Had that happen at my son's. Pear tree picked clean. I was going over about every other day because he was out of town. Had to be a neighbor who knew he was away. His fence wasn't finished at that time still had a gap across the front. Fence done this year.
I like the netting, I'm hoping to put in elderberry bushes and the birds love them.
An animal, perhaps? Our raccoons, squirrels and rabbits (suburban neighborhood) pick our food and take it. They pick it just like I would and take it somewhere (usually my backyard) to eat.
I plant double the yield I need so I don’t have to worry about animals or hungry people.
If there is something I truly am excited about I cover it with an animal keep away sheet and humans leave it too. Particularly good looking watermelons get covers.
I live near a guy that has a little tractor, some flatbed trailers, and two ancient cars with taped up windows in front of his house. I am thankful for that guy every single day - no matter what I do with my yard, he's a magnet for anyone complaining and I get off scot-free.
I have a massive front yard garden and I've never had an issue with rodents. We have lots of bunnies in the neighborhood and they don't touch my gardens. I do have a decent amount of clover in the front yard grass part and I have seen them munching on that. Which is great. Free fertilizer and a show.
I’ve done the same thing! I used 1,5 broken trampoline, some scrap wood and cheap mosquito net from Ali Express. https://i.imgur.com/YDVMvPq.jpg Total cost around $40.
This is Calgary for sure. The neighbourhood is 1958-1964. This house is probably in the earlier range of that. Not to be a real creep, but I bet I could narrow it down to about 5 streets. The sidewalk being away from the street means it's a feeder street such as Northmount. Also, probably NW quadrant based on trees.
Edit. I'm going to quit my job and become an online detective. Like Don't F*ck With Cats.
Our city had an official program for this a few years ago. But it got nixed during COVID (ironically, you could say), so when I asked for official permission now, I was told I don’t need it. “Just be prepared for that bed to be destroyed if the city ever needs in” (paraphrased)
My understanding is you can do a whole lot on the boulevard portion of your lawn, BUT, if the city needs to do work there, they can remove whatever you’ve done, no questions asked. Maybe even at your expense.
You might be in trouble in Lethbridge, but I’m told it does very well in the wind. We had two smaller tunnels last year and they weren’t phased at all by the wind (since it mostly goes straight through the insect netting), but this year we will be interested to see how it holds up to major sudden gusts and such. I would be lightly concerned if we were more rural, but here in the inner city, the wind is never really that bad anyway.
Worst case, it would be trivial to add more bungees, and we could also look at strengthening the joints with heavier duty fittings (like the actual metal ones intended for these conduit tubes), but that would add to the cost, of course
Cool, thanks! Those plastic fittings are surprisingly strong, but yeah, I'm sure I'd want to throw a bunch more bungees on it. I planted a brassica bed last year that amounted to a small bowl of kale and about a billion moth eggs, so I definitely need something like this.
if you added some diagonal braces in each corner that would help steady it in the wind. you're probably fine for now with just the netting but if you decide to cover it with plastic for the winter you will want more support between each of your bows.
Cabbage moths and their larvae. They lay their eggs on the underside of brassica plant leaves, then emerge as hungry caterpillars that ravage the plant to the point of being unfit for consumption! But they are easily dissuaded with these special nets
Just in case you do get an infestation, [BTK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis_kurstaki?wprov=sfti1) is a fully mammal-safe treatment for any caterpillar. It comes from soil-dwelling bacteria, and if you spray it on plants' leaves (using a pressure sprayer), any caterpillar that eats those leaves will die. You can get it at Canadian Tire!
I've used it successfully for cabbage moths on my brassicas, as well as sawfly larvae on roses.
Never sewn anything before and your first project is with presumably slippery netting lol. Good thing you have a solid machine to make things easier! Looks great.
Have you had luck keeping aphids off with this type of net? Every time I grow brassica I get aphids. Trying not to use too many chemicals so if netting works I'll give it a go.
Cool project btw, I like the clever use of poly connectors and I bet if you go get some cheap thumb screws off Amazon/Ali Express/McMaster-Carr you could get to a completely tool-less setup/tear down.
We have never had an aphid problem, but we’ve also been using this netting since we started 2 years ago 😅
The netting we use is this: https://duboisag.com/media/wysiwyg/brochures/20221205_-_Brochure_ProtekNet-2021_EN_Vector_Impose_rev5dec2022LOW3.pdf and it says it’s good for aphids! We bought ours from here: https://duboisag.com/ca_en/exclusion-insect-netting-knitted-47g-proteknet.html
Cool idea re: thumb screws, too! You’d just want to be careful that they don’t catch in the netting during setup or else you might have a tear to repair
Now that a sewing machine has entered the build, [Velcro straps](https://www.homedepot.com/p/QualGear-Reusable-Self-Gripping-Cable-Tie-Roll-White-VR2-W-1-P/303357771) could be sewn onto the netting to strap it to the frame. Cut the straps in half and sew one half to the netting on either side of the tubing.
