As I embarked on my gardening journey, it was initially driven by a desire to enhance the aesthetic appeal of my landscape. However, as time passed, concerns about the quality of store-bought produce led me to shift gears and focus on cultivating food on a larger scale. The transition wasn’t without its challenges – at first, the sheer volume of staple crops to grow left little room for aesthetics.
But with years of trial and error under my belt, I’ve honed my skills in plant variety selection, crop rotation, labeling, and record-keeping. Now that I’ve reached this level of proficiency, I’m excited to transform my functional kitchen garden into a stunning potager. This year, I plan to utilize an array of beautiful and practical garden cloches to achieve this goal.
The History of Cloches
Photo via Fallen Fruits on Amazon, a relic from the past that once sheltered delicate plants with its beautiful bell-shaped glass jars. The evolution of gardening technology has relegated garden cloches to nostalgia, replaced by electric seed mats, overhead lights, and heated greenhouses. But let’s take a step back in time and explore the history of these charming glass vessels. It’s believed that the concept was born in 1623 when an Italian glassmaker invented the general shape and function.
The addition of glass knobs later made it easier to lift the cloches off sensitive plants. In ornamental kitchen gardens during colonial and Victorian times, glass cloches were a luxurious item reserved for the elite. Meanwhile, in 19th-century Parisian market gardens, they were deemed essential for maintaining production.
Modern Cloches
The concept of garden cloches has evolved beyond its humble beginnings with the bell-shaped glass cloche. Today, a range of mini-paneled greenhouses, complete with handles, woven baskets, and handled tunnels, all fit within this category. These structures are designed to achieve similar benefits as their glass or plastic counterparts, including warming soil temperatures, shielding young plants from frost and wind, and facilitating root establishment.
Meanwhile, woven basket or wire cloches serve a different purpose, offering protection from bird predation, while fabric cloches prevent insect damage. The shade cloth variety, on the other hand, safeguards fast-bolting plants from the unexpected summer heat, ensuring they thrive in their ideal environment.
The Downside of Cloches
While cloches were once a popular gardening solution, their use has declined with the advent of more modern and practical alternatives. Today’s row covers, such as clear plastic or fabric, have been developed from the principles of traditional cloches, offering improved functionality and cost-effectiveness on a large scale.
However, traditional glass cloches can actually harm plants if not used carefully.
The knobs or handles on these types of cloches can act as magnifying glasses in sunlight, causing burns to delicate plant tissues. Furthermore, the glass or plastic structure can trap humidity and moisture close to the soil, creating mini-magnifying glasses that can exacerbate this issue.
Good air circulation is essential for healthy plant growth, and many traditional cloches can impede airflow by trapping air near the soil.
To prevent damage, these covers must be regularly removed to allow plants to ‘breathe.’ Watering plants under cloches can also become more challenging.
Larger cloche designs, such as those resembling barn or house shapes, are less likely to cause harm due to their improved airflow and reduced humidity. Their height and shape also minimize the risk of burns associated with thick glass bell cloches.
However, these larger structures tend to be more expensive and may not provide the same level of warmth as heavier glass alternatives.
How to Use Cloches
While nostalgia often surrounds traditional gardening methods like using cloches, they can still hold value in modern gardens. In particular, their charm makes them well-suited for potager gardens where a touch of whimsy is desired. Moreover, specific garden challenges may be addressed more effectively with a cloche covering than other solutions. To make the most of these versatile tools, here are some tips and tricks for incorporating different types of cloches into your own gardening efforts.
Insulating Cloches
Glass and plastic cloches are versatile tools for gardeners, serving multiple purposes including warming soil temperatures, protecting young plants from frost, and extending the growing season. The materials used for these cloches can affect their performance, with heavier options like clay and glass providing more effective insulation. Heavy-duty cloches, made of clay or thick glass, have been around for a while and are tried-and-true favorites among gardeners.
Simply place them over your newly planted seeds to give them a head start. To ensure good air circulation and prevent excess condensation, consider setting these cloches on wooden or cardboard platforms rather than allowing them to sink into the soil. On sunny days, it’s essential to remove heavier cloches in the morning and replace them in the afternoon to avoid overheating your plants or soil.
