Multi Crop

[Brian Sims]

I everyone.

I am a Blacksmith bases in Sussex who loves gardening, and over the years i have always found that garden canes in grow bags can be a pain to keep upright as the plants get bigger. So i have designed and built this new product its called the Multi Crop frame as it can be used for so many crops or flowers.

Its a simple A frame trellis that stands over your grow bag. No more canes.

I have tried it out over the last two years in my green house and in the garden it stood up to all kinds of weather even very strong winds.

I make it in four sizes 3ft.4ft 5ft and 6ft. made from mild steel it will last a life time. comprising of six components it simple pushes together.

'Multi-crop - Growbag frame'

or call 01293

611611

We will be showing these for the first time at the Spring Garden Show Ardingly showground in Sussex on Sunday 6th and Monday7th of May.

They make a great present for the gardener who has everything. I also make many other items for the garden visit my main web site 'Happy Hedgehog, Wrought iron, wrought iron gates, railings, balconys, staircases, West Sussex'

Happy Gardening Brian

[Sean Straw]

I to you too.

For the DIY or budget minded, you can get "mild steel' in the form of "rebar" (concrete reinforcement). Here in the US, you can purchase a

20' length of 3/8" rebar for about US$3.00. You can cut it with a hacksaw, or as I prefer to do, a large pair of bolt cutters (which makes for easy cut-to-length while in the homecentre parking lot before loading it into your auto or trailer, er, caravan).

I insert 5' lengths into holes in the corners of my raised beds to allow me to wrap 4' aviary netting around some raised beds.

You can cut three or four pieces about equal length, set up a "tee-pee" and wrap cord around the top, and you're good to go. At the end of the season, you can collapse the rebar into a neat bundle and put it away - it won't take much space at all.

An added benefit is that rebar has a "knurled" surface - it has ridges intended to allow it to grip concrete securely (a smooth rod could eventually slip), and this textured surface is beneficial to climbing plants.

Anyone with a welder could of course make a more permanent teepee with just a few quick welds.

BTW, this is an INTERNATIONAL newsgroup for discussing gardening - not an avertising venue.

Excepting perhaps the gardener who has a DIY perspective and some inexpensive welding equipment.

One can forego metal and use wood instead. I have several "ladder trellis" which I fabbed by ripping cedar fence planks into roughly

3/4" cross sections (here in the US, a 1" stock is really about 3/4" thick), cut some of those into shorter pieces for "rungs", and make say 5' tall ladders (which you'd NEVER try to climb of course), tack and glue the rungs to the longer pieces, then connect a pair of the completed ladders together at the top (I drill a pair of undersize holes and press a roofing nail into them, but a piece of cord or wire would work too). They work great situated above things such as peas, and fold nearly flat for storage in the off-season.

Makes a great homemade gift for the gardener who has everything, except as noted above.

[Higgs Boson]

****Whoa, Sean, let's not be snotty to our UK friend. Maybe you're savvy and handy enough to construct your own gizmo, per above descriptions. But how many of us poor peasants can match your expertise. Live & let live. Let the UK group members decide whether they want to buy Brian's structures or build their own.

[Brooklyn1]

I used netting to protect my blueberry bushes from birds. I hammered

8' metal fence posts into the ground, attached small eyebolts at the top and strung them through with clothesline. This made it very easy to drape the netting and it worked perfectly keeping birds out. The following spring I erected another for my strawberries. I had over 6' height under the net making it comfortable to work without stooping. Only warning is if you live where it snows remove the netting before winter, ask how I know.

[Billy]

Or a gardener could plant some tasteful bamboo, and grow their own, or make a stylish handmade trellis:

Making Bentwood Trellises, Arbors, Gates & Fences (Rustic Home Series) (Paperback) by Jim Long

(Hopefully, at a library near you that is still open.)

[Sean Straw]

UK self-promoter. Some might even refer to the practice as spamming.

Surely, among your social circles, you've got a friend who is handy. Offer up some fresh veggies in exchange for a bit of quick welding. Or, as I said, use some twine to tie them into a teepee arrangement - that's hardly worthy of the title "savvy".

You must have a pretty open policy to spam. I do not. I deal with it quite regularly as a system administrator.

If the chap REALLY were an avid gardener, he'd be PARTICIPATING in a forum such as this one in earnest, and he'd have an unobtrusive URL in his sigline. Interested parties would check it out, and he wouldn't be identified as a spammer for his actions.

I don't feel I was being too snarky with him anyway - I merely offered up a far more cost effective solution, which yea, is in conflict with the prospect of making sales, but hey, live and let live, right?

One could of course use smooth mild steel bar stock and weld (or braze, with a torch) that instead, and wave a rattle can of black or "forest green" or whatever colour tickles your fancy at it when done if you want to upscale it.

build their own.

He's not spamming rec.gardens.uk, he's spamming the worldwide rec.gardens