See also other gardening pages:

Gardening photographs 1
Gardening photographs 2
Bed and board
Cloches, cheap and simple to make
Composting, rainwater collecting
Transframe, a system with many uses
Some design principles in gardening

These cages can be used for protecting fruit and brassicas such as cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, oriental vegetables and other crops from such pests as pigeons and other birds, and cabbage white butterflies (if fine netting is used.) I also describe a different system, for protection of raspberry plants. I give quite detailed information, but not about every aspect of the system.

Some advantages of a cage which uses a flexible support, or more than one flexible support:

• It's by far the cheapest and easiest way of constructing a cage.
• It can be dismantled or moved very easily as well as constructed very easily. Two people can carry the cage to a new position. For overwintering crops I generally have something like five cages in use at once to protect brassicas. Some of these will have been used to protect fruit crops in the summer. One person can dismantle it and move it to a new position in a few minutes. Why continue to protect crops when the need for protection is over? The inflexible traditional cage makes this almost obligatory. Why continue to protect strawberries when your strawberries are no longer in danger of attack? Why continue to protect your raspberries or redcurrants when now it's your cabbages which need protecting.? The cage can be used to the full after the summer and early autumn crops to protect winter crops.
• The dimensions of the cage can be changed very easily. In this way, too, it's far more flexible than the fruit and vegetable cages which are commercially available, or the smaller cages which have a series of hoops for support. More sections can be added to the flexible support to make it higher - up to about 3m high. The cage in the top photograph is a 'walk-in' cage. (The total cost, supports and netting, for a cage of this size is about £ 20.) Alternatively, a long section can be used which has a low arch, quite near to the ground, to protect low-growing crops - the lower the height, the greater the area which can be protected by the same netting. The same system can protect a strawberry bed and an apple or pear tree, although not a very large tree.
• Appearance of the plant. Whatever the plant, it will look better without netting protection. Raspberries aren't the most beautiful of plants, but when they're growing healthily and vigorously they can delight the eye - if, that is, they're not simply glimpsed behind the netting of a fruit cage. Again, the traditional fruit cage, unlike this cage, can't be removed so easily.
• Appearance of the cage. The traditional rectangular fruit or vegetable cage doesn't have particular visual strength. It simply sits there. The graceful, curving lines of these cages are attractive, I think.
• At times in the year when nothing at all needs protecting, it's far better that the cage should be dismantled and put away. This takes a prohibitively long time in the case of the traditional cage, no time at all my system. The reason for dismantling cages is that UV light harms the netting, shortening its life, and rain has a damaging effect upon poles. Manufacturers may claim that the netting is 'UV stabilized' and that the poles are specially treated, but there's no escaping the fact that being outside shortens the life of equipment.
• Perhaps a minor consideration, given the mild winters in recent years, although some future winters may be very different - the sloping sides of this design shed snow, the flat netting which forms the roof of the traditional design doesn't, and can be damaged by accumulation of snow.
• The design avoids other disadvantages of the commonly used home-made design. Commercially available fruit cages are used for taller crops. For less tall crops, gardeners have usually made their own netting protection system. An established method is shown in the well-known book by Dr D G Hessayon 'The Fruit Expert' (Page 59.) There are wooden stakes, or canes, which support the netting, which tends to sag at numerous places. Each stake is covered with an upturned plant pot. There are bricks at intervals to hold down the netting and prevent birds from entering. I've used this established method, and I found it so frustrating to use that I made an effort to find an alternative. Netting can be a frustrating material. It's easily caught on angular surfaces, including the plant pots used in the established home-made design. My design minimizes this problem, since the flexible support is curved, not angular.

The cage doesn't employ the fairly thick and heavy tubing of the traditional cage. This is an advantage, I think. There's a saving in cost and material, and a saving in material imposes less of a pressure on resources. A cage doesn't have to withstand great forces. It doesn't have to withstand great wind forces. Obviously, even gale-force winds can't blow the netting away. It doesn't have to bear heavy loads, except for snow. A lightweight structure is perfectly capable of doing the job, and a heavy, solid structure would be excessive. A building which uses slender, graceful columns or pillars rather than very thick ones to bear a load is in no danger of collapsing - it's using a sophisticated design to carry the load rather than a crude design.

