Garden Insect Netting for Raised Beds Buying Guide: Three Fine-Mesh Covers That Fit a 4×8 Bed

Why raised beds want fine mesh, not bird netting

A raised bed concentrates the crops that pests find first: brassicas for cabbage white caterpillars, carrots for carrot fly, squash for vine borers and cucumber beetles, greens for flea beetles and leaf miners. Bird netting with half-inch holes stops none of them. Insect netting is a polyethylene mesh with openings under a millimeter, draped over hoops so it never touches the leaves and sealed at the soil so nothing walks under. For a 4 by 8 foot bed under 2-foot hoops that means a sheet about 10 feet wide and 10 to 11 feet long, which is why the useful products are 10-foot-wide rolls, with or without hoops. The three here are a one-bed kit, a multi-bed kit and the net alone.

This guide is built from the published specifications of each product and from recurring owner feedback. We have not run these products ourselves.

How the three compare

FARAER kit: one 4×8 bed in a box

The FARAER kit is the simplest route to a covered bed. The sheet is 10 feet wide and the listing describes it as 30 feet in one place and 33 in another, so plan on 30; either way it covers a 4×8 bed with slack for sealing and leaves a second length for a shorter bed or a patch repair. Six sets of fiberglass hoops join with connectors, bend to the width of the bed and push into the soil, and clips hold the net to the hoops. The mesh is 0.8 by 1 mm, fine enough for cabbage moths, carrot fly, flea beetles and most aphids, and FARAER states the HDPE is UV-stabilized. Hoop height is not published, so taller crops may need the hoops set wider and lower. For a single bed it is the kit to buy.

Fippy kit: 50 feet and steel-core hoops

With two or three beds, or one bed and a row of strawberries, the Fippy kit is the better buy. The sheet is 10 by 50 feet with a 0.8 mm mesh, which cuts into four or five 4×8 covers with edge to spare, and the ten hoops are built on an inner steel tube under a plastic coating, so they hold their arc in wind where light fiberglass can lean. Fippy says they stay in place in wind and rain. Twenty clips fasten the net to the hoops. The net carries no stated UV life, so store it dry and out of the sun between seasons, and the hoop size is not published, so check the bed width against the hoops when they arrive.

KLEWEE sheet: finest mesh, bring your own hoops

Many raised-bed gardeners already have hoops, or run a low frame of PVC or wire, and for them the KLEWEE 10 by 50 foot sheet is the net alone with the finest stated mesh here, 0.8 by 0.8 mm, which the maker also describes as 80 mesh. The PE is stabilized for reuse year after year, it is light enough per KLEWEE to lay straight on plants, and it cuts with scissors and seals with soil, stones or stakes. It is the choice for sealing a bed frame directly for low crops such as carrots and greens, or for re-covering hoops from a kit whose net has worn. No clips come with it; spring clamps from the hardware store do the job.

Fitting and sealing netting on a 4×8 bed

Set hoops every 2 to 3 feet along the bed, pushed a few inches into the soil at the inside edge of the frame, and cover before the crop is up, since netting keeps pests out but not in. Drape the sheet with a foot of slack on each side and each end, clip it to the hoops, then seal the hem: bury it in the soil, lay boards or stones along it, or clamp it to the top of the bed frame every couple of feet. Water and feed straight through the mesh. Lift one end to weed and harvest and reseal it the same day. Crops that need insect pollination, squash, cucumbers, melons and the like, are uncovered once they flower or pollinated by hand under the net; brassicas, carrots, onions, beets and greens stay covered to harvest. Fold the net dry in fall and keep it out of the sun.

Which one should you buy

Buy the FARAER kit to cover one 4×8 bed with hoops and clips in the box. Buy the Fippy kit for two or three beds and steel-core hoops that stand up to wind. Buy the KLEWEE sheet for the finest stated mesh over hoops you already own.