simy1 said:

Where did you get the screen, Pat, and how thick is it? This year I
tried growing zucchini under bird netting and lo and behold they are
still borer-free. Onyl trouble is that the plants are too weak to even
push up netting - once I supported the netting with peony rings they
took off. So I would like some screen for next year to make it
permanent.

I previously used spun-bond insect covers over hoops, but the birds usually
managed to tear it to shreds half way through the season. When the cukes
really started coming, the birds would peck through, the beetles would get in,
and the plants died of wilt. But at least we got quite some cukes, which I
hadn't been getting from unprotected plants.

This year we have a solid frame with window screen and lift-off covers -- a
cucumber frame with screen instead of glass. I stuck to using the sunniest
part of the vegetable garden. So far, so good -- though weather (and some
surgery I had in June) have ensured the crop will be late this year. The whole
thing was improvised construction, using lumber and pins to align the corners and
bits of coathangers bent through eye-screws to hold it together. Knocks down for
storage.


--
Pat in Plymouth MI

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)