SHIFTING ROOTS

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How to Build Row Covers (and Protect your Cruciferous Vegetables!)

June 6, 2020

Whether you’re trying to protect your vegetables from pests or extend your growing season, knowing how to build a floating row cover is a useful skill to have. While row cover kits are convenient, they can be tricky to find in-store, are often expensive, and don’t allow for a lot of flexibility in size.

You can easily create your own hoop house of any size with just a few simple supplies. I’ll show you how!

A 40 foot long row cover in our acreage garden near Saskatoon, SK, Canada in zone 3.

What is a Row Cover Made Of?

For our row covers we use frost cloth (which has a tight enough weave that will keep out bugs), rolls of plastic pipe found in the plumbing section, and either binder clips (for our backyard garden) or landscape staples (for the acreage garden). The system is fairly inexpensive and everything can be used over and over again from year to year.

Frost or bug cloth can usually be found at your local garden centre or ordered online. Order as wide of a size as makes sense for your hoops.

Our row cover tunnels at the acreage are all from one piece of garden fabric, which makes more sense, because there are less possible points of entry for bugs to get in. The ones at our house are made from two panels of garden fabric that overlap and are connected by binder clips. It’s a bit more cumbersome, but is easier to manage for watering or just taking a peek to see how the plants are doing.

Related: See how I modify the row cover for use in my raised beds here.

For the hoop house structure, we choose to use plastic pipe because it’s easy to find, is flexible, and does not require any special tools to shape it or cut it to size.

Most professional gardeners use metal pipes that they bend to size with a special tool. Both systems work, use the one you feel most comfortable with.

Brussel sprout grown under a row cover.

How do you Cover Vegetables?

When cutting the pipes to size, we have found that it’s best to cut them at an angle, so they push into the soil easier.

Once you’ve cut the pipes the same size, place them into the ground. We space ours no more than 4 feet apart, and often closer in our backyard.

Twist the fabric at one end of the hoops and secure with landscape staples. Unroll the fabric the length of the garden hoops, plus extra at the end to secure the other side. If you have two people doing the job, it’s easiest to have one person slowly unroll the bug fabric, and the other secure with landscape staples or binder clips at each side.

What Vegetables Need to Be Covered?

Technically, you can cover whatever vegetable you need to protect from frost or bugs. We cover all of our cruciferous vegetables: Cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, turnips, kohlrabi, kale, brussel sprouts, and the like.

Red cabbage grown underneath row covers.

We also have very aggressive birds at our house in the city, so we cover the vegetables they covet–lettuce, Swiss Chard, beets, and oddly enough, zinnias.

If you’re covering vegetables because of birds, you can use bird netting instead of bug or frost fabric.

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Can Row Covers Protect Vegetables From Wind?

In short, yes. But there’s a few things you should know. For a small-scale garden, I actually like to use row covers as a wind and sun protector to help with the hardening off process. The work well and as long as they are secured with binder clips and bricks they generally stay put.

Side note: Hardening off plants is hard, and I’ve found that using a floating row cover for a week after planting in the garden really helps reduce plant shock and the amount of plants that die.

However, in our acreage garden (pictured below), the wind will rip the landscape staples out of the ground, and the row cover ends up on one side of the hoops. Thankfully it has never come out altogether, but it is annoying to constantly have to put it back after we’ve had an excessively windy day. In this case, the binder clips might be more secure, but they are more expensive. When your row is 40 feet long, the costs quickly add up.

What About Watering? Can Rain Get Through?

Rain can get through the garden fabric, so you don’t need to constantly remove it. That said, not as much rain gets through the row covers as if there was no cover. I open them up for watering between rains, or if I want to take advantage of the water from a lighter rain.

Just don’t forget to close them back up again once the rain is over. Otherwise the bugs can get at your vegetables, totally defeating the point of using a row cover.

Any more questions? Anything you’d add? Let me know in the comments!

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

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Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged: bugs, hoop house, row covers

6 Organic Ways To Keep Bugs Out of Broccoli

May 6, 2019

There’s nothing quite like the fresh taste of broccoli from the garden, but if you live in an area where farmers grow a lot of canola (hello Saskatchewan!!), growing broccoli at home seems like an impossible dream.

Sure, things start out okay, until mid summer when broccoli becomes invested with worms and flea beetle bugs.

And it’s not just broccoli. Other vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, kale, turnips and radishes all suffer the same fate. (Although the holes on the leaves of the turnips and radishes aren’t as big of a deal.)

So how do you grow bug free broccoli?

I’ve compiled 6 organic ways you can protect your cruciferous vegetables from bugs, as well as how to wash out the bugs if a few manage to get in there.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase anything, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read more about it in my privacy policy. Thanks for supporting Shifting Roots!

