Have any of you used netting to protect your plants from falling leaves? We get innundated with leaves in the fall, and it takes forever to remove them from all the plants. I am thinking about draping netting of some type (any suggestions) over my containers, so I can easily "lift" off all the leaves at the end of the fall. Will it work? What type of netting should I use?
Protection from falling leaves
happy, I have had pretty good luck using rock mulch in my containers. When it's time to clean up the falling leaves and stickeryballs from my 1 big liquidambars, I use the shop-vac. I've learned to use rocks big enough not to get sucked up. I really dreaded getting out there this spring, because I had stuck a ton of stuff into my courtyard over the winter, and didn't get to clean out my planters. But it went really fast using the crevice-tool on the vac. Which is what I need to do right now...LOL!
The rock mulch also seems to help protect my more tender plants from the cold.
Imapigeon: What is rock mulch? Gravel-sized stones?
I use a double-layer of roundish river stones about 1 - 2 inches in diameter. They're pretty cheap at our rockeries---nothin' special. I tried gravel-size, but when I want to vacuum or transplant, they are a pain, because they go up the vacuum nozzle or into the soil. The larger stones stay in place and are easy to pick off the surface of the soil. Sometimes I scatter a thin layer bit of pretty gravel or some cocoa mulch on top of the stones, but it's just for looks and I know it will all disappear into the soil.
I started this in desperation about 3 years ago, trying to keep my cats out of my big containers, and it worked. Then earlier this summer when I was cleaning up 6 to 8 inches of last winter's leaves and debris off the rock, and it was easy, I realized I was on to something. Then when my potted citrus and gingers survived 2 weeks of 20-degree temps in containers, and my friend's that were in the ground died, I REALLY realized I was on to something!! I had read articles before about using rocks in the garden to help stabilize soil temperatures around tender plants, and it seems to work with containers, too. The rocks heat up slowly, and then they retain warmth when it gets cold. Seems to keep the soil moisture more stable, too.
Here's a picture I just took so you can get an idea of what I mean. This is a container about 18" across, but I use the same size rocks in my smaller containers---the foliage just covers them all up! Sometimes I add some colorful glass globs or something like that under plants that don't have foliage all the way down to the top of the container.
Hmm -- interesting. I'd have to think of a local source for the stones. Aren't they a bother when you repot?
Not bad at all. It takes me about 5 minutes to take them all out, and since I usually use some in the bottom of each pot for drainage, I just transfer what I need into a nursery pot or something. Then I put the rest back into the top of the new container when I repot.
Some of the leaves break down and sift into the rocks, but that's not a problem. Any weed seeds that take hold are easy to get out, and vacuuming (or blowing) stuff off the top of the rocks is a snap. The plants seem really happy, and I'm not constantly struggling with liquidambar balls stuck in the soil and spewing seedlings in all my pots. I planted the darn trees, and there are a lot of things I like about them, but when those balls fall into containers, they're a PITA!!!
Well, I'll definitely consider this approach!
Out here you can find bags of river rocks in various sizes and colors at Lowes & Home Depot as well as at landscaping companies, I wouldn't think you would have a hard time finding them.
Thanks! I'd still like to find some kind of huge strong netting I could through over the plants for a few weeks, and then lift off all the leaves. The netting would have to be relatively fine (so it wouldn't catch the plant leaves) and strong. But I don't know where to find that. I just have too many plants for a one-at-a-time approach!
Fruit netting won't do it?
I was afraid the spaces on the fruit netting would be too big, so the plant would poke through the netting (unless I actually built a structure to support the netting, which isn't in my plans) and then get caught when I remove the netting.