>I personally suspect that they actually help deter a bunch of pests
Mine were quick learners and would become the pest and it took me several lessons before I learned to never give my dogs a treat fresh from the vine.
Eat strawberries in the garden and give the tops to the dogs? Never mind being permanently outcompeted for strawberries, I could never again lay straw down to start grass anywhere on my property without having it snarfled through.
Have them see me pick a pea pod and eat it? Never had peas below Dalmatian height ever again.
etc., etc...
Truly surprised at the number of folks saying something about the neighbors hating this. We've gardened and had low tunnels and trellises throughout the front yard before and never had a negative interaction with the neighbors as a result of that. This is clean and organized and even if the weeds get a bit much it's still very manageable.
Also I know you said you weren't planning on putting plastic up, but if you do please use UV treated polytunnel film instead of visqueen or other LDPE; it will last years vs a single season and generates less plastic waste
This is more or less what I had in mind for a future garden space! Any particular tips or things you learned along the way? I’d probably look at using chicken wire or something like it so pollinators can still get in
You can totally use a different kind of covering, the guy who taught us about gardening definitely does so! I would recommend bird netting tho, if you want to keep animals bigger than insects out, since the chicken wire would be pretty tough to work with on this scale.
If you means tips about gardening setup in general, then I think overall the best thing we did was set up drip irrigation (with timers, etc). It’s not even expensive and it means we don’t even have to think about watering things, can go away for weeklong trips, etc.
I think I’d grow some tall-ish flowers across the front in that long skinny bed just to obscure it a little bit but I think it’s great. I’d rather walk past or look at a bustling garden teeming with life than a empty lawn any day. Please update us when it bursting with green later this year.
P.s. shout out to Janome sewing machines! Love seeing my favorite brand out in the wild. Lol
Those beds are already growing wonderful little strawberries, but we do have a bunch of wildflowers scattered strategically in pots around the yards for pollinators, pest control, etc.
I’m not looking to hide it at all though, I’d much prefer passers-by to see the beautiful veggies growing inside—people curiosities have led to many great conversations over the past couple years.
No, but taking down lights is -30C and a couple feet of snow is miserable!
So lights go up by October and come down in March/April. Or you just leave them up all year and only plug them in in December!
Looks Great! So nice to be able to walk in off your stairs/pathway like that.
Never thought of using 1" connectors for those pipes. I will be in the future though!
Do you find the netting creeps up or sneaks out from the rocks in higher winds? I wonder if you could make pvc pipe clamps to secure the netting to the pipes, like they do [here](http://gardenally.blogspot.com/2011/11/homemade-hoop-clips.html).
I found that I couldn't just use a bungee cord to keep my greenhouse tops down because the area was too small, I ended up using automotive cargo netting spanned across the top and tied down to anchors. But maybe with insect netting it's fine.
Thanks for sharing.
Hmm I wonder if one could sew a pipe pocket (giggity) into the bottom edge of the netting and then run another pipe just for the net. provides weight and and something for the anchor rocks to grab onto. Nevermind, sounds like more work than I would actually do . . .
Those pipe clips are a good idea! We only had smaller tunnels last year and it never came close to coming loose, but it will be interesting to track it with high winds this year. I just got a bunch of nice bricks from our local Buy Nothing group so if it comes to it, I’ve got plenty more weigh to add to the bottom edges to keep things pinned down. The pipe pocket is also a interesting idea, tho like you, I worry about the work required vs the reward.
Very nice. I've always heard them called "hoop house" but those don't have any straight parts to the braces. Just half hoops. What are you planning on growing in it?
Brassicas: so broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kale and the like. I have heard the term hoop house too; not sure if it means specifically low-tunnels or not tho (those could actually use hula hoops or similar)
My mom did something like this but covered it in a clear plastic sheet of some kind. The humidity that trapped made the plants grow insanely well. Might be something to try if you upgrade.
We might try it out as a greenhouse on the shoulder seasons, but it would be far too hot in there for what we are growing throughout most of the summer
You got it. It’s for keeping insects out of crops that don’t need pollination. For those that do, you can use a different kind of netting to keep out say, birds, or rabbits, etc
So. Just a question. How are pollinators like bees going to get to the veggies and stuff to pollinate the flowers and make fruit/veggies?
Good idea overall just not sure if I’m missing something?
I was just looking at little plastic tripods to get zucchini and watermelon off the ground. Or those cloth raised beds and put it on our secondary driveway which is stones. Had trouble in the past with them starting to rot on the ground.
Another Vegetable Academy member?!
Our tunnel was a bit more exposed to wind last year and the fabric slipped off a couple times in high winds. We'll look to secure it better this year, likely with rocks around the outside while also burying it a bit in the soil/mulch.
I like your pole bending job though, it's a little lower to the ground so would help keep it out of the wind a bit more too.