1. Mesh Laundry Baskets

The easiest solution to bug-free broccoli is easily found on Amazon or at your local dollar store: a pop-up mesh laundry basket.

Just pop it up, secure it with landscaping staples, and let your broccoli grow. The rain and sun get in, and the bugs and worms stay out.

When the season is over, collapse the laundry hampers for easy storage that doesn’t take up a lot of space.

2. Screens

Screens require a little bit of DIY magic, but are a more long-lasting option that will be good for many years to come.

Make a frame out of wood the size of the area you want to protect. You could make it to fit multiple vegetables, or just one. staple screen material on the frame and set over your vegetables.

3. Nylons and Hoisery

This method is a little more finicky, and will only work for broccoli and cauliflower. However, you likely already have some on hand or could easily get some used ones for free.

Cut the legs off of a pair of sheer pantyhose.

Once the broccoli or cauliflower bud starts to appear, cover the main bud with the toe end of a pair of sheer nylons. Lightly secure. As the broccoli grows, the nylons will stretch and protect the plant from bugs.

4. Mesh Food Tents

The mesh food tents you’d use to protect your food during a picnic work the same way as the pop up laundry hampers. Get the largest ones you can find and secure with landscape staples.

This pack of 24 would work for most backyard gardeners.

5. Bacillus Thuringiensis

If you’re looking for something to spray on your vegetables, rather than cover them, you might want to try bacillus thuringiensis.

Bacillus Thuringiensis is an organic insecticide that is used to control pest caterpillars. It harms the bad worms, but won’t kill beneficial bugs that you want in your garden. In Canada it is commonly sold as BTK in any larger locally owned garden centre. You can find it on Amazon in the US as Thuricide.

Mix the concentrate as per the instructions on the bottle. Spray any cruciferous vegetables once a week and after a rain.

6. Floating Row Covers

Floating row cover kits are an easy was to protect your vegetables. Just pop up the hoops, cover with the mesh, and secure at the ends.

Too Late to Protect Your Broccoli? Here’s How To Get The Bugs Out After Harvest

To get rid of any bugs hiding in the broccoli florets, start by filling your sink with cold water. Add in 1/4 cup of salt and 2 tbsp of vinegar. Let sit for 20 minutes and rinse the broccoli.

During this process the broccoli must be completely submerged. lay a baking pan or a dinner plate on top of the broccoli to weigh it down.

As you can see, there’s lots of options so you can grow bug free cruciferous vegetables. Don’t let a few silly worms stop you from growing delicious broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale!

I love to grow broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, but I hate how cabbage worms get to it every year.  I'm so excited to discover there are 6 organic ways to get rid of cabbage worms and finally get my vegetable garden under control.  These products are all pretty cheap too! #gardeningtips #broccoli #cabbageworms #vegetable
Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

3 Comments
Filed Under: Gardening Tagged: broccoli, bugs, cabbageworms, cauliflower, Kale, organic, pest control, vegetable garden, vegetable gardening

Easy Ways To Prevent Bugs and Disease in the Garden

April 17, 2019

No one likes to think about diseases and pests in their garden. In a perfect world, we’d all have Pinterest-worthy gardens that get enough sun, are perfectly watered, and always produce well.

The reality is, pests and plant diseases are going to happen to you. If you’re new to gardening, there’s a few simple things you can do to give your garden a better chance of avoiding common diseases and pests.

Did you know there are easy things you can do in your vegetable garden to get a handle on pest control, insects, disease, and other problems, all in the Spring before the gardening season is in full swing?  Here's six ideas that even a beginner can do to have success. #gardening #bugs #pests #vegetables #croprotation

This post contains affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase something. You can read more about it in my Privacy Policy. Thanks for supporting Shifting Roots!

Rotate Your Crops

Rotating your crops is the easiest way to keep disease and bugs out of your vegetable garden. But what is it?

All vegetables have a plant family. For example, corn is part of the grass family, broccoli and cauliflower are cruciferous vegetables, and tomatoes peppers, and eggplants are nightshades.

Plants from each family take different amounts of nutrients from the soil, and in the case of the legume family, put nutrients back in the soil.

New to garden planning?  Don't miss crop rotation, an essential step in preventing pests, insects, and disease from ruining your vegetable garden. #vegetablegarden #croprotation #gardening #tips #beginners #planning

So if you keep planting the same vegetable in the same spot year after year, you’ll deplete the soil of those particular nutrients, which invites bugs and disease.

This is why it’s so important to have a garden planner and keep track of where you planted everything each year. If you don’t use one already, you can get a free garden planner here.

