Grabbed a bargain Agriframe fruit cage this weekend - 5mx2.5 makes it a great size for the allotment and although its seen a few winters in its time its essentially complete. The netting has a few scars and wounds but nothing we cant sort out.
I'm wondering if people can advise on the best way to assemble them please? I put it up on the plot this afternoon and the frame went together quite nicely. Pushed the legs about a foot into the soil and apart from one corner that needs a little digging to remove a rock, I got it fairly square and level.
My challenge are the netting panels. They've been zip-tied and clipped into a single net that drapes over the entire frame. Looking at the Agriframes pictures it looks like the nets are possibly kept separate and simply clipped to the frame individually? Overlapping panels and clipping them together makes it look like its easier to close off the gaps at the edges but it also looks like the tension will stretch or perhaps rip the net?
My other question is where the nets meet the ground. Website pics show the nets gathered up at the bottom and just sitting on the ground. Our nets dont seem to have enough slack in them to bunch up like that and the previous owner left some tent pegs for holding down the bottom edges. The soil is very soft however and short tent pegs dont really hold in the soil at all.
Any ideas and tips greatly appreciated. I've Googled for a while and cant find any instructions so am flying a little blind here.
Thanks
They do say you could put a wooden skirting around,or put some plastic pipe around the net at the bottom and hold it down with a few of these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Barrier-Fencing-Spikes-amp-Engineers/dp/B0051OE948/ref=sr_1_11/279-9213300-4546802?ie=UTF8&qid=1400965092&sr=8-11&keywords=fencing+spikes
There's an advantage in weed control in keeping the bottom of the net an inch or two up off the ground; you will be able to get a hoe under it. One option is to stretch a wire or thick string tightly between the posts just above the ground. The net can be tied in to this, or threaded through it. The string can be untied and the sides rolled up in winter if you want to let birds in for pest control purposes.