I love this as a solution. And tulle is fairly inexpensive (at least until all the gardeners put a run on the fabric market and jack prices up LOL). Curious what pests this doesn’t work on? Aphids, thrips, mites? Are these small enough to get through the netting?
Yea the teally small ones. Not that they would get through a fine Tull but might find their way through folds. It would be a deterrent though I'm sure.
@@NextLevelGardening even better then. Someone posted on a cut flower channel that they were having so much trouble with grasshopper types that they created a 4-foot wide chicken run around the perimeter of their garden and it worked pretty well - less pest pressure and fresh eggs. Win-win. Loved that idea but chickens can be damaging to garden plants if you let them in the garden, but ducks are not it would seem (exception is young tender seedlings) and they are bug-eating machines. I am going to give it a go and see how all of these work. Edit: @Micahlouise9539 posted below that ducks are in fact destructive, so back to the drawing board on that solution. Wanted to edit this in case someone read my comment but didn’t see the follow up post.
@@firehorsewoman414 I have four ducks, they are brutal on the garden, they love kale and will reduce it to a stub. They tear it as a group instead of pecking like chickens. I planted dahlias where they could get them and they ate them all. They will eat my roses if in reach. And lettuce of any size is consumed instantly. Yes they are great at eating bugs, but my main garden is off limits to them. I throw them the veggies I will let them eat. And now I need to move the dahlias.
@@micahlouise9539 oh dang. Well that changes my plans then. Thank you for correcting me on that so I don’t have to learn the hard way and will also stop telling people the wrong info. But shoot, I thought it was a pretty good plan darn it.
I have used Tulle for years. My squirrels bite right through it and eat my Tomatoes, and of course, dig. About 3 years ago, I found using regular window screening to work the best for me I had a lot let over from a project, and tried it as a last ditch effort to keep them away. It is what I found works best for me. All I have to do, is lay it around whatever plants I want to repel the little Munchkins. For some reason, they won't go near the screening.
If the creatures are desperate enough, they can get through tulle. I always leave some stuff without protection, as an attractant, just in case. At my previous house, the squirrels would always try to eat every persimmon in these giant trees I had. No way I could cover those with anything, even though I did initially try to do that on some lower branches. Eventually, I worked out a method that worked very well: The squirrels would run along this block wall to get into the trees, so I put ripe fruit that had fallen off the trees along the wall, especially along the wall before the squirrels reached the trees. It worked super well. There was usually so much fruit along the wall, the squirrels would just sit there and eat and never made it to the trees.
@@yeevita I have two of my apple trees espaliered so they are in a fairly flat plane. I think next year I will try this actually on the trees. I fear putting it on the ground will do not good. what do you think? Kathryn
@@kathrynepaul It never hurts to try. For espaliered, I might go more with covering part of the tree, like maybe the lower branches if they are jumping from adjacent trees, or along wall if they are running along the ground. It does not hurt to try and observe. Good luck.
I use it on my blueberry bushes and this year the squirrels tore a hole in it to get to the blueberries. I doubled up on the tule where they tore a hole and they left them alone.
As you were asking what was our worst pest I said my chickens. Then you said tulle. 8 started laughing because that is what I put down keep my chickens out. I love the stuff. 👍
Squash beetles. I use Tulle on my blueberries. It keeps the birds out without getting tangled in the branches. I just secure it with clothes pins or binder clips and it’s easy to remove so that I can pick. Thanks
@@Sammyspack yes. I've mentioned it several times in the Facebook group. I'm glad Brian is able to share with such a large group of gardeners. It's such a wonderfully effective and affordable tool for all of us.
Great idea! And I bet it’s much cheaper than bird cloth, too. An additional idea I’ve seen other gardeners use are little organza bags to protect individual fruits as they swell. Also cheap and reusable.
Deer! Lovely doe-eyed creatures. Deer are delicate, elegant of movement - and utterly voracious. They are PARTICULALRY fond of expensive peonies and roses. They turn their elegant noses up at cheap filler plants that I don't mind losing, they go for the $72 rare tree peony! Every time I find a munched plant, dreams of venison dance through my mind. The secret for me was to confuse the enemy. Deer can easily leap over an 8' (and with a really hungry deer, even a 10' fence). BUT they won't do it if they can't see a place to land. Therefore, I put up a 6' fence and cluttered up all the landing areas with plant teepees, topiaries, garden green stalks, dwarf fruit trees elevated in pots, vines growing up cattle fences - you name it, I've tried it. Arches and arbors and pergolas abound around the perimeter of my property. I named my chicken coop Fort Hennington. It looks like a high-security prison because (according to the helpful brochure from the local USDA Extension office) there are over 30 deadly predators in the Arizona mountains that would love to eat my chickens or their eggs (snakes) or their food (every bird and rodent known to the Southwest desert). So, I'm hunkered down, as prepared as I can get - wish me luck!
Thanks for the chuckle, Brian! I moved my raised beds to my back yard this spring to escape the increasing deer pressure,(underestimating their motivation to jump vinyl fences), and was rewarded with a groundhog invasion. They wipe out about half my abundance almost overnight. My aging pups are no help since the chunky beasts can outmaneuver them. I've used tulle for many years- I bought 2 cases of green bolts and still had some. My raised beds have a wood frame over them to support tomato hooks (thanks Brian!), so I wrapped the tulle around the beds, going up about 3 feet above the top of the beds, stapling and clamping it to the beds and supports, hoping the darn critters would not be agile enough to tunnel under the tulle and are too heavy to climb it. It saved a lot of the crop but also keeps me out. I eventually took it down after everything was big and the garden hogs concentrated on the cucumbers, carrots, and kale. Over the winter I'll need to think of a way to use the tulle that keeps kale hogs out but allows me easy access to the beds.
