Guestbook Question: Pest Frames (and lessons learned)

Great looking SFG! I'm building my first one this year. I'd love to make screen frames like yours. So I wanted to ask you about the detail of them. I can't tell but is there mesh on the top of the frames as well? Are the openings in the mesh small enough to keep out insect pests? And can the frames be used while trellising veggies? I'll look for your response. Thanks!
Tia

Hello Tia and thank you for reading my blog.

Yes, there is mesh on the top of the frames. The small square openings in the mesh are not small enough to keep insect pests out (well, maybe really large bugs), just birds and the like.

As to whether or not the frames can be used while trellising, I'm not exactly sure what you mean. I suppose the plants could grow through the mesh and up a trellis, but I'm not sure what that would accomplish as the fruit would be on the trellis and therefor outside the frame. However, I did make two 1' wide frames that I intend to continue to use on the front half of the planters while trellising the back half.

Now, a couple of lessons learned about the protective frames:

• If I had it to do all over again I would have made all the frames 1' wide, that way I would have more choices when it comes to which portions of the planters need protection.
• If I had it to do all over again I would have designed the frames so that one side (the front or the back) is a little shorter than the other. It rained heavily this past Thursday night and Friday morning; I covered the planters with tarps so that they wouldn't get deluged with water. On Friday I noticed that the water had pooled on the top of the tarps and the weight of the water was causing the mesh on the tops of the frames to sink (the frames are light weight and not designed to support weight). The weight of the water caused the mesh to break away from the frame in a couple of places. If the frames had been angled, the water would have just run off. Now that I have the trellises up, I can just drape the tarp over the trellis (trellis post coming soon).