If your head is spinning with the thought of trying to keep all of this straight, I’ve also made an easy six year rotation for you to use, or you can find a more detailed version in my beginner gardening course.


Don’t Crowd Out Your Vegetables

Folks, I love square foot gardening to the moon and back, but it can be really tempting to try and get vegetables in even closer than suggested. Sure, it looks fine in May, but by late July it will be a crazy jungle that you can barely get through.

When plants don’t have enough air circulation, they are susceptible to mold and mildew type diseases. Last year I had a terrible infestation of powdery mildew, in part because of the weather and in part because I tried to squeeze too many things in my garden.

Experiment with Companion Flowers

Companion flowers, such as marigolds, bee balm, zinnias, nasturtiums, and more can be a huge help in the garden. They encourage pollination, as well as possibly keep some bugs away from your vegetables.

Be warned that one or two sporadic marigolds is not going to protect your whole garden. You’ll need a serious amount of flowers directly by the vegetable to actually create an effect.

You can read more about companion flowers here.

Did you know there are easy things you can do in your vegetable garden to get a handle on pest control, insects, disease, and other problems, all in the Spring before the gardening season is in full swing?  Here's six ideas that even a beginner can do to have success. #gardening #bugs #pests #vegetables #croprotation

Create Barriers

Sometimes the only way to keep bugs at bay is to use a physical barrier, like mesh fabric over hoops.

Where I live, cruciferous vegetables are almost impossible to grow because farmers like to plant canola, which shares a lot of the same pests. The only way (that I know of) to have nice broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts is to cover them with white mesh fabric that lets the water and light in and keeps the moths out.

You might live somewhere where this isn’t a problem. However, talk to gardening friends in your area and I’m sure there will be that one bug that is prolific and impossible to keep away. A barrier is probably your solution.

Make Friends with Beneficial Bugs

Not all bugs in the garden are your friend. For example, lady bugs, bees, and lacewings are all bugs you want to see. This video below goes into more detail:

Water Your Plants Just Right

Sometime in late-July, just when you’ve been kind of sick of your garden but your excitement renews because the first of your tomatoes are starting to appear, you’ll see a blackish-brown scab on the end of that prized tomato. Argh!!!!

That’s blossom end rot, and it’s caused by a lack of calcium due to inconsistent watering. Blossom end rot can be reversed in a plant, but those tomatoes you were so excited about are no good.

So keep to a regular watering schedule, so you don’t have to experience garden heart ache!!

Did you know there are easy things you can do in your vegetable garden to get a handle on pest control, insects, disease, and other problems, all in the Spring before the gardening season is in full swing?  Here's six ideas that even a beginner can do to have success. #gardening #bugs #pests #vegetables #croprotation

Do you know any other easy ways to prevent garden diseases? Let me know in the comments!

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged: bugs, Companion Planting, crop rotation, insects, pests, watering

How to Get Rid of Pests that Plague Your Garden

June 20, 2018

You’ve planted the seeds, carefully watered and weeded, and your vegetable garden is finally starting to come up. . . only to be demolished by a host of bugs, birds, and other critters.

What’s a gardener to do?

Sifting through the Internet for answers is like travelling down some strange vortex.  There’s so many myths and folk remedies out there that you don’t know what to believe–especially if you’re looking for an organic solution.

I have travelled the vortex for you and come out on the other side…barely.  This post is a compilation of some of the more reputable solutions out there for the garden foes you are battling.

[Read more…]

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

4 Comments
Filed Under: Gardening Tagged: birds, bugs, cats, deer, dogs, insects, pests, rabbits

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Welcome!

Hi, I'm Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

P.S. First time gardener? You'll want to download the quick start gardening guide below!

Recent Posts

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  • 26 Best Flowers to Grow for Dried Flower Arrangements
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  • How to Start a Cut Flower Garden

Welcome!