I have squirrels and grasshoppers! Thanks for reminding me. I used the tool last year and it really helped, but forgot this year. I get a green tulle, and it looks nice on the plants.
This is brilliant! I am just starting my first veggie garden after a few years and absolutely love this idea to protect plants going forward. Thank you so much for sharing.
Raccoons LOVE my cantaloupe. This year I bought some of those small mesh bags for gardening. The fabric is very similar. Slip it around the fruit and sinch it up! I tie it to the trellis as well. They managed to pull one off the vine I had bagged, but I still have a couple more. Crossing my fingers!!!!
I started using tulle because of your other video. It works great. It’s so hot here I used the white. You video are so helpful no matter what zone you are in. Thank you! Blessings❤️🌺
Yes! I saw that in a video you did a few months back. I bought a bolt of black tule for just over an $1 a yard at Hobby Lobby last early spring and its the best garden hint In some time. The one thing I didn’t realize is that birds eat the tiny new seedlings of my spring garden starts. Tule kept the second planting away! Many thanks!
You are so right! I am using successfully tulle from the time of my daughter’s wedding. 12 years. Also - what helped me a lot, especially over newly planted peppers, cucumbers and beans - 1 gallon water bottles with bottom removed, no top and a little stick running from the top through, securing them. Squirrels sometimes can lift them. So still tulle all over.
Thank you so much for sharing!! I found a mosquito bed netting to put over my tomato plants! It was at 99c store! But now I can get tulle for smaller and even bigger applications like my trees!! 😁
Another well presented video this year I dressed up my plum tree with tulle and I’m already seeing ripening and an actual harvest fingers crossed… last year they wiped out a huge crop in less than two days… I also prune heavily in early spring so I can manage the picking as well … thanks again
Yes! This is what’s saving my winter squash from a mass amount of crickets and grasshoppers this year 🙌🏼 And now I’m going to try it on my cucumbers and bigger tomatoes like you showed bc I just had a raccoon get this first ones that were finally ready to harvest. Thanks for these tips!
When I first started my potted garden, I used mesh pop up tents … and spray mint oil or oregano oil (expensive)around the bottom of tent ,They worked great! To keep the early bugs out… but as soon as my plants grew too tall to fit I had to cut away the tent … it really withstood heavy rain and everything and it let the sun in…
Thank you Brian!! WHITE FLIES and APHIDS are replacing squirrels as my mortal enemies. I don't think tulle would work, but I will try it!! I was resolved to being super aggressive with natural pesticides at the beginning of the spring/summer season.
Use water sprays for white flies and aphids. Also for white flies, tap the plants periodically to make the flies fly. They seem to not like that. White flies like a non-windy protected location, so blowing on them or otherwise disturbing them gets them to move. I also find that for aphids, I keep sacrificial plants. They seem to really infest one or two plants and leave the rest alone. I keep the sacrificial plants as predator bug nurseries, and keep any spread under control, mostly with a periodic water spray. Mostly they stay on the sacrificial plants, and then the predators take care of them. I notice an infestation of aphids, then at some point, they all disappear. I assume weather conditions or the predators ate them all. Using the sacrificial plant or two, I have much fewer aphids all around the garden the last few years. Sometimes, if I see a severely infested leaf on the sacrificial plant/s and do not see predator insect larvae on them, I will clip the leaf to give to my pond fish as a treat.
Brilliant!! I just stumbled upon this video and was literally talking to my gf today about needing to research how to keep birds off of my lettuce and beet plants!! As they started to sprout, the next morning there would be just sticks/stems remaining:( It was so frustrating as I had just moved into this home 10 days earlier and it was already June! I needed all the help I could ,they caused so much damage all season long:( I thought the struggles on an acreage out in the middle of no where had its challenges. However, to keep deer and other game out, an electric fence was all I needed. Then the next big issue was mice. They caused a lot of damage over the years as well. So I am so glad I seen this video. Thanks again for the great tip!
I had used tulle placed over my young plants in grow bags, but the squirrels would chew thru it and make holes in it and then dig and bury their nuts in my pots in the winter. I had to get tougher tulle they couldn't chew through. Once I placed a short bamboo stick in the bag and placed the tulle over that and tucked the tulle under the bag, the digging stopped. I also keep a roll of 3' high hardware cloth that I can place around an area and that keeps the rabbits and squirrels out until the plants get bigger. I take 4' bamboo poles and every two feet in the hardware cloth I put a few wire ties around them to fasten them to the hardware cloth and then use the poles to stake the hardware cloth in the place I want. It has worked very well. I have found the hardware cloth to be useful for starting sunflowers and then once they get as high as the fence, I take the fence out. I have also used tulle draped over some bamboo poles and used small green plastic clamps to hold the tulle to the poles, and then I can have the tulle elevated and not touching the plants. I use tulle mesh bags with drawstrings around my tomato clusters. I have different size bags for cherry tomatoes versus larger tomatoes. It keeps the worms, birds and pests out.
The biggest problems I have are aphids, spidermites, and something I've never seen but eats large holes into the leafs. Not a pest, but an even bigger problem is periods of high humidity. I get mildew everywhere...
Someone once told me that the birds more often peck at fruit not because they're hungry, but thirsty. They said that putting a birdbath or some sort of drinkable water source nearby will give them a preferable place to drink. It makes sense, but I haven't tried it, though, so I should be careful to frame it as hearsay.
