Garden Hoops and Row Covers for Pest Control, Shade & Frost Protection

Hoops and row covers are an invaluable tool in our organic garden. We use hoops and various fabric garden covers to protect young sprouts and seedlings from the beaks of wild birds, shade tender greens on abnormally warm days, block out the dreaded white cabbage moths, cover plants from frost, and more. Truth be told, I was hesitant to use hoops and row covers in our raised garden beds in the past. I was worried they’d look unsightly… yet I have come to cherish them more than I ever thought I could!

Read along to learn all about using hoops and row covers. Garden bed covers come in many shapes, materials, and styles – and have numerous valuable uses. First we’ll talk about different garden bed hoop options, including pre-made hoops or DIY hoops for raised beds. Once you have hoops, you can use them with various types of plant covers including garden insect netting, shade fabric, or frost cloth. Last but not least, we’ll address one potential drawback of using garden row covers – inhibiting pollinators. 

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The Basics: What Are Garden Hoops and Row Covers?

Individual garden plots, raised beds, or sections thereof can be shrouded with row covers. Also known as “floating row covers”, their purpose is to block out or otherwise protect plants from undesirable elements.

Some garden covers are designed to stop insects or other pests. Other row covers may have the purpose of shielding plants from excess sun or cold, used during unusual weather events or to generally extend the growing season. On a larger scale, hoop houses (similar to greenhouses) can accomplish the same results.

Traditionally, hoops are used to support various garden covers at the gardeners desired height over the plants. Some covers are held even higher on tall supporting structures, allowing space for taller plants (or even people!) underneath. Other gardeners skip the hoops and lay light garden row covers directly on top of the plants themselves. That is, as long as the plants are mature enough to not get crushed.

Raised Garden Bed Hoop Options

Garden bed hoops can be made of metal, conduit pipe, PVC plastic, or other materials. You can purchase pre-made hoops, or make DIY garden bed hoops! See both options below. Then we’ll talk more about various row cover material in the pest, shade, and frost cloth sections to follow.

Pre-Made Garden Bed Hoops

In our garden, we use sleek metal wire pre-made hoops for our raised garden beds. I personally love the no-fuss installation, lightweight material, and ease of taking them in and out of the beds as needed. They stack nicely in a neat pile when they’re not in use. Since the hoops have two rows of wire/stakes, the hoops can’t tip side to side. Overall, I love the way they look! 

Our favorite garden bed hoops come in two sizes: super hoops and high-rise hoops. We have the shorter super hoop option, which fits perfectly over shorter plants in 2, 3, and 3.5-foot wide raised beds. To fit 4-foot garden beds and wider, we use these base extender stakes to help the hoops stay more secure while also gaining some nice additional height. (The hoops fit okay without the bases in 4 foot wide beds, but are fairly short and would be best to cover seedlings or low-growing plants.)

Depending on the length of your beds and weight of the plant cover fabric, you’ll want two or three hoops per garden bed. In a modest square bed (about 4-foot by 4-foot), two hoops work perfectly. In beds longer than 5 feet, we prefer to use three hoops: one at each end, and one in the middle to prevent the row cover from drooping.

There are many other pre-made garden bed hoops out there to explore as well.

The “high rise” super hoop option is perfect to cover even larger garden beds, or over taller plants like tomatoes. Hint: the high-rise option is simply two of the smaller versions that connect in the middle. Therefore, you can use those as shorter hoops too! Again, we mostly use row covers over small seedlings and greens, so we don’t need a huge amount of space under them. Therefore we haven’t tried the high-rise option.

DIY PVC Garden Bed Hoops

One common method is to create DIY hoops for raised beds using PVC pipe. Slender ½-inch PVC pipe can be bent in an arch over a garden plot or raised bed and then secured in place on each side.

To add PVC DIY hoops to a wood raised garden bed, you can attach the pipe directly to the bed with pipe straps (a more permanent installation). Or, create a sleeve for the hoop pipes to slide in and out of, making it easy to remove the hoops when not in use. This can be done by attaching larger 1-inch wide pipe sections to the inside or outside corners of the raised bed, and then sliding each end of the smaller ½” hoop pipe into them. A similar design can be done with metal pipes, but you’ll need a pipe bender tool for that.