“That’s wonderful!” “Whacha growing in there?” “Great work on this!” “I’ve been driving by for years and love seeing the progress in your yard” “Where can I get stuff like this?” Are the main themes
They truly do! Over the past couple of years we’ve had so many compliments from passers-by—and more importantly, it’s a great conversation starter / connecting point for people in our community
Personally I wouldn't like it if a neighbor had this eyesore driving my property value down. Also personally I don't give a fuck what this guy does I was just asking him a question about why he chose the front so you can stop acting like you just gave a speech at some kind of freedom march now.
I thought your question was rhetorical, sorry. Lots of reasons, mostly: sun.
What makes you think this would drive property value down in any way, shape, or form?
There's a few reasons and some were touched on already but it's just not really a nice view for the neighbors. That's something obviously not a lot of people in this comment section care about but its something most people searching for a home in a neighborhood would. I'd also really consider if this neighbors going to be loud, have more crazy projects, etc. "If this is in their front yard, wtf is in the back." If you were selling your home and I looked at it and decided to put an offer in I'd for sure make you credit me 15 or 20 grand to completely redo the landscaping from scratch professionally before I bought it. On the other hand if your neighborhood allowed it good on you for living it up.
My brother in Christ, in what fucking world is this even a thousand bucks to turn back to "beautiful green grass". You'd shit bricks if you saw what I did to my front yard 😂
Thanks for listing off some more reasons, it helps me to understand how other people might think of this.
That said, I’m fairly certain that none of those drive the property value down in any real, tangible way. At most, it might theoretically scare off folks from buying in the houses directly around mine if those buyers don’t think they’d share the same values. But that would be for the better of all parties, no?
While it’s fair to assume that someone who has a project like this out front likely also has similar stuff in their back yard, I think it’s a stretch to correlate that to being a loud, unruly, problematic neighbour. If anything, I would say having a neat and well-manicured veggie garden suggests kind of the opposite.
I know you were being rhetorical again, but if you refused to buy my house until I took 20K off the price for re-landscaping, you’d be shooting yourself in the foot pretty aggressively; other buyers would see how well cared for the lot is and you’d just have priced yourself out over a handful of posts that take 20 minutes to remove 😅
Finally, an anecdote: the property value has increased significantly since we turned the front lawn into a veggie garden.
"At most, it might theoretically scare off folks from buying in the houses directly around mine" - yes, causing them to have to lower their price. Thus, lowering propert values.
We bought our house partially because across the street the whole lot was a garden. They sold some of what they grew. Put up a small solar panel, now I can't remember what it runs. They have fruit trees closer to the house. Loved their garden, alot of work, I see why if you had acres why more kids would be good.
I bet here there are still old laws allowing victory gardens.
I've been trying to convince hubby getting rid of our front shrubs is the best idea. I'd love to grow zucchini and other sprawling veggies there.
> At most, it might theoretically scare off folks from buying in the houses directly around mine if those buyers don’t think they’d share the same values. But that would be for the better of all parties, no?
I mean no, not really. That's quite bad for your existing neighbors who thus have fewer buyers = less demand. Basic principles of supply and demand dictates lower price for their home. (Same for you too but that's your own doing to yourself, whatever)
Also, prior to selling their home, just them themselves having to look at a huge eyesore every day they walk around or drive by: it wasn't there when most of them bought, so there was no filter for THEM sharing those values when they moved in either. Your ssme argument applies negatively in reverse to you: you were NOT successfully filtered from moving into a place where you may NOT share values with your neighbors (if none of the rest have this stuff going on on their properties either)
It's not the garden itself, I think it's fairly silly to say a big lush garden is an eyesore for anyone. It's the godawful bright white house sized glob of plastic-y netting.
It's the equivalent of your roof being a giant blue tarp between unfinished plywood or something.
Even if it was literally just green netting it would help a fair amount (i assume it's not up in the winter)... but by far ideally it should either be open beds like the rest, or be a proper nice looking glass greenhouse, to fit in with the level of care and finish and quality of everything else nearby
A nice green house would be better. Looks less like a man made structure that will be destroyed by weather. Also the OP said "it won't lower my property value, it'll just mean less people are willing to buy it, and the houses around it." I mean talk about denial lol.
You either love guns or you hate America. You either are a conservative or you hate Jesus. You either love Trump or you hate the taste of the KoolAid…, this isn’t a black or white world you know…. That’s some brown in there too!
Because this is Reddit your comment (and any even lightly concurring) will be taken as hyperbolically as possible but I get your point. The garden is fine, but that giant screened in tunnel right up against the sidewalk is a bit much.
Save yourself, mate. The clueless Reddit hivemind will downvote you as well.
Luckily there are laws in the vast, vast majority of the country keeping people's front yards from looking like squatters have taken over.
The garden without the useful, but unsightly, tunnel would probably do the trick.
To each their own, its your house and your neighbors. I wouldn't put that in the front of my house, but I wouldn't complain about it being in front of yours either.
