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Homemade Cloches

I have just answered another writer's problem on holding cloches down and I suddenly thought, at this time of year maybe  others might be interested to know how I make my own cloches/polytunnels.

I cut 4 old hosepipe into lengths each about a metre long and put short lengths of bamboo cane into each end and push them into the ground a couple of feet apart to make "hoops". Then I drape the fleece or clear plastic over the hoops and hold the edges of the material down with bricks or scrumple them up and peg it into place.

It's cheap and it works for me. image

Posts

  • biofreakbiofreak Posts: 1,089

    After a Season at the Farmer's Markets I often find myself with cracked Plastic Storage boxes 3' x 2' - Rather than throw them away, I use them to cover tender seed rows, and in particular onion sets during the first few weeks  It doesn't matter if they get frosted or brittle through sunlight., because they would only have been thrown away earlier anyway, and I have been able to get them to last 3 Seasons so far. My only problem is that they are quite shallow, so only really serve well until seedlings are about 3/4inches high, but then they are usually able to be lifted off anyway. 

  • Last year I made netted, for the 3m x 1.5m for the veg beds from timber frame with water pipe fixed in,  netting over the top - no bird damage great,

    This year I am going to cover one cloche in poly tunnel plastic.  I have seen polythene tunnels advertised with quite big holes punched into the polythene. Why is this Should I do the same?

    Also with the high winds we are experiencing how am I going to stop it blowing away ?

  • cornellycornelly Posts: 970

    I too use stiff plastic piping to make hoops with pieces of bamboo inserted each end, use various covers from Spun Fleece to netting to cover plants, then bending stiff wire into a hoop shape to peg down the covers, have this over our broad beans now, but struggle with the strong winds, here on the south Wales coast.

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