How to Secure Plant Row Covers to Garden Hoops

Secure fabric plant covers with any type of sturdy clip that fits around your chosen garden bed hoops. We love these durable metal clamps. They’re made to attach to larger PVC garden bed hoops, but clip snugly right on to the wood sides of our raised beds! (Shown below). These mini clips are ideal for attaching the row covers right to our wire hoops. We usually use a combination of both types, but have even used binder clips and clothespins in a pinch! For PVC hoops, you could also try these specialized clips.

Tuck in the sides of the row cover down inside the bed, especially if you’re trying to keep out small sneaky critters. If needed, use bricks or other heavy objects to pin the row cover fabric tightly to the ground, which can also be helpful when it’s windy.

Other Ways to Support Garden Plant Covers

Classic hoops aside, there are many other ways to support garden covers. For example, you could build a wood frame around your garden bed to hang row cover fabric over.  I’ve also seen gardeners put traditional stakes in the corners and center of their garden bed, add a tennis ball on top of each stake (to prevent the stakes from puncturing the row cover) and then drape the plant covers over the stakes. Really, the options are endless if you think outside the box!

Using Hoops and Row Covers for Organic Pest Control

Hoops and row covers are an excellent choice for organic pest control. Acting as a physical barrier, they can protect plants from a wide array of pests without the need for pesticides or other products. In addition to insects, raised garden bed covers can protect plants from larger critters including squirrels, rabbits, birds, skunks, opossums, rodents, deer, free-ranging chickens, or even neighborhood cats.

Garden Insect Netting

To block both insects and birds, we love and use this popular fine-mesh garden insect netting. After many years of use, it’s still in perfect condition! We bought a large roll/sheet and cut it down to fit our raised garden beds as needed, though you can also buy it in smaller bed-size sections. Tip: if you’re trying to estimate the size you need, practice with an old sheet.

Keep the garden insect netting covers closed and tucked in around the sides to keep out rodents, rabbits, and a variety of pest insects including cucumber beetles, squash bugs, leaf miners, whitefly, and leafhoppers. Garden insect netting covers can also prevent cabbage moths, squash vine borer moths, and tobacco or tomato hornworm moths from accessing the covered plants. If the adult moths and butterflies can’t get to the plants, they can’t lay eggs – which later turn into pest caterpillars!

Garden Bird Netting

As much as I love wild birds, they’re one of the biggest “pests” in our garden too! They especially like to pick at tender new seedlings and leafy greens. I recommend using this same garden insect netting to protect plants from birds as well. The classic loose-weave black bird netting is dangerous for wild birds and other wildlife, as they easily get tangled it. Plus, why not keep both insects and birds out at the same time?

Using Hoops and Row Covers to Shade Plants in Hot Weather

Shade cloth has the ability to keep the soil and plants below it significantly cooler than without. Combined with mulch, shade cloth also reduces evaporation to keep soil moist and thus reduce the need to water as frequently during hot conditions.

We often use garden hoops and shade cloth to cover tender leafy greens like lettuce and bok choy when unseasonably warm weather hits, helping to extend their life in our garden. Without shade cloth, they’re more prone to bolting (going to flower and seed) and becoming bitter when exposed to high heat. The same applies to broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, spinach, and other cool season crops.

Therefore, using shade cloth garden covers allows spring-planted cool season crops to survive longer into the summer months, as well as protect summer-planted fall seedlings during late season heat waves. Gardeners in hotter climates like Arizona, Hawaii, Texas, or Florida may rely on protecting their garden with shade cloth all summer long! There, even heat-loving summer crops like tomatoes and squash appreciate some relief from the otherwise blistering sun.

