How do you protect your veggies from birds?

A few days ago something took one of my cantaloupe and ate most of it. The next day one of my tomatoes had big bites taken out of it. We decided the birds have finally found our little garden. I threw on some bird netting(as best I could), but it is just a quick, temporary fix for now. Next year I would like to figure out something better.

What veggies do you think need protection from birds? What do you do to keep the birds away?

Thanks for your help!

P.S. Most of my veggies are grown in half wine barrels clustered in 3's. I also have a few things planted on the ground(cantaloupe, watermelon). I plan on making a few mini raised beds(2'x2') next year.

i bought a few pieces of PVC and bent them over onto rebar and it makes a great greenhouse.. I grow corn, squash, and some tomatoes under it.. in the summer it has a bird net. in the fall i put a frost cover on it, in the winter I cover it with plastic... it is a very versitile.

as for the barrels, you can make a pvc square with leggs.. and throw netting over it. it looks pretty good and is very cheap.

JJConcepts,
You used that very flexible 1" PVC in 10' or 20' lengths?

acually I have the 3/4 on a larger house I built this year - used two 10' pieces and the pvc coupling. I put up a rib every three feet. it came out to aroud 12 feet wide and 7 feet tall in the center.. huge, cheap, and easy to walk into..

i used the 1/2 brefore for this.. i only swithced to 3/4 because the 1/2 inch and 5/8 does get caught on the rebar and made it tough to disassemble.. the 3/4 works well - handles the snow, and comes apart in seconds.

-joe-

Do you have any pictures?

Yeah, JJ, post a coupla pics, please!

this is the a winter setup I use 2 smaller greenhouses the 10' sections bent over rebar gives me about 5 feet wide and just under 5 feet tall.. i have a 6-8" trench down the center for drainage and so I can walk through and manage 2 2 foot wide beds along the whole length..

another view of the winter one.. I will have to get pics of the larger one for monday. It is 2 10'pieces with the coupling. I think it costs around 4 bucks per rib..(i got the rebar from a buddy to slide the pvc over.. (some people use 1/2" pvc and3/4 or 1" pvc slides right over it..much cheaper but rebar can be pounded in solid)

i will get better pics and see if i can use a real camera.. these are from a cellphone back in march

I had it opened to control the heat.. it was 50 degrees outside and almost 100 degrees inside if i didn't open the plastic before I leave for work.. the larger is better looking and more stable but i will have to take pics this weekend.

- the rebar heaved on the smaller ones pictured above because the outside ground froze solid and the inside of the greenhouse was much warmer.. you can also see the cord for a heat lamp I use in January to start the seedlings when it is in the teens outside.

The large one with the bird netting will easy to see how it is assembled when I get the pic.. but basically bend pvc over rebar or a smaller dia pvc male it bigger by connecting two with a coupling.. very cheap - very sturdy.

Thanks for posting the pictures. I would love to see the ones you take of the big structure, since ours would have to be large.

You mentioned people have used the 1/2" pvc instead of rebar and slide a larger size pvc over it. Do you think it would work to put larger pvc in the ground and slide a smaller size pvc inside it? It would be less work for me because I wouldn't have to remove the rebar or pvc when I take the structure down at the end of fall. I wouldn't want to leave the rebar or pvc sticking up out of the ground because I am afraid one of my kids might trip and fall onto it.

it probably work best to put the larger in the ground... we have heavy clay and rocks everywhere therefore I sledgehammer the rebar in.. If you can get the larger pvc in I would use it as the base. - ( i punch the posts in around 2' deep for stability). my back gets bad and the hoops are strong enough to pull myself up with or to hold onto as I guide myself through the maze of plants.. I will post some cellphone pics today.

You can find similar types on the internet by searching for "hoophouse" - as well as pics. pvc and a net. worked for me

Thanks, JJ!

this is the frame with the netting over it, i have the hoe in front for a sense of scale.

i held the three sides with a cheap fence - i recommend 2x4 if you want to lift the sides - or tent stakes..it turns out that the fence is a mother to remove with the netting... the good news is nothing can get in.. i used 2x2 on the front so i can lift net to enter / exit

Great pictures. I told my husband about the idea, and it looks like we may try this next yet. I appreciate your help. Thanks!

try it out, the piece of mind made the difference for us, the price is cheap, you are in a different climate, but the ability to throw a row cover over it in the fall, and plastic for the winter is priceless, we started with small, and been playing with it for a few years, but the big one ( we tie wrapped pvc lengthwise so it will hold snow) is by far the only way to go, ...