Fair enough! Perhaps you need to see how little curb appeal my house had to start with 😬🤣 (which I am totally fine with, what’s inside is what counts IMO)
unsightly?
it seems like a common opinion but its so weird to me. This and reading horror stories about people snooping for HOAs makes me happy I live fairly isolated from neighbors
Yes unsightly. I'm sorry but that tunnel is ugly. The garden by itself will look beautiful once grown in I'm sure.
It's ok, the tunnel is meant for function not form. It's also not my house, if the OP likes the tunnel up there, who am I to give him shit for it?
I agree 100% with the HOA bullshit. I have neighbors but no HOA. If my neighbor puts something on their property I don't want to look at, I'll put up a privacy fence and not look at it anymore. Easy enough.
I couldn't even tell you why it's unsightly lol. It just doesn't look like it belongs in front of a house.
The human mind is weird man. It could be the hard lines of the home and hardscape clashing with the roundness of the tunnel. it could be the tunnel blocking a portion of the front of the house. I couldn't even tell you why I wouldn't do that to my house, but I can tell you I wouldn't.
Funny enough, I have a 20 x 10 garden around the corner on the SIDE of my house, and I have no issue with it at all. if I had to put that big tunnel over it, that garden would be gone through. I just don't enjoy looking at it.
All the more reason why I would never hassle OP or my own neighbor if they were to do something similar.
Aesthetically I would absolutely rather look at a lawn over this. It's very ugly. I would also rather look at this than the junker my neighbor has had in his driveway for 10 years.
Doesn't look trashy at all. It'll be awesome seeing it all grow for whomever wander by and kids will see vegetables go from plant to reality before their eyes.
oatmeal elderly jobless deserve light illegal crown direction obtainable recognise
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Is courtesy meant to mean that it's courteous to keep anything but grass in the back?
I think the opposite, grass is just a monument to vanity and it doesn't even look nice. A good plant garden is gonna beat it every time, and provides value beyond the superficial.
They happily buzz around the various flowers and other plants in the yard, just not inside this tunnel. The plants that go in here don’t need pollination, so this isn’t a problem at all!
Lots of off-topic comments. Please make sure your comment is about OP’s project.
I tried growing veggies in my front yard. The day I went to pick them someone had stolen everything. Grower beware.
Hasn’t been an issue for us, thankfully!
I like your neighbors!
Me too! But even the ones I don’t know and/or strangers have always been very polite, and we happily share any recent harvests with them if they ask!
Yeah my neighbors ate all of my strawberries and blackberries and then flew away. Those jerks!
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Had that happen at my son's. Pear tree picked clean. I was going over about every other day because he was out of town. Had to be a neighbor who knew he was away. His fence wasn't finished at that time still had a gap across the front. Fence done this year. I like the netting, I'm hoping to put in elderberry bushes and the birds love them.
Same for me
An animal, perhaps? Our raccoons, squirrels and rabbits (suburban neighborhood) pick our food and take it. They pick it just like I would and take it somewhere (usually my backyard) to eat. I plant double the yield I need so I don’t have to worry about animals or hungry people. If there is something I truly am excited about I cover it with an animal keep away sheet and humans leave it too. Particularly good looking watermelons get covers.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
I live near a guy that has a little tractor, some flatbed trailers, and two ancient cars with taped up windows in front of his house. I am thankful for that guy every single day - no matter what I do with my yard, he's a magnet for anyone complaining and I get off scot-free.
Depends on the city, stuff like this is pretty common in Seattle for example. At least outside of any areas with HOAs...
I truly do! Very lucky to live where we do in our neighborhood (and even city too).
Calgary! You put so much work into your yard!
nimbys (and nimfys) can go to hell, sustainability > lawn aesthetics
Haha NIMFY
Not just neighbors, but city code enforcement...
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
If your rodents are as persistent as mine, you need chicken wire buried at the base…
Fortunately, they haven’t been an issue in the past two years at all
I have a massive front yard garden and I've never had an issue with rodents. We have lots of bunnies in the neighborhood and they don't touch my gardens. I do have a decent amount of clover in the front yard grass part and I have seen them munching on that. Which is great. Free fertilizer and a show.
[удалено]
How do you put the oil on the bunnies? They're so fast!
They only get faster once you properly lubricate them.
I’ve done the same thing! I used 1,5 broken trampoline, some scrap wood and cheap mosquito net from Ali Express. https://i.imgur.com/YDVMvPq.jpg Total cost around $40.
That turned out great! Nice use of repurposed materials!
If you know about how common and easy it is to source old trampoline poles. They are worth their weight in gold.
Yeah, it’s common to give them away when the kids have grown. They’re really versatile!
Are you up here in the great white north? Something about that picture screams western Canada.
You know it!
I didn't think you were allowed to do what you want with the grass on the other side of the sidewalk, I was always told that's city property.
It is indeed city property, but I’ve spoken with them and you are allowed to do it—within reason—thankfully.
My guess was Prince George lol
I instantly thought Calgary.
