Re: [gardeners] protective mesh

penny x stamm (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 10 Apr 1998 00:00:15 -0400 

Instead of wire mesh, I use a reusable 3/4" polypropylene mesh which
has remained remarkably strong.  They ask you to pick it up and 
put it away out of the sun when not actually being used, to protect 
the U-V inhibitors (sun damage) -- that means I'd better go "undress" 
my upright yews and my umbrella pine which we wrapped with this
mesh last December, so the snows wouldn't break any of the branches.
Funny thing -- 3 winters ago, we had 18 snow storms; this winter we
had one. You figure......  

It's almost invisible, and strong as an ox. When I was busy trying to
cover those four front tulip beds two years ago, there was a bitter
wind blowing, my hubby was preoccupied giving a computer lesson 
inside, and I had to find a way to cut up the 14' x 14' mesh into
usable sections to peg down on top of the buried tulips... along came
the U.S.Government to the rescue! My mailman pulled up at the 
curb, and I told him he HAD to help me, so he put down all his mail,
grabbed one end of the mesh as instructed, pulled it taut with the aid
of my left hand, and I cut...  When I finally released him, he said very
quietly, "Well, I guess there goes my coffee break!"  

But lemme tell you, when spring came and the tulips all came up like
incredible soldiers, that mailman considered the flowers "ours". 

The mesh is called Bird-X, and can be thrown over a fruit tree or a
stand of berries to keep the birds from stealing the crop. Obviously, 
it can also be used on the ground to deter the squirrels from the
tulip beds, and can also be used to wrap trees which are vulnerable
to heavy snow damage. Or as I tell Jimmie, it does everything but
change the baby's diaper!   It costs something like $7.99 as I
remember it, for that huge piece of mesh.  Dalen Products, 
11110 Gilbert Drive, Knoxville, Tn, 37932 --- but it's probably
available from any one of your larger garden nurseries.   


Penny, zone 6, NY

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