When using clay cloches for seed starting, keep in mind that some plant varieties require light to germinate. Make sure to choose seeds that don’t need light when employing this method. Also, be prepared to remove clay cloches once your seeds have sprouted. Plastic cloches, often featuring air vents at the top, offer a more modern approach to soil warming.
You can also repurpose empty plastic beverage bottles as inexpensive and easy-to-use cloches by removing the bottom of the container and leaving the lid off to improve ventilation. These cloches provide limited warmth after sunset, mainly serving to extend the growing season for a few degrees. However, they excel at protecting seedlings from wind damage, preventing frost from settling on sensitive plants, and keeping them warm.
Insulating cloches can be used in creative ways beyond just warming soil. For instance, using glass or plastic cloches to cover the soil triggers earlier germination of weed seeds. By pre-sprouting weeds with cloches and removing them before planting your desired crops, you can reduce weeding around delicate seedling roots and prevent competition for nutrients, allowing your chosen plants to establish themselves more quickly.
Some plants thrive in warmer temperatures, so even if the soil is technically warm enough to plant certain crops like tomatoes and peppers, providing an extra boost of heat can accelerate growth. Additionally, using cloches on a smaller number of plants, such as tomatoes, can be less labor-intensive than applying them to a larger crop like cabbage, making them a practical choice for gardeners.
Pest Protection Cloches
To provide optimal protection for young plants from pests, cloches are often crafted using a variety of materials such as woven baskets, chicken wire, screens, and fabric. The density of the material plays a significant role in determining its effectiveness, with tighter weaves offering greater pest deterrence.
For instance, heavy-duty or fixed wire cloches can successfully repel birds like crows, rabbits, and squirrels, while also keeping out larger pests like free-range chickens or ducks at bay. Insect-repellent cloches featuring small weaves can even prevent unwanted visitors like flea beetles and aphids from causing harm.
Additionally, strategically placed cloches can serve as a visual cue to deter human visitors from compacting garden soil by stepping on it, making them an effective tool for maintaining the health of your plants.
Shade Protection Cloches
When it comes to protecting cool weather crops from temperature fluctuations, woven cloches and shade cloth cloches can be a valuable asset. While not all plants thrive in shaded conditions, certain varieties like lettuce, cabbage, and leafy greens can actually benefit from mid-day shade that shields them from intense sunscorch. However, it’s essential to consider the impact of wind on your setup.
If you’re using a lightweight cloche design, make sure it has a sturdy base or stakes to prevent it from being blown over and potentially damaging nearby plants. Instead, opt for designs featuring wire rims that can be pressed into the soil or brimmed cloches that can be weighted with rocks – these are more suitable for windy areas.
Decorative and Functional Cloches
When it comes to decorative cloches, my personal favorite is the ornamental variety. These cloches can serve multiple purposes, but ultimately, we want them in our garden because they bring beauty and visual interest that’s hard to replicate with floating row covers. Here are a few creative examples: A repurposed birdcage or handmade wire structure can create a charming focal point, while an upside-down trash basket transformed into a cloche adds a touch of whimsy.
Chicken wire can also be used to keep chickens from getting too curious about your plants, and for a more upscale look, you can reuse wine bottles with the bottoms cut off as elegant cloches. Just be sure to take safety precautions when cutting glass and add a personal touch by labeling each seedling variety on the bottle marker. Finally, an old gutter strainer can be repurposed into a sophisticated cloche in just 30 minutes, and adding some bling on top takes it to the next level.
You could even customize it with antique knobs for a shabby chic look.
Garden Cloche Conclusions
While cloches may not be the most practical or time-saving method for protecting plants and extending your growing season, there’s something undeniably charming about using a centuries-old technique in your modern garden. For me, employing an Italian innovation from 400 years ago is a way to bridge the past and present, adding a touch of whimsy to my kitchen garden. The unique charm it brings can elevate even the most mundane plots into a picturesque potager-style haven.
I hope you share my enthusiasm for this nostalgic approach!