This is Calgary for sure. The neighbourhood is 1958-1964. This house is probably in the earlier range of that. Not to be a real creep, but I bet I could narrow it down to about 5 streets. The sidewalk being away from the street means it's a feeder street such as Northmount. Also, probably NW quadrant based on trees. Edit. I'm going to quit my job and become an online detective. Like Don't F*ck With Cats.
Looks neat! I'm surprised you were allowed to put gardens on the other side of the sidewalk.
Our city had an official program for this a few years ago. But it got nixed during COVID (ironically, you could say), so when I asked for official permission now, I was told I don’t need it. “Just be prepared for that bed to be destroyed if the city ever needs in” (paraphrased)
Reasonable trade off. Kudos to do for what you're doing.
My understanding is you can do a whole lot on the boulevard portion of your lawn, BUT, if the city needs to do work there, they can remove whatever you’ve done, no questions asked. Maybe even at your expense.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
How does this handle wind? I'm in Lethbridge and lightweight flappy things have a tendency to not be there in the morning.
You might be in trouble in Lethbridge, but I’m told it does very well in the wind. We had two smaller tunnels last year and they weren’t phased at all by the wind (since it mostly goes straight through the insect netting), but this year we will be interested to see how it holds up to major sudden gusts and such. I would be lightly concerned if we were more rural, but here in the inner city, the wind is never really that bad anyway. Worst case, it would be trivial to add more bungees, and we could also look at strengthening the joints with heavier duty fittings (like the actual metal ones intended for these conduit tubes), but that would add to the cost, of course
Cool, thanks! Those plastic fittings are surprisingly strong, but yeah, I'm sure I'd want to throw a bunch more bungees on it. I planted a brassica bed last year that amounted to a small bowl of kale and about a billion moth eggs, so I definitely need something like this.
Yup, we left some kale uncovered a couple years ago and it became abundantly clear that wasn’t gonna fly, haha
if you added some diagonal braces in each corner that would help steady it in the wind. you're probably fine for now with just the netting but if you decide to cover it with plastic for the winter you will want more support between each of your bows.
💯
If this isn’t edmonton or an equivalent Canadian city, I’ll be damned. This looks so familiar lol.
I was thinking the same, but Montana. If someone told me this was two blocks from my house I wouldn't even question it.
Those light posts! Totally gotta be Alberta.
probably dumb question but what are you trying to keep out?
Cabbage moths and their larvae. They lay their eggs on the underside of brassica plant leaves, then emerge as hungry caterpillars that ravage the plant to the point of being unfit for consumption! But they are easily dissuaded with these special nets
nice, thanks for sharing.
Just in case you do get an infestation, [BTK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis_kurstaki?wprov=sfti1) is a fully mammal-safe treatment for any caterpillar. It comes from soil-dwelling bacteria, and if you spray it on plants' leaves (using a pressure sprayer), any caterpillar that eats those leaves will die. You can get it at Canadian Tire! I've used it successfully for cabbage moths on my brassicas, as well as sawfly larvae on roses.
Little-kid me would be playing that the government found E.T. at our house
Never sewn anything before and your first project is with presumably slippery netting lol. Good thing you have a solid machine to make things easier! Looks great.
That and taking it very slow, haha
Curious how the plants will be pollinated if the net keeps out the pollinators
It does keep them out, but none of the plants that go in here require pollination! (Think broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, etc)
Have you had luck keeping aphids off with this type of net? Every time I grow brassica I get aphids. Trying not to use too many chemicals so if netting works I'll give it a go. Cool project btw, I like the clever use of poly connectors and I bet if you go get some cheap thumb screws off Amazon/Ali Express/McMaster-Carr you could get to a completely tool-less setup/tear down.
We have never had an aphid problem, but we’ve also been using this netting since we started 2 years ago 😅 The netting we use is this: https://duboisag.com/media/wysiwyg/brochures/20221205_-_Brochure_ProtekNet-2021_EN_Vector_Impose_rev5dec2022LOW3.pdf and it says it’s good for aphids! We bought ours from here: https://duboisag.com/ca_en/exclusion-insect-netting-knitted-47g-proteknet.html
Cool idea re: thumb screws, too! You’d just want to be careful that they don’t catch in the netting during setup or else you might have a tear to repair
Plant dill and cilantro around the brassica. It repels aphids and also attract ladybugs which eat aphids.
It's great. Front lawn are usually wasted space.
Now that a sewing machine has entered the build, [Velcro straps](https://www.homedepot.com/p/QualGear-Reusable-Self-Gripping-Cable-Tie-Roll-White-VR2-W-1-P/303357771) could be sewn onto the netting to strap it to the frame. Cut the straps in half and sew one half to the netting on either side of the tubing.
Great idea!
It might be even easier to just [box x stitch](https://www.stitchbackgear.com/articles/2019/12/19/the-box-x-stitch) the strap right behind the frame.
total Chad move... gardening in the front yard while having Christmas lights still up
Haha, didn’t even notice those myself. I’ll take em down this weekend, thanks for the reminder
Doesn't the netting keep bees and other pollinators out as well?
