We have recently begun buying hay rolled in net wrap material. Does anyone have any uses for it? It seems a shame to throw it away. I thought it might work to cover a poultry pen or as a cover to keep birds out of crops. Has anyone tried these? Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

-- A. C. Green (ratdogs10@hotmail.com), December 28, 1999

Answers

How about stringing it between posts to grow peas or climbing beans on. On a sheep farm it would come in handy to store shorn wool in, suspended between rafters...like a hammock. Keeps wool dry and rodent free.

-- Kate Henderson (sheeplady@catskill.net), January 01, 2000.

We use the net wrap in the garden. I drive steel stakes and make a four foot fence out of it for the cucumbers to climb.

I covered the strawberries rows with it, when the critters were getting to every ripened strawberry before me. You can pick through it. It will give enough to get to the berries. You have to use stakes and keep it tight and above the berries, or the critters will pick through it, too.

I am building a chicken pen out of it, but not sure it will work for this. The racoons could chew through it if they figured it out. Not as critical with the strawberries, but it would mean dead chickens if they do. (So far, nothing chewed through to the strawberries.)

Burn any of the net wrap that you don't use or store carefully. Animals and you can get tangled in it, - and it does not tear. You can pull all you want, but you don't get out of it unless you get unhooked our cut it with a knife. Neither will an animal. It is nothing to have scattered around. You will see when you go to work with it. It catches on, even the buttons on your shirt.

-- homestead2 (homestead@monreocty.net), January 19, 2000.