arriving within the next few days!  There will also be a new supply of green jumbo nets.

Out in our Melbourne garden, the broccoli pop-up net has successfully protected the chilli plants from another winter.  Frost killed some potato plants that had come up in the bed next to them, but not the potatoes under the net and not the chillies.  In fact, the chilli plants have even produced a crop, in the middle of a Melbourne winter.

I have also put my jumbo garden net over my columnar peach tree again, as the possums were eating off the flower buds.  The tree is now happily in flower, so hopefully I’ll get a nice crop of peaches again this year.  There is nothing more frustrating than putting in effort looking after a tree or some veggies, only to have the possums and birds steal the fruit of your labour.   Last year I had peaches for the first time – and thanks to the jumbo net the possums and birds didn’t get to eat them – I did! This year I pruned the tree’s height, so that I can keep it under the pop-up net, but it has responded with lots of beautiful new growth down low, where I can reach!

I have had great success with my raspberries this year after covering them with one of our pop-up tomato nets.  This also seems to have helped them a bit on the very hot days here in Melbourne. Finally I have been able to eat the raspberries, rather than watch the birds continually steal them!

My peach tree has also done well under one of the jumbo nets.  I covered it earlier in the year when the possums had eaten almost all the blossom buds.  I had to leave the door open for pollination for a few weeks, but since the peaches started to develop, the door has been closed. Now I have delicious juicy peaches.  The tree seems happy too - it has grown so much I will have to prune it a bit if I want to fit the jumbo net over it next year.

We have had a few questions about pollination for plants that are covered by our nets.  

The mesh on our nets is small enough to block bees, so if your plants are covered by our nets whilst flowering, the bees won't be able get in to pollinate them - unless you open the zippered door.  For my peach tree, I have found that I can leave the door of the net open and the possums don't go inside, but it might depend on the sneakiness of your particular possums.  

Many of the plants in the vegetable garden can manage without the bees for pollination.

Tomatoes are buzz pollinated, which means they are pollinated by vibration.  This can be the buzzing of bees, or the wind, or it can be achieved by giving your tomato plant a gentle shake every few days.

Strawberries can also be pollinated by wind, however, I find the most effective pollination for my strawberries is to rub the flowers together.  I find this greatly increases the number of strawberries I get.  So before you put the net over your strawberries, rub any flowers you can see together.  Then, when you lift the net to pick berries, just do the same again.

Many other vegetables, such as zucchini and pumpkin can also be hand pollinated.  

Of course, our nets are also perfect for vegetables like, spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, etc, which don't need pollination.

Cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae) are out and about in Melbourne.  They are the white butterflies with the black spots on their wings. With all the sunny weather we've been having, it was only a matter of time.  

I know from experience that once I see these white butterflies around, my brassica crops quickly get eaten alive by hoards of green caterpillars, so I quickly inspected my cabbages (and yes, eggs had already been laid). After squishing all the eggs I could see, I set up one of our broccoli nets over them.

I always thought these butterflies were called cabbage moths, but apparently the cabbage moth (Plutella xylostella) is smaller, with a 1cm wing span and is a light grey colour, whereas the cabbage white butterfly is white and has a 4 cm wing span.  

Anyway, my cabbages are now protected, maybe it's time to protect yours!