Getting rid of the shoogly net frames on the raised beds

Over the last 4 or 5 years, we’ve tried a succession of nets over the raised beds to stop local cats and foxes from digging in them. Our original attempt was using some pipes we bought from a local DIY store and we tied it together with string.  To be fair, they pretty much worked, mostly. They were just a bit short, so things like kale ended up sticking out of the nets and other plants grew “through” them.

They were also fixed by sticking the poles into the beds themselves, so not exactly easy to move, meaning to plant, harvest, weed etc we had to completely remove the nets from the frames. That was a complete pain in the bahookie!

The next version we came up with didn’t solve the needing to remove the nets problem, but it did help with the height problem, we used tall bamboo canes with a tennis ball on top to stop the nets falling off. This was NOT pretty. Oh, so not pretty. Also not very stable, so very quickly this became annoying.

With the white pipe based frames we came up with the first time around, we had something to secure the nets too. With the bamboo canes we struggled with this, so more often than not, the nets would come undone and trip one of us up. Or worse, get tangled in a bike as we rolled them past the beds. So this version really didn’t last long. I don’t think they lasted a month before I was complaining.

So, when I recently came across something online that looked the right height, looked stable and wasn’t too ugly, I thought oh interesting.  Maybe it’s worth a try. It’s basically the same idea as our frames, piping creating an arch over the beds, but this time they are fixed into a wooden frame that keeps it really rigid. So rigid in fact, that we have even managed to put hinges on to them so that I can lift the whole net up to allow me access to the beds. How fab is that?

As usual, we recorded it all for posterity on our Youtube channel in case this helps someone else out there who is having the same issues.