How Garden Mesh Became My Favorite Solution for Organic Pest Control

Garden Mesh Keeps Kitchen Garden Pests at Bay

This might just be the answer to all of your problems… your kitchen garden problems, that is. Problems that arrive in the form of white flies, flea beetles, aphids, and all those other buzzing and crawling things that eat your leaves and drive you mad.

Keep reading to find out how a simple piece of mesh can mean the difference between a raised bed filled with bitten, damaged leaves and the lush garden of your dreams.

Added bonus: no expensive greenhouse, fencing, or chemicals required. 

How to Keep Bugs off Your Plants

If you’re like me when I first started growing salad greens, you’ve probably cursed your share of garden bad guys—you know, rabbits, squirrels, aphids, caterpillars, slugs, etc. Few things are more frustrating to a gardener than lovingly tending a kitchen bed, only to have your prized veggies become a tasty meal for something else. I tried it all: cayenne pepper, shiny CDs, forks stuck in the dirt. But nothing was relieving the pest pressure on my plants. 

Finally, another gardener recommended a relatively inexpensive form of protection: tulle. (Yes, like the bridal fabric.) So, I went to the fabric store and bought yards and yards of tulle to cover my garden beds. While the tulle did keep the pests out, it proved a little fragile for outdoor needs. 

Then, I found out about the much stronger (but still ultra fine) garden mesh fabric, or agfabric, created specifically for pest protection. I purchased some from a local garden store, and for me, nothing has worked better than this simple physical barrier that lets water, sunlight, and air in, but keeps pests, even birds and larger animals, out.  

The key is to cover your garden from the moment you first plant your transplants into the garden or sow some seeds. Young plants are particularly vulnerable to pest pressure, but garden mesh will give them all the protection they need from the get-go.

Garden mesh has the additional benefits of helping to lock moisture in your raised beds and providing some shade and shelter from strong winds and other harsh weather conditions.

How to cover garden bed with mesh

While you can drape your mesh directly over your beds, you risk smooshing your plants. I bought some flexible hoops and spaced them every couple of feet in my raised garden beds to frame the mesh over my plants (see hoops below). These hoops can support frost cloth, shade cloth, or even taller plants. Tenting my garden this way has deterred animals from jumping straight into my bed (like the mother rabbit who was determined to have her babies beneath my lettuce). 

(You can grab some flexible hoops here, here, or here, or search your local garden supply store.)

Before you cover your garden with mesh, check the soil and your plants, including the underside of leaves, for visible pests. The last thing you want to do is trap pests inside your garden and give them a free-for-all buffet.

Once you're confident your garden is clear of pests, lay your mesh over the hoops and secure the sides of the mesh in place with some landscaping pins. This will prevent the wind from blowing your mesh into your neighbor’s yard or clever squirrels form burrowing their way in. Push the pins right through the mesh to hold in place. 

(Grab some pins here or at your local garden supply store.)

Ideally, your garden mesh should stay on your plants all the time, except, of course, for when you're ready to harvest, prune, or just gaze admiringly at your healthy plant babies. 

If you like to look at your kitchen garden during the day in all its leafy glory, you could leave it uncovered during the day and then drape the mesh over at night, when creepy crawlies are most active.

Where to Buy Garden Cover Fabric

Here are some options for covering your garden:

• Tierra Garden Micromesh Prepack Blanket (198"L x 70"W; can be cut to size)
• Tierra Garden Micromesh Tunnel
• Agfabric Garden Netting (10' x 20')
• All-Purpose Garden Fabric Row Cover from Gardener's Supply Company

Check out more of my recommendations on Amazon here.

Now that you know what to search or ask for, you can find tons of options online or at your local garden supply store. Find a size and style that works for you and your garden and get covering!

Chemical-Free Solution for Unwanted Pests

Garden mesh is inexpensive and can be used season after season. It's an odorless, chemical-free, and organic solution to prevent pests from wreaking havoc in your garden. Plus, it's flexible and can either be purchased or cut down to fit all spaces.

That’s how a piece of fabric can help you save all of your delicious greens for yourself!

If, despite your best covering efforts, pests do get in, there are ways you can treat them organically. First, remove all damaged leaves and clean the soil around the plant. Continue for two weeks.

If severe cutting and cleaning doesn’t rid the plants of the pest, you can apply a spray or soil treatment, such as diluted castile soap or garlic barrier (an extract of garlic mixed with water and sprayed on plants). In extreme pest infestations, you could use Monterey Bt, but if the pest issue is that severe, I typically just remove the affected plants, clean the area, and start again. 

For more tips on how to increase production in your space, check out the many resources we offer here at Gardenary. We love helping you end your gardening woes and vanquish garden pests once and for all, sans chemicals. Keep on growing, my friends!