BLOG: Garden Fabric = Floating Row Covers = Protection for your Crops

Call it whatever you like, garden fabric or floating row covers (FRC) have many uses in your garden. It can protect your crops from a slight frost, shade your delicate lettuces and keep bugs from invading and damaging your veggies.

All-purpose garden fabric is a non-woven material made from polypropylene and lets in about 70% of the light, is a barrier to bugs, holds in heat (it can protect in temperatures as low as 28 degrees) and even protects young transplants from wind. This makes it an excellent choice for many garden tasks. The downside is that it doesn’t let in much rain. It’s a good choice if you are hand watering or using drip irrigation.

Like its “all-purpose” cousin, “summerweight fabric” is useful for all the tasks listed above, however it’s not quite as protective against frost and it lets in 85% of sunlight. It allows more rainwater in and is a great option for all season protection from birds and insects.

There are also things like “garden quilt” which is thicker than “all-purpose” allowing for more frost protection and “shade cloth” or “netting” which doesn’t offer frost protection, but is helpful for your delicate leafy veggies that can get scalded by the sun and allows for more air circulation than other fabrics.

If your crops haven’t come up yet, and there is danger of frost, floating row cover (FRC) can be laid directly on the soil. If they’ve already peaked their heads out of the soil, you can build structures, such as hoops, to which you can attach the various fabrics. This is good if you need to protect longer rows of crops.

However, if you are using the Square Foot Gardening method, protecting your crops is even easier. You can easily protect just one square (a chicken wire box with shade cloth over your individual lettuce squares) or one 4’ x 4’ raised bed. 

If you see signs of drooping because of heat build-up, you can easily remove the FRC and allow more air circulations for your plants. In this case, you may want to switch to the more lightweight “summerweight” fabric.

Of course the downside to ALL fabrics is that insects that pollinate your “fruiting” plants (squash, melons, cucumbers, peas, beans, strawberries etc.) are also stopped from accessing your crops. When you see your plants start to flower, remove the FRC during the day to allow bees and other pollinators to do their magic. Recover in the evening as this is when many moths lay their eggs.

Another disadvantage is that if you don’t cover your crops early enough, harmful insects can get trapped INSIDE the FRC. Also, some insect eggs overwinter in the soil and will get trapped under the fabrics. You can handpick larger insects from the plants and use an organic insecticidal soap for smaller pests like aphids. I have a hand vacuum dedicated for garden use that worked quite nicely on stink bugs last year.

When you’re done using your FRCs, make sure they’re dry then roll or fold them and keep it out of direct sunlight to prolong the life of the fabric. In general FRCs will only last a season or two. The heavier garden quilt and many shade cloths last longer.