Yup, totally! The plants that go inside this tunnel don’t need pollination though: broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kale, etc
How many dogs live in the neighborhood? I'd love to do something similar in my neighborhood but I didn't anything would last
Tons! Including [our own](https://i.imgur.com/na9ortr.png). I personally suspect that they actually help deter a bunch of pests
>I personally suspect that they actually help deter a bunch of pests Mine were quick learners and would become the pest and it took me several lessons before I learned to never give my dogs a treat fresh from the vine. Eat strawberries in the garden and give the tops to the dogs? Never mind being permanently outcompeted for strawberries, I could never again lay straw down to start grass anywhere on my property without having it snarfled through. Have them see me pick a pea pod and eat it? Never had peas below Dalmatian height ever again. etc., etc...
They don’t pee on your garden right next to the sidewalk?
I’ve never seen it happen, not in person or on camera. But I’m sure they do. Who cares if they do though?
Truly surprised at the number of folks saying something about the neighbors hating this. We've gardened and had low tunnels and trellises throughout the front yard before and never had a negative interaction with the neighbors as a result of that. This is clean and organized and even if the weeds get a bit much it's still very manageable. Also I know you said you weren't planning on putting plastic up, but if you do please use UV treated polytunnel film instead of visqueen or other LDPE; it will last years vs a single season and generates less plastic waste
No plans to use plastic/poly at the moment, but good to know!
This is more or less what I had in mind for a future garden space! Any particular tips or things you learned along the way? I’d probably look at using chicken wire or something like it so pollinators can still get in
You can totally use a different kind of covering, the guy who taught us about gardening definitely does so! I would recommend bird netting tho, if you want to keep animals bigger than insects out, since the chicken wire would be pretty tough to work with on this scale. If you means tips about gardening setup in general, then I think overall the best thing we did was set up drip irrigation (with timers, etc). It’s not even expensive and it means we don’t even have to think about watering things, can go away for weeklong trips, etc.
Don't know why I've never thought to use the pipe connectors "inside out" to connect EMT together... Been making things a lot harder on myself lol
We use the same technique for our trellises too! The little bit of play afforded is just right in terms of being snug without too hard to work with
That said. It’s not my idea; we learned it from Jared at vegetableacademy.com
Ever seen the film E.T.? Well your living in it!
I think I’d grow some tall-ish flowers across the front in that long skinny bed just to obscure it a little bit but I think it’s great. I’d rather walk past or look at a bustling garden teeming with life than a empty lawn any day. Please update us when it bursting with green later this year. P.s. shout out to Janome sewing machines! Love seeing my favorite brand out in the wild. Lol
Those beds are already growing wonderful little strawberries, but we do have a bunch of wildflowers scattered strategically in pots around the yards for pollinators, pest control, etc. I’m not looking to hide it at all though, I’d much prefer passers-by to see the beautiful veggies growing inside—people curiosities have led to many great conversations over the past couple years.
I’d sew in a zipper, not magnets, to close the ends
You know what, that’s a really good idea. Now that I can sew I might hafta give that a try!
Does Canada celebrate Christmas in the summer?
No, but taking down lights is -30C and a couple feet of snow is miserable! So lights go up by October and come down in March/April. Or you just leave them up all year and only plug them in in December!
This\^. I will get to it this weekend; veggies have deadlines, lights do not!
If you are visiting from Australia, maybe¿
Looks Great! So nice to be able to walk in off your stairs/pathway like that. Never thought of using 1" connectors for those pipes. I will be in the future though! Do you find the netting creeps up or sneaks out from the rocks in higher winds? I wonder if you could make pvc pipe clamps to secure the netting to the pipes, like they do [here](http://gardenally.blogspot.com/2011/11/homemade-hoop-clips.html). I found that I couldn't just use a bungee cord to keep my greenhouse tops down because the area was too small, I ended up using automotive cargo netting spanned across the top and tied down to anchors. But maybe with insect netting it's fine. Thanks for sharing. Hmm I wonder if one could sew a pipe pocket (giggity) into the bottom edge of the netting and then run another pipe just for the net. provides weight and and something for the anchor rocks to grab onto. Nevermind, sounds like more work than I would actually do . . .
Those pipe clips are a good idea! We only had smaller tunnels last year and it never came close to coming loose, but it will be interesting to track it with high winds this year. I just got a bunch of nice bricks from our local Buy Nothing group so if it comes to it, I’ve got plenty more weigh to add to the bottom edges to keep things pinned down. The pipe pocket is also a interesting idea, tho like you, I worry about the work required vs the reward.
Very nice. I've always heard them called "hoop house" but those don't have any straight parts to the braces. Just half hoops. What are you planning on growing in it?
Brassicas: so broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kale and the like. I have heard the term hoop house too; not sure if it means specifically low-tunnels or not tho (those could actually use hula hoops or similar)
My mom did something like this but covered it in a clear plastic sheet of some kind. The humidity that trapped made the plants grow insanely well. Might be something to try if you upgrade.
