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As I work on building sites I've managed to pick up unused lengths of alkythene pipe and if you put it into a roll and cut it you end up with nice big hoops that can be fastened to boards, pegged to the ground and then stretch polyethene over the top. The lengths I have will cover a bed that's about 5 feet wide and if you space them three feet apart you can cover a lot of ground. So its worth while popping to your nearest building site and asking if they have any water or gas pipe off cuts going spare. It saves them from going into the skip and then land fill!!
Chris (and me cos I typed it!!)

Thanks Chris (and me) worth a try!

Perfect - I saw this idea for putting frames over raised beds - you screw them onto the sides of the beds and use them to hold up netting or polythene as needed. All I need now is to find the damned pipe - in lengths of 3m!

Visit you local building site - they have loads of useful stuff being put in the skip. (The UK building industry is one of the highest in construction material wastage in Europe). It will probably work out well on both sides - the more they donate to you the less they have to have taken away!!
One thing though, make sure you ask the Site forman if you can have things, as they are the ones ultimately responsible for the consumables on site.

Chris and Helen

spot the city dweller! The nearest building site must be... let's see... Toldpuddle. I suppose I could drive up there on the offchance, but I suspect I may be buying these!

City Dweller!!!
We live up in Northumberland, near Alnwick, 1 mile from the beach in a village of less than 150 souls (Unless cows, sheep cats, dogs and african land snails count) and Newcastle is an hours drive away. having said that there is a push for housing up here and quite a number of sites have popped up in the local villages. The one i've been foreman of is 35 mins from us in one of the little villages that gets 2 trains a day
Hey, why not try Freecycle, if you already haven't.

Chris and Helen

That's a cracking idea. Why didn't I think of that? I've recently had worms for my composter and an old dustbin lid off Freecycle - can't think why I haven't asked there. Thanks!

if you can't find anybody getting rid of some, and you REALLY want to do this then Screwfix sell the pipe (officially called MDPE) at £18.99 for 50m.

I know this isn't as ecco friendly as using old pieces up, but atleast it's cheaper than buying cloches otherwise!

Chris and Helen

they had them in my local poundshop (the polytunnel cloche things). They're 6ft long and about 1ft wide. £1 each.

Ahhh! The difference being I can cover an area 5 ft wide and they are about 3 foot high so can use to extend the season of larger plants like courgettes etc

Also good, if you haven't got a greenhouse, for tomatoes.

Currently have enough to cover an area 5 ft wide by 30 ft long, So good possibility of extending the season of the more tender veg.

Chris

I'm more interested in using the same system to suspend mesh to keep butterflies off brassicas, and the same advantages in size apply. The commercial things are too small for raised beds (and too expensive)!

Thanks for the screwfix link Milims. I need to do three raised beds at a time measuring 1.5m x 3m, so...

...that's three hoops to a bed; assuming a semicircular profile that would be Pi x r [or 3.14x(0.5x1.5m)] = 2.35m per hoop, giving a total length of just over 21m. I've learned that butterflies will lay their eggs on the tips of leaves pressed against the mesh if that's all they can reach, so a straight section at the sides would be beneficial to keep the mesh higher up, as would running tight twine lengthways through holes in the hoops to stop the mesh bowing inwards with the tension. The straight sides could be achieved by pushing some rigid narrower pipe into the ends before securing, but I might be getting too Heath Robinson.

I'm going to give freecycle another day or two before I seek out pipes, but I've got all winter to sort this out, being lucky enough to have a polytunnel for clochework! Some cloches for outside strawberries in rows will be necessary though...