I truly hope our experience serves you well, good luck..... we havn't had to drop a crop, shoot a critter, or break or back harvesting.

Where do you get the netting and the plastic? I'm considering putting one of these right over my small raised beds to start my spring seedlings this winter. This makes perfect sense to keep the crops/seedlings rotating without having to break because of the outside weather conditions. And starting seedlings inside is becoming more problematic for me, since more and more of my newbie friends need a seedling supply to jump start their confidence levels.

In Zone 9a, our average 1st frost date is December 7th. We get avg daily temps down to the high- to mid-40's for most of the winter, with just a few days that dip into the low, low 30s, sometime in January-Feb, but not sustained dips -- more sporadic days here and there. Last winter, I barely wore a jacket!

Throwing some pvc right over the veggie beds and covering with clear plastic around the 3rd week of December would put me WAY ahead of the game for sowing spring seedlings, especially when I grow mostly 80-90 day indeterminates that, ideally, should be in the ground by Mid-march to beat our summertime scorcher.

Linda

I use it to gain around 6 weeks before and after the season.. the plastic will move you a zone or two.. i picked everything up at lowes. the plastic over the winter sow beds was 25 x 12 - 6 mil.. you could use 4 mil as you don't go into a hard freeze.. (mil is the thickens - when it is in the teens, i use a 4 and a 6 mil together and take the 4 mil off in the spring.)... nights in the 30's daytime temps in the 60's brings the interior almost to 100 mid day and 50 at night.. i use f ten foot pvc 2 1/2 to 3 feet apart ant 5 feet wide. this will give you a 4 1/2 to 5 foot tall and 12 foot long house.. mine is up for 4 months so i dig a 1 foot deep trench in the middle and create tho raised beds - the trench allows me to walk inside. i also got a digital min/max thermometer from amazon for 10 bucks so i can monitor the temp swing and open the side a little to keep it cool when days get warmer.. it honestly is simpler in practice than explaining it. i recommend it to everyone and put a few up for neighbors in march every year.

Hey JJ!
My two raised beds measure 4x10 and 4x8, respectively. So, I'd need to put the PVC over the wide (12' edge). Unfortunately, the front access to both beds faces west, but, I could control the winds by opening and shutting the plastic. The hoops would cross the bed longwise from north to south.

Here's a pic of the beds in progress. I'll fill them Labor Day weekend with my root crops: turnips, beets, lettuce, carrots. As I harvest the beet and turnip greens, toward the end of December, I can start sowing my tomato seeds in the vacant spaces under the plastic.

I'll do like you suggest and get the two different sheets of plastic (4 and 6 mil), just in case of a hard freeze. Hopefully, the beds would get just enough sun through the day to keep the tomato seedlings growing at probably 60-75 degrees under the 4 mil plastic (just a guesstimate).

Linda

Forgot the pic. Both beds face west.

G. girl,
the beds look great.. I wish I had the time, patience, and supplies around to make something like that.. several people have similar beds, and connect large pvc to the boards and just slide smaller pvc into them for frost cover and 4 mil for raising the little ones. for lifting the edges i've found that the jumbo binder clips fit perfect over the 1/2 inch pvc and plastic to keep it open. the girls in the front office give me a box every spring. I have no idea how your temperature swings.. I start tomatoes in a sprouter I use for bean sprouts in the winter than pop the seedlings into the hoop house in mid april .. the night temps go down into the 30's and swing into the 60's... the only problems I have found that the hottest it got was 125 degrees one day when i was hungover and blew off lifting the sides.. it made it to 70 outside with no clouds.. the plants fell, but came back..anyway, i expect that your sun is more direct and you will most likely have better heating potential ( that is why some use row cover under plastic.. i don't) .. the production jumped by leaps and bounds after i got the min/max thermometer to learn when during the day to open the sides and when to close them as the heating days change.

i love the beds
-joe-