Genius!! I have been wrestling with bird netting to keep the neighborhood critters out with some success, but what a pain to keep it untangled. My tomatoes are not ripe yet, but I might try draping tulle over the cages. And by the way, I followed your wonderful tomato-growing advice and they are looking fabulous. :)
Great video. My current bane are tomato horn worms and leaf miners. I've sprayed BT and neem but I still found 2 tomatoes that had been munched this morning. So I got some tulle and wrapped all my beefsteaks. While wrapping I found and disposed of 2 tomato horn worms. Now I'm going to spread some tulle over my green beans and get rid of the leaf miners.
Birds are my biggest pest here in Australia and possums eat my new rose growth. I do use netting and it gets tangled so bad but it has helped. I use organza bag on my prize flowers or my grapes. I don’t have the pests you have Brian so I’m pretty lucky but thank you for the great advice I will use tulle too.
Emily, your response to most comments is what makes both of your channels so exceptionally marvelous and outstanding. Most channels when they get really big can’t be bothered with comments. You and Brian are the greatest. ❤❤❤
I got a gardner's nightmares squash borers,cabbage worms, aphids, squirrels, rabbits and a possum. I really wanted to throw in the towel. I see all the huge gardens/farms then think my small ground garden, buckets and grow bags is on a smaller scale so I have no right to give up. Try,try, again💝. Thank you for the suggestion.
Worms lizards and slugs are my most invasive pest my sister sent some tulle for me so I’m using it over my broccoli and cauliflower It’s working for the butterflies, saw Robbie & Gary using it in they video 👍
Excellent! I just donated my wedding dress and the charity wanted the tulle removed. I kept it thinking there HAD to be a use for it. Thank you! Hopefully my Asian pears are saved!
Grasshoppers, squash bugs, corn caterpillars, and a few I have no idea what they’re called. The pests didn’t start until the weather got hot. This year was my first try with a vegetable garden. It’s definitely been trial, error, and RUclips videos. Thanks for the tulle suggestion. I’ll try that next year.
My worse problem is squirrels. My neighbor feeds them peanuts that are then brought to my yard to bury! So far they have not bothered my fruit, however they dig up plants. I feel this idea of using tulle on a larger scale may be my answer. This is my first year doing container gardening in my small backyard. I have gained much from your videos. Thanks!
Me too! my neighbor is such a good guy, I can't complain to him, but every morning he puts out treats for the wildlife. I find peanuts buried all over.
I found making sure I have a water source (like a bird bath) keeps most of the squirrels out of my garden. And if they bury the peanuts you may end up with some peanut plants growing!!
I use the organdy bags which is like a tulle. But it has a draw string for my tomatoes. And you just close the draw string around the tomatoes. But make sure you have the right size bag for your tomatoes. Or you're gonna have to cut the bag off.
I buy toulle by the bolt when it goes on sale. It usually costs between $1.00 and $1.50 per yard when it's on sale. Also, it's available in various widths up to 108" wide. Too often, I would have seeds germinate only to have every tiny leaf eaten by bugs. Now I am able to give them a chance to grow and get strong. Toulle keeps leaf-footed bugs off my tomatoes. It holds up well and can be reused several times. Cheap, easy to use, readily available at fabric stores. Worth a try.
We have a doggone one eyed gimpy raccoon that has plagued our garden, and second place goes to the much despised Japanese beetles! I will definitely put this tulle plan into action. Thanks for the tip!☺️
We have a woodchuck who digs under the fence and eats EVERYTHING! So heartbreaking to see my pumpkins, butternut squash, tomatoes eaten every morning. I’ll try the tulle next year. Thanks.
Grasshoppers. For the last three years we've had a plague of grasshoppers. This year they ate every single leaf off our maple and apple trees, the comfrey, the young bean plants, my oregano!, broccoli many others. Tulle was what saved the bean crop from them. I'm SO done with grasshoppers.
Squash vine borer and cucumber beetles are terrible this year. I’ve got yards and yards of green tulle I picked up at a yard sale…I’m going to pull it out and try this next year on my squashes and this fall on my brassicas! Thank you so much!!
Thank you tulle great idea! All my fruit pecked at. I did the bird netting on fruit trees & tomatoes and I had so many dead lizards 🦎. Very frustrating.
Definitely going to try this. Beside myself with all my tomatoes and winter squash getting eaten by squirrels for the past 2 years. Tried everything to no avail. And yes, they take one bite out of every tomato and leave the rest to rot. Will let you know how it works out.
Just a terrific idea! Who woulda thunk?? I am definitely going to put this one in practice. Could have saved ma a lot of work earlier in the season! Thanks, Brian!
I’m a really new gardener and saw you in a previous video and have used it ever since. Sadly, having a 6 week heat index if 110 F to 115F, fried my garden on the vine. Will try again i a fall garden! Never give up!
Giving the plants some shade really helps my plants. I use shade cloth, old t-shirts, and old palm fronds to give the plants, particularly leafy plants, part shade and it really helped with the summer. I find giving my fruit trees some shade in the middle of summer really helps them hang onto their fruit, too.
June Bugs/Japanese Beatles - I tried plant fabric last year, which was too heavy and bright white - I got a lot of flack for my mummy plants. I’ll use black tulle this year!
Yep love tulle. It is so easy to work with, cheap, and if it gets stuck on anything, I can break it without damaging my trees. Usually though, I can remove it easily. If it does break, I just clip it, sew it, or roll it back together. I have had birds somehow get inside them and there is no damage to the bird. I just have to open a hole and let it out. It keeps everything out beautifully. I net my mulberry and plum trees every year. I use binder clips to clip the tulle to itself or to sticks or to the trees/bushes/etc. A more expensive option is insect mesh. It works well and is a bit easier to work with, but harder to get the big pieces of tulle I can get. I only used bird netting twice and hated it. It stuck on everything and was impossible to pull off, not to mention it really can kill birds because it tangles up and does not break. Unfortunately, I bought a ton of it and it has been sitting for a decade.
