Garden Frames and the Peril of Floating Row Covers

It's survival of the fittest out there, and in our California garden, plant seedlings are not the fittest. Slugs, snails, birds, cutworms, wind, cold, and weeds all take their toll, with the pests probably doing the most damage. Floating row covers are supposedly the way to go. I got some of that fabric a few years ago, and, let's say, the results were mixed. I don't have the patience to deal with lightweight fabric, finding the hoops, and weighing down all the edges (which somehow get caught in my shoes and ripped out of the ground the next time I go in the garden) the way you're supposed to with those covers.

So, I had a great idea. I'd make wooden frames, attach the floating row cover fabric to it, and just lay it in the garden over my seeds. I got some 2x2 redwood, along with some 1x2 (or so) redwood, built a bunch of frames, carefully put the row-cover material over them (wrapping it around the 1*2 sections and nailing them down so there'd be good strain relief on the fabric), and then planting some seeds and putting a frame over them. It looked great, that frame did, out there. It even worked! I got a great patch of lettuce and beets from seed, without having to sprout indoors and transplant.

Sadly, I think the reason the frame and fabric worked is I put it out in winter, and the fabric only lets rainwater through. It doesn't rain here in the spring, summer, and fall, and the fabric doesn't seem to let water from the sprinklers through. I kid you not - I even took some photos to show the frames on our driveway (above) and how dry the driveway was after I sprayed the frames from the hose. If you care, I could explain why the frames don't let sprinkler water through (at least my theory), but the bottom line was I had a lot of seeds that weren't sprouting under the frames. Sometimes, the garden would be wet everywhere except where the frames covered it!

Time to turn to the neighbors. I decided to replace the row-cover material with window screening. I figured someone would have old window screens in their garage that no longer fit any windows on their house, so I asked around. Well, a neighbor had a roll of screen tucked away. He traded it to me for some lettuce (I'll drop some eggs by, too) and I've started upgrading the frames. One photo shows a frame with the screen next to one with the row-cover after both had been sprayed by a hose. Low-and-behold, the frame with the screen (on the left in the photo below) lets water through and the row-cover didn't. (If that's not science in action, I don't know what is).

I'll keep a few row-cover covered screens for winter, when they should keep the soil warmer and rain will keep things damp. Otherwise, I'm converting most of my frames. They'll keep the pests away and should really increase the number of plants that survive childhood.

- Bruce