I tend to construct large cages and generally use netting of 6m x 4m dimensions. Netting of smaller dimensions can be used but whatever the length, the width has to be adequate - 2m is generally not sufficient.

The cage can be constructed perfectly easily, simply by pushing the ends of the support into the ground and using tent pegs to secure the netting, 2 at each end. Alternatively, small sections of bamboo can be used. With the two ends of the netting secure, work down each side, securing the netting to the ground at intervals. Again, tent pegs or small sections of bamboo can be used. These need not be visible later.

Two flexible supports of the same height or different heights can be used.The two supports can overlap or they can be placed further apart so they are no longer overlapping. The possibility of using single supports or two supports at varying distances apart gives the system great flexibility - very different lengths can be covered. Different widths can be covered too. If the same netting is used but the supports are lower, then obviously the netting can be brought out further at the sides. A second further flexible support can be used to make a cage of greater width, as in this image:

Whether tent pegs or small pieces of bamboo are used, the method of securing the netting is the same, if moveable boards are used to surround the bed. (See my page on boards for the system which I use.) Before the netting has been secured, it will be hanging down in front of the board, near to you. Lift the board slightly, push the netting underneath the board so that the netting is now on the other side of the board. Push down a tent peg or piece of bamboo on the inside of the board so that it goes through the netting. The netting is now secure at this point. Go on to the next securing point. Only a few are needed for the entire length of netting. When you've finished one side of the cage, push the board back down. The board secures the netting as well as the pegs or bamboo. In fact, when a board is used, the netting can be secured without using any pegs or bamboo at all. If moveable boards aren't used, then simply peg the netting into the ground. (The cage in the top photograph is secured without the use of boards.)

 One disadvantage of the system has to be admitted, but in my experience it's not at all an important disadvantage. There are metal connections in the support. After a time, these will corrode to some extent so that it's difficult or impossible to separate the sections of the support. I store the support as a single long section, without taking it apart when it's not in use.

Protection of raspberry plants

I use the cage system described above for protection of brassicas - essential on my allotments -  and for  protection of  redcurrant and whitecurrant bushes. I haven't found it necessary to protect the raspberry crop, or the strawberry crop, for that matter, but other people's experience may be very different. Dr D G Hessayon writes of soft fruit, in 'The Fruit Expert,'

'Raspberries and strawberries are the types most at risk. Chemical sprays are of little use [the author has a great fondness for chemical sprays, not to be imitated] and mechanical bird scarers are of limited value. The only satisfactory solution is to erect a bird cage. For strawberries and low-growing bushes and canes a temporary cage will do, but for standard-sized bushes and canes a walk in cage is a better idea.'

Information about his 'temporary cage' is given above. My system which uses curved supports is vastly superior.

For  raspberry crops, not a low-growing bush, of course,  I give an alternative to the walk-in cage, one which is  far more cost-effective.

In 'traditional' systems of supporting and protecting raspberry plants, support is separated from protection. To support the plants, leaving aside the single post system, which is inadequate for more than a few plants, either the post-and-wire system or the double fence system is used. For the post-and-wire system, the uprights at the ends of each row are typically about 2m high, for the double fence system the uprights are a little lower. If it's decided that it's necessary to protect the crop against the extreme damage that birds can do then by far the best solution is to erect a cage to protect the crop. So, a large cage, with its own supports, is either bought or constructed. The cage consists of a framework made of horizontal and vertical members with netting attached.

In my system, the support system is integrated with protection. There's no reason to erect a supporting system for the canes and then to erect a second, independent supporting system for the netting which protects the raspberry canes. Fruit cages are expensive, and a significant part of the cost comes from the supports. This is unnecessary duplication.

The vertical posts at the ends of each row in my system are higher than the vertical posts generally used in the traditional systems. They are about 2.5m high and have at the top short horizontal members about 1 metre long, like the short horizontal members of the double fence system. This is because attachment of the galvanized wires to which the canes are tied or which support the canes isn't their only function. These posts are also used for attachment at a higher level of two galvanized wires, running the length of each row, over which the netting is draped. These galvanized wires, like the lower wires, are secured by straining bolts. The netting is tied to the wires at intervals with small loops. The edges of the netting at ground level are secured with tent pegs. The whole system represents a very big saving in time and money.