Harlequin beetles everywhere! And some kind of fly is laying eggs/maggot inside all of my peppers. Lost 80% of my hot peppers. Appreciate the suggestion but I wish this had popped up a few months ago. Next year I’ll be ready. Will be a challenge to manage covering 150 pepper plants but if that’s what it takes to keep the maggots away I’m in.
Fig beetles, the iridescent ones. The beetles ate right though my tulle. Tulle saved out blackberry crop, that's for sure. But nothing but picking them off the fig helps with these buggers. Fortunately, my granddaughter of eight years loves to capture them. She has caught over 30 for far. It definitely helps.
I've had raccoons make holes in insect netting so I'm not sure this would work against them...tulle is more delicate. But you are 100% right about bird netting and I'll never buy that again. I think I'll use tulle on my pear next spring to keep the squirrels from eating the blossoms.
Some variations for Tulle use: If you have a smaller fruit tree, you can just wrap the young fruits. And if you need to keep squirrels from digging, you can lay the tulle on the surface of the raised beds (if that's the only problem you have.)
My problem with Tule is that larger birds like Blue Jays and Cactus Wrens easily tear through it with their strong beaks. It is also not large enough (width) to cover a full sized fruit tree.
Since I do costuming for summer theater, I have used leftover tulle to cover my blueberry plants for over 25 years. One year a photographer flew an airplane over the neighborhood taking pictures of the farms. He came to the house to sell those photographs my blueberry patch appeared to be multicolored popsicles because of all the colors of tool I had used. Obviously, I bought photograph
I really enjoyed this video! Quite innovative solutions. My arch-rivals are rabbits. Cottontail: friendly, absolutely adorable, and freakin’ insatiable. And I reluctantly admit the plant porn brought a smile. Sometimes you just have to do it, man.
My problem is the neighbors teenage little hurd of 4 calfs. They escape from their pasture and head straight to our lovely green lawns and the garden. Carrot tops and a few carrots, gone. Wind fall apples, big toothy bites missing. I won't go on. We think we might of fixed their escape route as they havent visited in a couple days. Time will tell. About the greener grass on the other side of the fence. So true here.
Great idea! My worst pest are slugs although they get a sprinkling of salt but will be buying tulle for next spring as everything I grow is in containers 🙄
Another option is using window screen from Home Depot. Not the silver type, but the black mesh and I think it would do the same thing as Tulle. The only thing it may not be as flexible as Tulle.
Grasshoppers , everyday I check my garden I usually catch about 2-3 daily. Luckily they are mostly going after my zinnias, basil, okra leaves and bean leaves. Maybe next year there won't be as much .
I purchased some tulle to protect my Southern peas from deer damage. Well last night a deer ate my small fall watermelons through the tulle, chewing it up in the process here in Central Mississippi. We are in an unusual dry period with no measurable rain since July. Guess they are desperate for moisture! (I also have a deer netting fence around my vegetable garden plot.)
![4 Flowers That REPEL INSECT PESTS I'm Planting NOW [And 1 To Avoid]](/img/1.gif)
I love this as a solution. And tulle is fairly inexpensive (at least until all the gardeners put a run on the fabric market and jack prices up LOL). Curious what pests this doesn’t work on? Aphids, thrips, mites? Are these small enough to get through the netting?
Yea the teally small ones. Not that they would get through a fine Tull but might find their way through folds. It would be a deterrent though I'm sure.
@@NextLevelGardening even better then. Someone posted on a cut flower channel that they were having so much trouble with grasshopper types that they created a 4-foot wide chicken run around the perimeter of their garden and it worked pretty well - less pest pressure and fresh eggs. Win-win. Loved that idea but chickens can be damaging to garden plants if you let them in the garden, but ducks are not it would seem (exception is young tender seedlings) and they are bug-eating machines. I am going to give it a go and see how all of these work.
Edit: @Micahlouise9539 posted below that ducks are in fact destructive, so back to the drawing board on that solution. Wanted to edit this in case someone read my comment but didn’t see the follow up post.
Good advice Brian. I learned about tulle a couple of seasons ago. Also, it's cheaper to by your tulle at fabric stores that sell remnants. 😊
@@firehorsewoman414 I have four ducks, they are brutal on the garden, they love kale and will reduce it to a stub. They tear it as a group instead of pecking like chickens. I planted dahlias where they could get them and they ate them all. They will eat my roses if in reach. And lettuce of any size is consumed instantly. Yes they are great at eating bugs, but my main garden is off limits to them. I throw them the veggies I will let them eat. And now I need to move the dahlias.
@@micahlouise9539 oh dang. Well that changes my plans then. Thank you for correcting me on that so I don’t have to learn the hard way and will also stop telling people the wrong info. But shoot, I thought it was a pretty good plan darn it.
I have used Tulle for years. My squirrels bite right through it and eat my Tomatoes, and of course, dig. About 3 years ago, I found using regular window screening to work the best for me I had a lot let over from a project, and tried it as a last ditch effort to keep them away. It is what I found works best for me. All I have to do, is lay it around whatever plants I want to repel the little Munchkins. For some reason, they won't go near the screening.
If the creatures are desperate enough, they can get through tulle. I always leave some stuff without protection, as an attractant, just in case.
At my previous house, the squirrels would always try to eat every persimmon in these giant trees I had. No way I could cover those with anything, even though I did initially try to do that on some lower branches.