Types of shade cloth garden covers

Shade cloth comes in a variety of ratings, most often expressed by the percentage of UV rays it will block. Clearly, plants still need some sun to photosynthesize and grow! Shade cloth around 30 to 60% is usually ideal to both cool plants as well as allow adequate light through. 30% shade cloth is great for most instances and plants, while leafy greens may fare best with a higher rating shade cover in extra hot conditions.

In addition to covering individual garden beds with hoops and shade cover, you can also hang it high above a larger garden space on stakes or arbors, between trees, or even from your house roof. We also use shade cloth in our greenhouse when needed. Shade cloth is available in black, white, green and sometimes tan. All options effectively prevent some heat and sunlight from passing through to the plants below.

Using Hoops and Row Covers for Frost Protection

Similar to shade cloth, garden frost cloth fabric can create a desirable microclimate for the plants below. In fact, frost cloth (aka garden fleece or frost blankets) can protect plants from frost damage even in outdoor temperatures as low as 20 degrees – depending on the rating and thickness used! See frost cloth rating information to follow.

In the springtime, frost cloth row covers enables northern gardeners to start seeds outdoors earlier in season, warming the soil for a more quick and successful germination. Garden frost cover can also protect tender just-transplanted seedlings from cool spring nights or a sudden frost warning. In the fall and winter, garden frost covers can help mature plants survive and continue to grow even after frost arrives.

When all else fails, you can also grab old bed sheets to protect plants if frost is in the forecast. Bed sheets aren’t quite as strong or guaranteed as specialized frost row covers, but on a chilly night, they’re better than nothing! If you secure sheets or row covers well enough on garden hoops, they can also shield plants against hail, wind, or other inclement weather.

Garden frost cloth ratings and thickness

Frost blankets or garden fleece is available in various sizes, ratings, and thickness. See the chart below. Here where it rarely gets below 30F, we use a fairly lightweight frost cloth (.55 oz). Colder climate gardeners would want to choose something thicker, such as this 1.2 oz cloth or this heavy-duty 1.5 oz frost cloth. Some even come in a dome-shape, ready to cover shrubs or small trees.

Keep in mind that the thicker the fabric, the more heat it will trap in and less sunlight it will let through during the day. So, you may want to open up your frost cloth during warmer days, especially if you are covering plants for many days in a row.

Related: 7 Ways to Protect Plants from Frost Damage. Please see this article for even more tips on using frost cloth (e.g. opening it during the day or not).

Pollinators: A Potential Drawback to Using Garden Row Covers

Maybe you’ve already considered it… but how will the pollinators get in if the plants are covered? Plants that rely on pollinators to set fruit, such as squash or cucumbers, are a bit trickier to protect than other crops. Therefore, hoops and row covers are most popular to prevent pests on young seedlings, leafy greens, brassicas (cabbage family), and root vegetables – all of which don’t need pollination.

However, it is still possible to use row covers for plants that do need pollination! You’ll just need to get creative and use a little personal trial-and-error. Keep those plants covered while they’re young. Then, once they begin to flower, you could either hand-pollinate, or open your row covers during key times of day when pollinators are active in your garden. Plants like tomatoes and bell peppers are usually self-fruitful and will do okay when covered.

Are you growing squash? Be sure to check out this article all about hand-pollinating zucchini and squash plants. Row covers or no row covers, we always hand-pollinate our squash to prevent end rot – even with plenty of bees buzzing around our garden.

And those are some of the ways to use garden hoops and row covers.

What do you think? Do you already use hoops and row covers in your garden beds? Or will this be a new and exciting addition for you? In all, I hope you found this article to be useful and interesting. As you can see, hoops and row covers can be incredibly useful AND attractive-looking! Please feel free to ask questions or leave feedback in the comments below. See you next time!

Check out these related articles:

• 25 Organic Ways to Stop Pests from Destroying Your Garden
• How to Properly Emulsify & Mix Neem Oil to Make a Safe Garden Pest Spray
• How to Design and Build a Raised Garden Bed
• A Beginner’s Guide to Using a Hobby Greenhouse
• How to Build a Trellis: Easy and Inexpensive DIY Trellis Designs