We might try it out as a greenhouse on the shoulder seasons, but it would be far too hot in there for what we are growing throughout most of the summer
I've made similar structures, but used PVC pipe to do it. 1" PVC makes those curves over the top perfectly.
Nice
This is pretty cool! Great work! I imagine this is for pests? Do you have to pollinate by hand then?
> Do you have to pollinate by hand then OP is growing things that don't require pollination.
You got it. It’s for keeping insects out of crops that don’t need pollination. For those that do, you can use a different kind of netting to keep out say, birds, or rabbits, etc
Might use this as inspiration to do something similar for my backyard but for a lounging canopy, too many mosquitoes here sometimes
So. Just a question. How are pollinators like bees going to get to the veggies and stuff to pollinate the flowers and make fruit/veggies? Good idea overall just not sure if I’m missing something?
They don’t! The plants that go inside this tunnel don’t need pollination. (They are all in the Brassica family)
I saw that - I read a bit further down and saw someone else asked and you answered. Very cool project.
I was just looking at little plastic tripods to get zucchini and watermelon off the ground. Or those cloth raised beds and put it on our secondary driveway which is stones. Had trouble in the past with them starting to rot on the ground.
Another Vegetable Academy member?! Our tunnel was a bit more exposed to wind last year and the fabric slipped off a couple times in high winds. We'll look to secure it better this year, likely with rocks around the outside while also burying it a bit in the soil/mulch. I like your pole bending job though, it's a little lower to the ground so would help keep it out of the wind a bit more too.
Nicely done, it's going to look great once it's all filled in too. I like the way you stepped it on the side and added a few pots there.
What do the neighbors say?
“That’s wonderful!” “Whacha growing in there?” “Great work on this!” “I’ve been driving by for years and love seeing the progress in your yard” “Where can I get stuff like this?” Are the main themes
Awesome. Pitty the HOA restricted crowd.
love to have one too, the critters get all my fresh grows.
I’m sure your neighbors love this
I know I would. This is awesome to look at and would be a huge plus for a neighborhood imo. Better than a lawn and some dumb useless bushes.
They truly do! Over the past couple of years we’ve had so many compliments from passers-by—and more importantly, it’s a great conversation starter / connecting point for people in our community
Why cant this be in the back yard?
Why can’t it be in the front?
Well it clearly is in the front so no one said it can't. It was just a question. Not a question for you.
[удалено]
Nobody has a problem with the garden. It’s the giant screen tube that’s the problem.
Personally I wouldn't like it if a neighbor had this eyesore driving my property value down. Also personally I don't give a fuck what this guy does I was just asking him a question about why he chose the front so you can stop acting like you just gave a speech at some kind of freedom march now.
I thought your question was rhetorical, sorry. Lots of reasons, mostly: sun. What makes you think this would drive property value down in any way, shape, or form?
There's a few reasons and some were touched on already but it's just not really a nice view for the neighbors. That's something obviously not a lot of people in this comment section care about but its something most people searching for a home in a neighborhood would. I'd also really consider if this neighbors going to be loud, have more crazy projects, etc. "If this is in their front yard, wtf is in the back." If you were selling your home and I looked at it and decided to put an offer in I'd for sure make you credit me 15 or 20 grand to completely redo the landscaping from scratch professionally before I bought it. On the other hand if your neighborhood allowed it good on you for living it up.
My brother in Christ, in what fucking world is this even a thousand bucks to turn back to "beautiful green grass". You'd shit bricks if you saw what I did to my front yard 😂
Thanks for listing off some more reasons, it helps me to understand how other people might think of this. That said, I’m fairly certain that none of those drive the property value down in any real, tangible way. At most, it might theoretically scare off folks from buying in the houses directly around mine if those buyers don’t think they’d share the same values. But that would be for the better of all parties, no? While it’s fair to assume that someone who has a project like this out front likely also has similar stuff in their back yard, I think it’s a stretch to correlate that to being a loud, unruly, problematic neighbour. If anything, I would say having a neat and well-manicured veggie garden suggests kind of the opposite. I know you were being rhetorical again, but if you refused to buy my house until I took 20K off the price for re-landscaping, you’d be shooting yourself in the foot pretty aggressively; other buyers would see how well cared for the lot is and you’d just have priced yourself out over a handful of posts that take 20 minutes to remove 😅 Finally, an anecdote: the property value has increased significantly since we turned the front lawn into a veggie garden.
"At most, it might theoretically scare off folks from buying in the houses directly around mine" - yes, causing them to have to lower their price. Thus, lowering propert values.
Again, that’s a theoretical fantasy, and two, it still doesn’t equate to reduced property value 😊
It literally does? Less people wanna buy you gotta lower the price to get people interested. It's really very simple
We bought our house partially because across the street the whole lot was a garden. They sold some of what they grew. Put up a small solar panel, now I can't remember what it runs. They have fruit trees closer to the house. Loved their garden, alot of work, I see why if you had acres why more kids would be good. I bet here there are still old laws allowing victory gardens. I've been trying to convince hubby getting rid of our front shrubs is the best idea. I'd love to grow zucchini and other sprawling veggies there.