Eventually, I worked out a method that worked very well: The squirrels would run along this block wall to get into the trees, so I put ripe fruit that had fallen off the trees along the wall, especially along the wall before the squirrels reached the trees. It worked super well. There was usually so much fruit along the wall, the squirrels would just sit there and eat and never made it to the trees.
@@yeevita I have two of my apple trees espaliered so they are in a fairly flat plane. I think next year I will try this actually on the trees. I fear putting it on the ground will do not good. what do you think? Kathryn
@@kathrynepaul It never hurts to try. For espaliered, I might go more with covering part of the tree, like maybe the lower branches if they are jumping from adjacent trees, or along wall if they are running along the ground. It does not hurt to try and observe. Good luck.
Robbie from Southern California has been extolling the wonders of tulle for years.
100%!!!!!!
Been gardening 30+ years and I never thought of this. Thank you! Heading to the store tomorrow! 🌺🌻🌸
My husband is my most annoying garden pest! I go out to pick cherry tomatoes and he has already snacked on all of them!
Get some hot peppers that look just like cherry tomatoes. Plant them with the tomatoes. Have some fun 😂
hahahaha 😂you are a joker
Brush with chilli in water. Or bitter alloes! 😆
Used it this blackberry season; excellent method tulle. I threw bird netting out two seasons ago. This year, the biggest harvest!!
I use it on my blueberry bushes and this year the squirrels tore a hole in it to get to the blueberries. I doubled up on the tule where they tore a hole and they left them alone.
As you were asking what was our worst pest I said my chickens. Then you said tulle. 8 started laughing because that is what I put down keep my chickens out. I love the stuff. 👍
Nice!
Fabulously idea! Can’t wait to try it!
Yes, tulle is my favorite for many years. My seedlings would be all eaten without that. The best solution!!!!
Squash beetles. I use Tulle on my blueberries. It keeps the birds out without getting tangled in the branches. I just secure it with clothes pins or binder clips and it’s easy to remove so that I can pick. Thanks
I've used tulle for several years thanks to Robbie and Gary's channel. It works so well!!!!
Great to hear!
Yes!!!! They’ve been talking about this for years!!!!
@@Sammyspack yes. I've mentioned it several times in the Facebook group. I'm glad Brian is able to share with such a large group of gardeners. It's such a wonderfully effective and affordable tool for all of us.
I was extra happy at the end when you explained why you used black.
Thank you Brian. I use this method on my green beans when they were small because the squirrels and chipmunks kept eating the seedlings. 🌺💚🙃
Great idea! And I bet it’s much cheaper than bird cloth, too. An additional idea I’ve seen other gardeners use are little organza bags to protect individual fruits as they swell. Also cheap and reusable.
It is!!
I've seen them use that too
I have seen Japanese use paper bags or cotton bags tied around every fruit. I just drape the entire bush or tree.
I used my leftover white tulle in the garden to keep cabbage moths at bay. Worked great.
Deer! Lovely doe-eyed creatures. Deer are delicate, elegant of movement - and utterly voracious. They are PARTICULALRY fond of expensive peonies and roses. They turn their elegant noses up at cheap filler plants that I don't mind losing, they go for the $72 rare tree peony! Every time I find a munched plant, dreams of venison dance through my mind. The secret for me was to confuse the enemy. Deer can easily leap over an 8' (and with a really hungry deer, even a 10' fence). BUT they won't do it if they can't see a place to land. Therefore, I put up a 6' fence and cluttered up all the landing areas with plant teepees, topiaries, garden green stalks, dwarf fruit trees elevated in pots, vines growing up cattle fences - you name it, I've tried it. Arches and arbors and pergolas abound around the perimeter of my property. I named my chicken coop Fort Hennington. It looks like a high-security prison because (according to the helpful brochure from the local USDA Extension office) there are over 30 deadly predators in the Arizona mountains that would love to eat my chickens or their eggs (snakes) or their food (every bird and rodent known to the Southwest desert). So, I'm hunkered down, as prepared as I can get - wish me luck!
Thanks for the chuckle, Brian! I moved my raised beds to my back yard this spring to escape the increasing deer pressure,(underestimating their motivation to jump vinyl fences), and was rewarded with a groundhog invasion. They wipe out about half my abundance almost overnight. My aging pups are no help since the chunky beasts can outmaneuver them. I've used tulle for many years- I bought 2 cases of green bolts and still had some. My raised beds have a wood frame over them to support tomato hooks (thanks Brian!), so I wrapped the tulle around the beds, going up about 3 feet above the top of the beds, stapling and clamping it to the beds and supports, hoping the darn critters would not be agile enough to tunnel under the tulle and are too heavy to climb it. It saved a lot of the crop but also keeps me out. I eventually took it down after everything was big and the garden hogs concentrated on the cucumbers, carrots, and kale. Over the winter I'll need to think of a way to use the tulle that keeps kale hogs out but allows me easy access to the beds.
My husband and I were discussing this exact problem with netting last year. We never thought of tulle. Thank you!!!
I have squirrels and grasshoppers! Thanks for reminding me. I used the tool last year and it really helped, but forgot this year. I get a green tulle, and it looks nice on the plants.
This is brilliant! I am just starting my first veggie garden after a few years and absolutely love this idea to protect plants going forward. Thank you so much for sharing.
I will have to try this next year to prevent squash vine borers
Raccoons LOVE my cantaloupe. This year I bought some of those small mesh bags for gardening. The fabric is very similar. Slip it around the fruit and sinch it up! I tie it to the trellis as well. They managed to pull one off the vine I had bagged, but I still have a couple more. Crossing my fingers!!!!
Love the clothespin idea!
