Protecting the plants from late frosts and pests, suppressing weed growth or harvesting earlier: there are many reasons to cover the vegetable patch. Depending on the intended use, you can use various fleeces, nets and films for this purpose.
Which covers are suitable for a vegetable patch?
A vegetable bed cover protects plants from frost, pests and weeds. Warming fleeces offer frost protection, fine-meshed crop protection nets keep pests away and mini polytunnels enable an extended gardening season. For best results, choose the appropriate coverage depending on your needs.
Frost protection through warming fleeces
Special thermal fleeces are made from weather-resistant, finely woven acrylic fibers. They protect vegetable plants from cold temperatures down to minus seven degrees and are therefore ideal when the last night frosts threaten. In summer you can take advantage of the insulating effect of these fleeces and spread them over sun-sensitive plants.
Plant fleece is available in different designs. Thicker versions with a weight of around 50 grams per square meter are not so suitable as a cover for the vegetable patch as they are too heavy for delicate plants. It's better to use the light version with only around 20 grams per square meter.
Protection from pests
Carrot, cabbage and onion flies, but also cicadas, flea beetles and aphids make life difficult for hobby gardeners. Fine-meshed cultural protection nets as a cover for the vegetable patch reliably keep the pests away and thus ensure higher harvest yields.
However, if temperatures rise, you should remove the nets during the day and ensure sufficient air circulation. For vegetables that are pollinated by insects, the cover must be removed during the day when flowering begins and reapplied in the early evening. This is the only way to ensure fertilization and a rich harvest.
Mini polytunnels extend the gardening season
These not only serve as a mobile cold frame, late outdoor crops can also be protected with this cover. You can build it yourself easily and inexpensively:
- Bend electrical cable pipes that are not too thick over the beds into a semicircle and stick them about 20 centimeters deep into the ground.
- Alternatively, ready-made semicircular arches (€37.00 on Amazon) from garden shops are suitable.
- Attach arches at a distance of 1 - 1.5 meters.
- Depending on the height, spread 2.5 to 3 meters wide fleece over it.
- Fix directly to the arches or to the ground with stones.
Tip
Do not stretch foils and fleeces too tightly so that the plants underneath can continue to develop undisturbed. It has proven useful to weigh down the edge of the cover with stones or to hang it on the wooden border of the vegetable bed so that the wind does not inadvertently blow the plant protection away.