Hi, I’m Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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Currently trying to embrace the snow. . . ⁠ ⁠ Currently trying to embrace the snow. . . ⁠
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Do any of you watch gardeners on YouTube who grow in way warmer climates than yours?  Basically, almost all of the YouTubers I watch garden somewhere warmer than I do, except for the one in Alaska.  The first time my husband introduced me to the world of gardening vlogs, I just sat there fuming.  It was February.  It was -30.  And here I was watching people with green lawns starting their vegetable gardens. ⁠
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By now I've gotten used to it, and I actually really enjoy watching them while I've still got snow on the ground.  There's just something about living vicariously through someone else's garden.⁠
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If you also watch a lot of garden YouTube, who are your favourites?  Mine are @roots_and_refuge @you.cant.eat.the.grass @epicgardening @joshsattin @flowerhillfarmny ⁠
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P.S. I'm on YouTube too!  Subscribe for my longer-form content, how to videos, and (when it's warmer) vlogs and garden tours.
Growing a luffa sponge was possibly the most chall Growing a luffa sponge was possibly the most challenging and finicky thing I've taken on so far as a gardener in zone 3.  And all I got to show for it was 3 baby loofah sponges, which are so precious to me that I can't bare to actually use them. (Kind of defeats the point, doesn't it?)⁠⠀
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I'll be starting mine soon, so I though I would share some of the improvements to the growing process from last year.⁠⠀
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1. Plant in larger containers!! I thought I used large enough ones, but I sorely underestimated how big these plants would get indoors.  Once of my readers suggested buckets, and I think this is an excellent idea.⁠⠀
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2. Plant only 1 plant per container.  I thought loofah's would be like a cucumber or pumpkin or other vining squash where you plant in a hill.  The containers with two plants in them did not do as well as the single seed containers.⁠⠀
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3. Have a string for the vine to climb.  Cutting the vine off of my window screen was not fun.⁠⠀
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Will you try luffas this year?⁠⠀
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#luffasponge #loofahsponge #luffachallenge2012 #seedstarting #wintergardening #indoorgardening⁠⠀
Got the seed starting itch? There's some things y Got the seed starting itch?  There's some things you can actually seed start now and you won't end up with crazy leggy seedlings and endless problems.  In fact, these plants require that you start now, and need to be started in zone 3 by the end of February at the absolute latest.⁠
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I've already started some lisianthus and eucalyptus, and am waiting on my seed orders to start some more.⁠
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If you're starting a luffa sponge, make sure you have some sort of eventual plan for the vine.  last year mine went over my fall windows before I was able to take them outdoors.⁠
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P.S. I've actually never started onions from seed, so if anyone wants to chin in about their experience, feel free!
Growing eucalyptus for the first time this year? Growing eucalyptus for the first time this year?  A new post is on the blog to walk you through it.  While in theory eucalyptus is easy to grow, it's challenging in my zone 3 garden for three reasons: ⁠
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➡️It needs a long time to mature⁠
➡️I have a short growing season⁠
➡️I live in a cool climate, and eucalyptus grows better when its warm.⁠
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That said, you can see by this picture that it can be done!!⁠
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Are you growing eucalyptus this year?
Oh friends, if any of my nice, curated photos sums Oh friends, if any of my nice, curated photos sums up how this last week went, I think it's this one.  Babies crying, trying to stay calm, outwardly looking like it's all under control, but feeling very overwhelmed.⁠
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This post isn't gardening related, so feel free to scroll by if you're here only for the gardening content.⁠
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Thankfully it's January, and I keep reminding myself that the Internet will not break if I don't keep to my self-imposed posting schedule.  But it doesn't make a week full of teething-and-not-sleeping baby any easier. ⁠
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Felicity slept through the night for the first time ever last Monday, then proceeded to punish us with frequent wakings and terrible sleep until Saturday.  And as tough as this is in regular times, in Covid times its extra frustrating because I don't have my village.⁠
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I can't just call up another Mama friend and go for coffee at her house.  I can't take my son out for a Mommy-and-Dominic date because everything he'd want to do isn't really much of an option.  There's no playgroup or play place to just drop in on.  And forget just taking everybody out to get groceries just for a change of scenery.⁠
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I know people have way more serious problems than this, and I hope I don't sound whiny and entitled, it's not my intention.  Please know that I'm very grateful for my family and job and that so far we've been healthy. ⁠
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A lot of you who follow me do so in part because you are also juggling life with very little people through this strange time.  I hope that in occasionally sharing my struggles, it makes you feel better about your struggles. (You're struggling too sometimes. . . right?)
Do you tend to plan out your garden to the nth deg Do you tend to plan out your garden to the nth degree, do you just wing it, or are you somewhere in-between?⁠
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I tend to plan it all out, and then when I actually get out in the field, so to speak, the plan changes a little bit. ⁠
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If you need a garden planner that's both pretty & practical, my garden planner is available in the ebooks section.  It's only $9 and has lots of upgrades from the previous planner.  Use code CANADA if you're Canadian to account for the exchange.⁠
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P.S. You can see exactly what you're getting in the video--no surprises. ⁠
P.P.S  I get my planner bound and printed at a printing place.  Lots of people just print their own and put the sheets in a binder.
Are you gardening in containers this year? When y Are you gardening in containers this year?  When you're shopping for vegetable seeds, look for varieties that have names with words like patio, tiny, small, etc.  While lots of vegetable varieties will do fine in a container, you'll have an easier time with ones that are specifically bred for that situation.⁠
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