I started putting tutu's on my brassica this year. It has worked great. Im going to have to do my tropical melons next year.🎉
I started using tulle because of your other video. It works great. It’s so hot here I used the white. You video are so helpful no matter what zone you are in. Thank you! Blessings❤️🌺
You are so welcome!
Yes! I saw that in a video you did a few months back. I bought a bolt of black tule for just over an $1 a yard at Hobby Lobby last early spring and its the best garden hint In some time. The one thing I didn’t realize is that birds eat the tiny new seedlings of my spring garden starts. Tule kept the second planting away! Many thanks!
They use the seedlings building their nests
You are so right! I am using successfully tulle from the time of my daughter’s wedding. 12 years.
Also - what helped me a lot, especially over newly planted peppers, cucumbers and beans - 1 gallon water bottles with bottom removed, no top and a little stick running from the top through, securing them.
Squirrels sometimes can lift them. So still tulle all over.
Thank you so much for sharing!! I found a mosquito bed netting to put over my tomato plants! It was at 99c store! But now I can get tulle for smaller and even bigger applications like my trees!! 😁
Another well presented video this year I dressed up my plum tree with tulle and I’m already seeing ripening and an actual harvest fingers crossed… last year they wiped out a huge crop in less than two days… I also prune heavily in early spring so I can manage the picking as well … thanks again
Yes! This is what’s saving my winter squash from a mass amount of crickets and grasshoppers this year 🙌🏼 And now I’m going to try it on my cucumbers and bigger tomatoes like you showed bc I just had a raccoon get this first ones that were finally ready to harvest. Thanks for these tips!
When I first started my potted garden, I used mesh pop up tents … and spray mint oil or oregano oil (expensive)around the bottom of tent ,They worked great! To keep the early bugs out… but as soon as my plants grew too tall to fit I had to cut away the tent … it really withstood heavy rain and everything and it let the sun in…
I’ve been using this stuff for years. My garden looks like a Caspar’s Ghost convention. However I really like the idea of using the black variety!
😂🤣 I thought the same thing when I looked at my garden that I used garden fabric on for the first time.👻
Thank you Brian!! WHITE FLIES and APHIDS are replacing squirrels as my mortal enemies. I don't think tulle would work, but I will try it!! I was resolved to being super aggressive with natural pesticides at the beginning of the spring/summer season.
Use water sprays for white flies and aphids. Also for white flies, tap the plants periodically to make the flies fly. They seem to not like that. White flies like a non-windy protected location, so blowing on them or otherwise disturbing them gets them to move.
I also find that for aphids, I keep sacrificial plants. They seem to really infest one or two plants and leave the rest alone. I keep the sacrificial plants as predator bug nurseries, and keep any spread under control, mostly with a periodic water spray. Mostly they stay on the sacrificial plants, and then the predators take care of them. I notice an infestation of aphids, then at some point, they all disappear. I assume weather conditions or the predators ate them all. Using the sacrificial plant or two, I have much fewer aphids all around the garden the last few years.
Sometimes, if I see a severely infested leaf on the sacrificial plant/s and do not see predator insect larvae on them, I will clip the leaf to give to my pond fish as a treat.
Brilliant!! I just stumbled upon this video and was literally talking to my gf today about needing to research how to keep birds off of my lettuce and beet plants!! As they started to sprout, the next morning there would be just sticks/stems remaining:( It was so frustrating as I had just moved into this home 10 days earlier and it was already June! I needed all the help I could ,they caused so much damage all season long:( I thought the struggles on an acreage out in the middle of no where had its challenges. However, to keep deer and other game out, an electric fence was all I needed. Then the next big issue was mice. They caused a lot of damage over the years as well. So I am so glad I seen this video. Thanks again for the great tip!
I totally agree on bird netting, my husband and I used it on blackberries and it worked great but removing it was a little work!!
Thanks again. I am going to order some before my tomatoes start blooming, and I am totally going to get enough for the rest of the garden beds.
I had used tulle placed over my young plants in grow bags, but the squirrels would chew thru it and make holes in it and then dig and bury their nuts in my pots in the winter. I had to get tougher tulle they couldn't chew through. Once I placed a short bamboo stick in the bag and placed the tulle over that and tucked the tulle under the bag, the digging stopped. I also keep a roll of 3' high hardware cloth that I can place around an area and that keeps the rabbits and squirrels out until the plants get bigger. I take 4' bamboo poles and every two feet in the hardware cloth I put a few wire ties around them to fasten them to the hardware cloth and then use the poles to stake the hardware cloth in the place I want. It has worked very well. I have found the hardware cloth to be useful for starting sunflowers and then once they get as high as the fence, I take the fence out. I have also used tulle draped over some bamboo poles and used small green plastic clamps to hold the tulle to the poles, and then I can have the tulle elevated and not touching the plants. I use tulle mesh bags with drawstrings around my tomato clusters. I have different size bags for cherry tomatoes versus larger tomatoes. It keeps the worms, birds and pests out.
I had cabbage moths something horrible this year! This is a great solution, I will definitely try this!
I DIDN’T MAKE UP THE RULES!!! Hilarious 😂 😅
🤷🤣
The biggest problems I have are aphids, spidermites, and something I've never seen but eats large holes into the leafs.
Not a pest, but an even bigger problem is periods of high humidity. I get mildew everywhere...
Someone once told me that the birds more often peck at fruit not because they're hungry, but thirsty. They said that putting a birdbath or some sort of drinkable water source nearby will give them a preferable place to drink. It makes sense, but I haven't tried it, though, so I should be careful to frame it as hearsay.
