Have you ever tried to grow kale in your garden?

It’s really easy to grow but I’ve found that where we are, there’s no escaping the cabbage moth. Its caterpillars have devoured whole kale plants overnight. I do agree with garden gurus that pests go for weak plants, but it didn’t seem to matter with my kale how healthy it was…the cabbage moth were still going to find it and lay their hungry larvae.

But I’ve found a work-around formula to my kale-eating competition:

1 onion/potato bag + 1 trashed kerbside hub cap ring + leftover ribbon or string =
AN AWESOME KALE COVER that you can attach to a stake or two!

This wonderful formula keeps the cabbage moth from landing on the kale and being able to lay their larvae there.

1. the onion or potato bag

Of course, I’m not a fan of all the packaging that food can tend to come in. But you just might find that, even if you buy onions or potatoes in large bags to cut down on the extra packaging, you’re potatoes and onions will probably still come in something to hold them all together for carrying. This is usually a big mesh bag. I haven’t yet found a way to recycle these through the usual channels, but it makes a wonderful kale cover.

And if, like me, you’re buying onions and potatoes loose, you can ask your green grocer what he/she does with the big mesh bags. I’ve become that weird customer that collects them from the green grocer when they are empty. Bliss.

 

2. the hub cap ring

If you live on the Central Coast, I challenge you also to go on your usual walk, but look at the kerb as you do. There is no shortage of accidentally discarded hub caps and/or hub cap rings on the road’s edges. If you live somewhere else, perhaps it’s the same – let me know!

Isaac used to collect these anyway for metal recycling, but then started funneling them to me first once we worked out they could really stabilise the mesh bag over the kale and give the plant room to grow.

 

3. leftover ribbon or string

You probably don’t need to buy ribbon or string to make a kale cover. I have a little box where I keep miscellaneous string or ribbon treasures that have been pulled off a present etc. Reusing ribbon and string is a nice little to reduce your consumption and waste, and you still get to wrap presents nicely or use it around the house for odd jobs like this one!

 

To make the recovered rubbish kale covers:

Sit outside with your favourite tea and, about half way up the mesh bag, weave the ribbon/string through the holes and around the hub cap ring so that the ring is held in place all the way around the bag.

If you’re using 2 stakes either side of the kale plant – now tie some more ribbon/string to the top corners of the bag. With these, you can tie up the cover to the stakes. (I conveniently have holes drilled into my stakes to make for easy tying…a wonderful accident from having used the stakes previously to form a string lattice trellis.)

If you’re using 1 stake – you can either stake it right there with the plant and place the cover over; or you can place the stake about 15cm away from the plant, tie some ribbon/string to the top an centre of the mesh cover and use to tie to the stake.

Make sure the cover is touching the ground. The mesh bags usually come with a tie around the opening. You can use this to fasten the bag around the base of the kale if it established enough not to be pulled out in a gust of wind.

 

Now, with the reused rubbish plant covers, I wait for the kale to grow and can share it with whomever I please!