How to Choose the Right Row Cover for Your Garden

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You’ve heard of row covers—these plastic or fabric sheets are used to extend the growing season or protect from pests.

Here’s your cheat sheet for all types of row covers, from greenhouse plastic and frost blankets to floating row covers and insect netting.

Polyethylene Plastic Covers

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Spunbonded Fabrics

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Floating Row Covers

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Insect netting has no heat retention properties. It looks and feels like a soft, flexible window screen, and comes with different mesh opening sizes to deal with different insects.

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Bird netting has wider mesh openings that are large enough for some insects to pass through, but small enough to keep birds (and other small pests like rabbits) from nibbling on tender transplants.

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How to Choose the Right Row Cover for Your Garden

You’ve heard of row covers—these plastic or fabric sheets are used to extend the growing season or protect from pests.

Here’s your cheat sheet for all types of row covers, from greenhouse plastic and frost blankets to floating row covers and insect netting.

Polyethylene Plastic Covers

Polyethylene plastic covers (also called greenhouse plastic or greenhouse film) are generally used for greenhouses, high tunnels, and low tunnels.

Spunbonded Fabrics

Spunbonded fabrics are used on low tunnels to protect against frost. They’re not a fabric like a cloth fabric you might think of, but a very light web of poly fibers stuck together.

Floating Row Covers

Floating row covers are very lightweight covers that specifically protect against pests early in the season.

Insect netting has no heat retention properties. It looks and feels like a soft, flexible window screen, and comes with different mesh opening sizes to deal with different insects.

Insect Netting

Bird netting has wider mesh openings that are large enough for some insects to pass through, but small enough to keep birds (and other small pests like rabbits) from nibbling on tender transplants.

Bird Netting

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