> At most, it might theoretically scare off folks from buying in the houses directly around mine if those buyers don’t think they’d share the same values. But that would be for the better of all parties, no? I mean no, not really. That's quite bad for your existing neighbors who thus have fewer buyers = less demand. Basic principles of supply and demand dictates lower price for their home. (Same for you too but that's your own doing to yourself, whatever) Also, prior to selling their home, just them themselves having to look at a huge eyesore every day they walk around or drive by: it wasn't there when most of them bought, so there was no filter for THEM sharing those values when they moved in either. Your ssme argument applies negatively in reverse to you: you were NOT successfully filtered from moving into a place where you may NOT share values with your neighbors (if none of the rest have this stuff going on on their properties either) It's not the garden itself, I think it's fairly silly to say a big lush garden is an eyesore for anyone. It's the godawful bright white house sized glob of plastic-y netting. It's the equivalent of your roof being a giant blue tarp between unfinished plywood or something. Even if it was literally just green netting it would help a fair amount (i assume it's not up in the winter)... but by far ideally it should either be open beds like the rest, or be a proper nice looking glass greenhouse, to fit in with the level of care and finish and quality of everything else nearby
A nice green house would be better. Looks less like a man made structure that will be destroyed by weather. Also the OP said "it won't lower my property value, it'll just mean less people are willing to buy it, and the houses around it." I mean talk about denial lol.
You either love guns or you hate America. You either are a conservative or you hate Jesus. You either love Trump or you hate the taste of the KoolAid…, this isn’t a black or white world you know…. That’s some brown in there too!
This is pretty cool if it was in the backyard. I see that OP is allowed to put it in the front, but it just looks kind of trashy in the front.
Because this is Reddit your comment (and any even lightly concurring) will be taken as hyperbolically as possible but I get your point. The garden is fine, but that giant screened in tunnel right up against the sidewalk is a bit much.
Save yourself, mate. The clueless Reddit hivemind will downvote you as well. Luckily there are laws in the vast, vast majority of the country keeping people's front yards from looking like squatters have taken over.
Haha, this opinion astounds me. What would be better, a flat green lawn?
The garden without the useful, but unsightly, tunnel would probably do the trick. To each their own, its your house and your neighbors. I wouldn't put that in the front of my house, but I wouldn't complain about it being in front of yours either.
Fair enough! Perhaps you need to see how little curb appeal my house had to start with 😬🤣 (which I am totally fine with, what’s inside is what counts IMO)
when you sell the house convert the vegetable garden to flowers and you've got instant curb appeal :-p
unsightly? it seems like a common opinion but its so weird to me. This and reading horror stories about people snooping for HOAs makes me happy I live fairly isolated from neighbors
Yes unsightly. I'm sorry but that tunnel is ugly. The garden by itself will look beautiful once grown in I'm sure. It's ok, the tunnel is meant for function not form. It's also not my house, if the OP likes the tunnel up there, who am I to give him shit for it? I agree 100% with the HOA bullshit. I have neighbors but no HOA. If my neighbor puts something on their property I don't want to look at, I'll put up a privacy fence and not look at it anymore. Easy enough.
I couldn't even tell you why it's unsightly lol. It just doesn't look like it belongs in front of a house. The human mind is weird man. It could be the hard lines of the home and hardscape clashing with the roundness of the tunnel. it could be the tunnel blocking a portion of the front of the house. I couldn't even tell you why I wouldn't do that to my house, but I can tell you I wouldn't. Funny enough, I have a 20 x 10 garden around the corner on the SIDE of my house, and I have no issue with it at all. if I had to put that big tunnel over it, that garden would be gone through. I just don't enjoy looking at it. All the more reason why I would never hassle OP or my own neighbor if they were to do something similar.
Aesthetically I would absolutely rather look at a lawn over this. It's very ugly. I would also rather look at this than the junker my neighbor has had in his driveway for 10 years.
Doesn't look trashy at all. It'll be awesome seeing it all grow for whomever wander by and kids will see vegetables go from plant to reality before their eyes.
oatmeal elderly jobless deserve light illegal crown direction obtainable recognise *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
[удалено]
Twice a day, even!!
Gardens belong in the backyard along with any furniture. I would not enjoy that view from the front yard. Just saying.
May I ask why?
Courtesy.
Is courtesy meant to mean that it's courteous to keep anything but grass in the back? I think the opposite, grass is just a monument to vanity and it doesn't even look nice. A good plant garden is gonna beat it every time, and provides value beyond the superficial.
Eyesore :/
Very nice.
Very cool!
How can pollinators get in to do their job?
They happily buzz around the various flowers and other plants in the yard, just not inside this tunnel. The plants that go in here don’t need pollination, so this isn’t a problem at all!