It's true... sometimes
Genius!! I have been wrestling with bird netting to keep the neighborhood critters out with some success, but what a pain to keep it untangled. My tomatoes are not ripe yet, but I might try draping tulle over the cages. And by the way, I followed your wonderful tomato-growing advice and they are looking fabulous. :)
Great video. My current bane are tomato horn worms and leaf miners. I've sprayed BT and neem but I still found 2 tomatoes that had been munched this morning. So I got some tulle and wrapped all my beefsteaks. While wrapping I found and disposed of 2 tomato horn worms. Now I'm going to spread some tulle over my green beans and get rid of the leaf miners.
Birds are my biggest pest here in Australia and possums eat my new rose growth. I do use netting and it gets tangled so bad but it has helped. I use organza bag on my prize flowers or my grapes. I don’t have the pests you have Brian so I’m pretty lucky but thank you for the great advice I will use tulle too.
Thank you so much. I had a big problem with Hornworms this year. They blend so well that I didn’t even see them at first.
Emily, your response to most comments is what makes both of your channels so exceptionally marvelous and outstanding. Most channels when they get really big can’t be bothered with comments. You and Brian are the greatest. ❤❤❤
I got a gardner's nightmares squash borers,cabbage worms, aphids, squirrels, rabbits and a possum. I really wanted to throw in the towel. I see all the huge gardens/farms then think my small ground garden, buckets and grow bags is on a smaller scale so I have no right to give up. Try,try, again💝. Thank you for the suggestion.
Worms lizards and slugs are my most invasive pest my sister sent some tulle for me so I’m using it over my broccoli and cauliflower It’s working for the butterflies, saw Robbie & Gary using it in they video 👍
Can we talk about your shirt😅 Goonies never die!!
Thanks for your toole idea I'm definitely going to try it on my tomatoes!
Yes!
My dogs are the biggest pests in my garden. This is a great idea!!
Best advice for any gardener!!❤❤😊👏👏👏👏
Excellent! I just donated my wedding dress and the charity wanted the tulle removed. I kept it thinking there HAD to be a use for it. Thank you! Hopefully my Asian pears are saved!
Excellent idea. I’ll give it a try next year as this Texas heat has killed most of my garden. 😢
Grasshoppers, squash bugs, corn caterpillars, and a few I have no idea what they’re called. The pests didn’t start until the weather got hot. This year was my first try with a vegetable garden. It’s definitely been trial, error, and RUclips videos.
Thanks for the tulle suggestion. I’ll try that next year.
Good luck!
Same! Vine borers, squash bugs, and powdery mildew have just been insane this year
Don’t let this year discourage you. If you are in Texas or anywhere that is a warm fall/ mild winter you can start planting again for a fall crop.
My worse problem is squirrels. My neighbor feeds them peanuts that are then brought to my yard to bury!
So far they have not bothered my fruit, however they dig up plants.
I feel this idea of using tulle on a larger scale may be my answer.
This is my first year doing container gardening in my small backyard. I have gained much from your videos. Thanks!
Me too! my neighbor is such a good guy, I can't complain to him, but every morning he puts out treats for the wildlife. I find peanuts buried all over.
I found making sure I have a water source (like a bird bath) keeps most of the squirrels out of my garden. And if they bury the peanuts you may end up with some peanut plants growing!!
I use the organdy bags which is like a tulle. But it has a draw string for my tomatoes. And you just close the draw string around the tomatoes. But make sure you have the right size bag for your tomatoes. Or you're gonna have to cut the bag off.
The raccoons destroyed my entire crop of corn this year. I made a point to succession plant and they've been eating like kids at the Golden Corral!
I buy toulle by the bolt when it goes on sale. It usually costs between $1.00 and $1.50 per yard when it's on sale. Also, it's available in various widths up to 108" wide. Too often, I would have seeds germinate only to have every tiny leaf eaten by bugs. Now I am able to give them a chance to grow and get strong. Toulle keeps leaf-footed bugs off my tomatoes. It holds up well and can be reused several times. Cheap, easy to use, readily available at fabric stores. Worth a try.
Yes!
We have a doggone one eyed gimpy raccoon that has plagued our garden, and second place goes to the much despised Japanese beetles! I will definitely put this tulle plan into action. Thanks for the tip!☺️
Yes! I just started using tulle!
We have a woodchuck who digs under the fence and eats EVERYTHING! So heartbreaking to see my pumpkins, butternut squash, tomatoes eaten every morning. I’ll try the tulle next year. Thanks.
Grasshoppers. For the last three years we've had a plague of grasshoppers. This year they ate every single leaf off our maple and apple trees, the comfrey, the young bean plants, my oregano!, broccoli many others. Tulle was what saved the bean crop from them. I'm SO done with grasshoppers.
Yes! I love tuile. I find green at our local Walmart.
Squash vine borer and cucumber beetles are terrible this year. I’ve got yards and yards of green tulle I picked up at a yard sale…I’m going to pull it out and try this next year on my squashes and this fall on my brassicas! Thank you so much!!
Thank you tulle great idea! All my fruit pecked at. I did the bird netting on fruit trees & tomatoes and I had so many dead lizards 🦎. Very frustrating.
Definitely going to try this. Beside myself with all my tomatoes and winter squash getting eaten by squirrels for the past 2 years. Tried everything to no avail. And yes, they take one bite out of every tomato and leave the rest to rot. Will let you know how it works out.
Isn’t that “one bite” bit so annoying? I wouldn’t mind sharing the garden bounty if they would just take a few and not ruin every single one.
More brilliance from my favorite Next Level Gardener! Thank you so much for the perfect protection for my berries!
Aww. Thank YOU!
