Sustead Vegebag Mark 2

colinS

When I posted my Bags of vegetables post last year, which featured the Sustead vegebag, I was conscious of the fact that stakes had to be hammered in the ground, and the design wouldn't do for a slab. At the start of this year I worked on another design for such a case.



The plastic hoops are oval cable ducting, and I did hope to be able to run rope through them for tension and to support the sides of the bag, but they cinked. The one I bought from Wickes stood up to the bending, but the slightly cheaper ones from B&Q did not. In the end I had to shove thin branches that I can cut from a long thorn hedge that I have running the length of my garden, and which I more or less coppice for projects, canes could also be used. The other problem I had was getting the long lengths of tubing home on the bus, I had to cut them to make them manageable. Then I had to join them together to make the hoop by cutting a tube off cut along one side and using it as a coupler. You can see the binding tape, and also the cycle tyre inner tube I used on the middle hoop. It's all kept up by a weight at each end, in this case small concrete pots I made - you can just see one in the shadow. They are three metres long, and I stuffed the ends of the hoops in two litre bottles that had to have the necks cut off, they fill out the corners nicely. The hoop shape is made by nylon rope tied to one end and above the bottle, and then stringing like a bow until I had the correct size to fit he vegebag, and then tied off at the other end. Once it's filled up with leaves and has plants in it, I throw a 99p store fruit net over it. I can also put a cover over in high summer if it gets too hot - not much of that this year.

This year I laid a row of soil mixed with leaf mould and grew some small beetroots in it. It's the first time I have grown beetroots and I was quite pleased with the results. I decided to make this my salad vegebag, and it looks quite sparse, but this was at the start of the year - if you want to see a filled vegebag you will have to look at my Bags of vegetable post of last year.

The vegebag has stood up quite well and at the moment I am clearing it out in order to move it to another site. I would have liked to try to use it as a cloche this winter, but I can't buy polytunnel plastic in small amount locally. I don't know why DIY stores don't get into selling polytunnel plastic, there must be quite a demand for small amounts from gardeners and they sell other sorts of less clear plastic sheeting.