Just a terrific idea! Who woulda thunk?? I am definitely going to put this one in practice. Could have saved ma a lot of work earlier in the season! Thanks, Brian!
Great idea!!! I will try this next year for sure!
Love your humor Brian.
For Squrill you can give them some sprouts or nuts and they will become protection for your garden
I’m a really new gardener and saw you in a previous video and have used it ever since. Sadly, having a 6 week heat index if 110 F to 115F, fried my garden on the vine. Will try again i a fall garden! Never give up!
Giving the plants some shade really helps my plants. I use shade cloth, old t-shirts, and old palm fronds to give the plants, particularly leafy plants, part shade and it really helped with the summer. I find giving my fruit trees some shade in the middle of summer really helps them hang onto their fruit, too.
Brian, I wish I had 100 thumbs up to give you for this video! LOOOOVE this information and will use it in my garden!! 💖
Awesome! Thank you!
June Bugs/Japanese Beatles - I tried plant fabric last year, which was too heavy and bright white - I got a lot of flack for my mummy plants. I’ll use black tulle this year!
Yep love tulle. It is so easy to work with, cheap, and if it gets stuck on anything, I can break it without damaging my trees. Usually though, I can remove it easily. If it does break, I just clip it, sew it, or roll it back together. I have had birds somehow get inside them and there is no damage to the bird. I just have to open a hole and let it out. It keeps everything out beautifully. I net my mulberry and plum trees every year. I use binder clips to clip the tulle to itself or to sticks or to the trees/bushes/etc.
A more expensive option is insect mesh. It works well and is a bit easier to work with, but harder to get the big pieces of tulle I can get.
I only used bird netting twice and hated it. It stuck on everything and was impossible to pull off, not to mention it really can kill birds because it tangles up and does not break. Unfortunately, I bought a ton of it and it has been sitting for a decade.
Harlequin beetles everywhere! And some kind of fly is laying eggs/maggot inside all of my peppers. Lost 80% of my hot peppers. Appreciate the suggestion but I wish this had popped up a few months ago. Next year I’ll be ready. Will be a challenge to manage covering 150 pepper plants but if that’s what it takes to keep the maggots away I’m in.
Fig beetles, the iridescent ones. The beetles ate right though my tulle. Tulle saved out blackberry crop, that's for sure. But nothing but picking them off the fig helps with these buggers. Fortunately, my granddaughter of eight years loves to capture them. She has caught over 30 for far. It definitely helps.
I've had raccoons make holes in insect netting so I'm not sure this would work against them...tulle is more delicate. But you are 100% right about bird netting and I'll never buy that again. I think I'll use tulle on my pear next spring to keep the squirrels from eating the blossoms.
Some variations for Tulle use: If you have a smaller fruit tree, you can just wrap the young fruits. And if you need to keep squirrels from digging, you can lay the tulle on the surface of the raised beds (if that's the only problem you have.)
My problem with Tule is that larger birds like Blue Jays and Cactus Wrens easily tear through it with their strong beaks. It is also not large enough (width) to cover a full sized fruit tree.
Cool, thanks Brian! Blessings 💕🤗
Since I do costuming for summer theater, I have used leftover tulle to cover my blueberry plants for over 25 years. One year a photographer flew an airplane over the neighborhood taking pictures of the farms. He came to the house to sell those photographs my blueberry patch appeared to be multicolored popsicles because of all the colors of tool I had used. Obviously, I bought photograph
In the uk we buy scaffolding netting as it cheapest, but still does the job.
Fantastic! I needed this info. I am fighting squirrels, possums, rats and birds for my fruit and even for my Dino Kale! Ordering from Amazon now.
Thanks for this. Something ate my sweet potato vine leaves. 😟😊 I've saved toule to make something with it but this is a great use!! 🥰👍
I really enjoyed this video! Quite innovative solutions. My arch-rivals are rabbits. Cottontail: friendly, absolutely adorable, and freakin’ insatiable. And I reluctantly admit the plant porn brought a smile. Sometimes you just have to do it, man.
🤣
Squirls, vine boarers, mole crickets here in Coastal SC
My problem is the neighbors teenage little hurd of 4 calfs. They escape from their pasture and head straight to our lovely green lawns and the garden. Carrot tops and a few carrots, gone. Wind fall apples, big toothy bites missing. I won't go on. We think we might of fixed their escape route as they havent visited in a couple days. Time will tell. About the greener grass on the other side of the fence. So true here.
Great idea. I will absolutely give this a try. Thanks.
Great idea! My worst pest are slugs although they get a sprinkling of salt but will be buying tulle for next spring as everything I grow is in containers 🙄
Even better would be 90 grade cheesecloth. It won't release microplastic into your garden as it breaks down from UV light.
My french bulldogs!! Man, they love my garden
Tulle, where is it sold. Looks very effective. Thanks
Another option is using window screen from Home Depot. Not the silver type, but the black mesh and I think it would do the same thing as Tulle. The only thing it may not be as flexible as Tulle.
Lots of Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers , everyday I check my garden I usually catch about 2-3 daily. Luckily they are mostly going after my zinnias, basil, okra leaves and bean leaves. Maybe next year there won't be as much .
Cabbage moths, tomato hornworms, and grasshoppers took out a lot of my plants this year
I purchased some tulle to protect my Southern peas from deer damage. Well last night a deer ate my small fall watermelons through the tulle, chewing it up in the process here in Central Mississippi. We are in an unusual dry period with no measurable rain since July. Guess they are desperate for moisture! (I also have a deer netting fence around my vegetable garden plot.)
Wie will try it on our broccoli. it was attacked by cabbage worms Thanks for the tip on using tulle as a tool in the garden!
You're welcome