Gardening photographs 1
Gardening photographs
2
Bed and board
Plant-protection cages with flexible supports
Composting, rainwater collecting
Transframe, a system with many uses
Some design principles in gardening
Here, two of these cloches are side by side. These cloches make use of the standard boards.. Less substantial boards can be used than the ones shown on the page. For economy, two 2.4 m x 19 mmm x 100 mm boards can be used for one cloche, three of these for two cloches side by side. The cost is less than £2 per board and a little more than £1 for the stake which supports the board. These will last longer than the PVC corrugated sheets, which have a life of ten years or more (compare with the 3 years for polythene.) I use corolux corrugated PVC asbestos profile, very widely available. It isn't essential to have shorter boards at the two ends, but two can conveniently be made by sawing a 2. 4m board in half - 1.2 m is a convenient width for a bed. These shorter boards make very easy the keeping in place of the ends of the cloche, which need not be transparent.
The ends can be secured without using boards, by means of bamboo canes or tent pegs. Not all the things used in gardening pay for themselves, but all the cloches on this page certainly will, within a fairly short time, given the value of the produce which can be grown under them and the modest cost of the cloches.
If no boards at all are used, then again tent pegs or bamboo canes can be used to prevent the PVC sheeting from slipping sideways, two on each side. The canes should preferably have rubber tops to prevent eye injury. Loops of twine should be connected to the bamboo canes or tent pegs and passed over the cloche so that it's secured against wind. (The photograph below shows three of these, together with twine used like the guy-ropes of a tent.)
The ideal cloche...
should be enormous, self-erecting, cost just about nothing, look stunning, withstand hurricane-force winds and last for ever. Obviously impossible - but a cloche can come much closer to the ideal than most of the existing offerings on the market.
These cloches are larger than any others which are commercially available but also very cheap to construct. These cloches have real presence. They're very practical (secure anchorage against strong winds) and very versatile. Since they are higher than other cloches, they can be used to grow crops such as bush tomatoes or courgettes in summer, at a time when cloches are usually put away, as well as for protection of crops in spring and autumn. Height can be adjusted. The cloche can be made low, so that it covers an even bigger area of land, for growing low crops such as lettuces, and all crops early in their growing period. They'll last at least ten years. And again, they're very, very cheap. The cost per year of use is minute.
Let's look in more detail at the features we should expect in a really good cloche -
Most cloches are simply too small, unrealistically small - fine for very small gardens but of only limited use in even a medium sized garden or any allotment. Fine if someone's content to protect a few lettuces or broad bean plants, or whatever, but not otherwise. If you take a close look at the specifications for most of the cloches on the market, you'll find these measurements pretty typical (a little more, a little less):
'Well known cloche:' 120cm long, 45cm wide, 25cm high
The PHD Cloche is
180cm long, 120 cm wide, 60cm high.
But a longer cloche can easily be made, one 240 cm long.
So, the PHD cloche covers a ground area much bigger than the 'well known cloche.' BUT, this is the area covered by the PHD cloche in its 'high' position. In its 'low' position it covers an even bigger area. The low position is used for low-growing crops such as strawberries and lettuces, and for all crops early in their growth.
High position (with cords for rock-solid stability in high winds)
Low position
The height advantage is just as important. The first cloche has to be put away in summer. The PHD Cloche can be used to grow bush tomatoes and other crops that thrive in hot weather. Most bush tomato plants are 45-60 cm tall, and the PHD Cloche is tall enough to accommodate them. In fact, using a PHD Cloche has advantages for growing tomatoes. The tomato plants can be grown in soil rather than in grow-bags. If necessary, you can enrich the soil with a certain amount of (peat-free) compost. In very warm weather, tomatoes in grow-bags have to be watered every day. Tomato plants in a PHD Cloche have to be watered far less often. Natural rainfall finds its way to the ground below the cloche. The disadvantage of growing tomato plants in soil is that generally, diseases begin to develop if the same soil is used year after year. The PHD Cloche is simply moved to a new area of soil, eliminating this problem.
Do any of the cloches you've used, or seen advertized, allow you to adjust the height and the protected area, like the PHD cloche? Do they allow you to cover a larger area when you don't need a considerable area, and reduce the area when you do need the height - although the protected area still remains considerable?
The well-known cloche costs 26.95 upwards. Of course, this isn't a large cloche - the prices for large cloches are generally much higher. The massive PHD Cloche costs only about 20.00 for materials. For the price comparison, I chose a cloche that's constructed from corrugated PVC, like the PHD Cloche.) There are cloches constructed with polythene which are slightly cheaper than the PHD cloche - but a lot of them cost more, and sometimes much more. Really, you have to take size into account along with price. Think of what you're paying per cubic metre of protected space - you can get an idea even if you don't do the detailed calculations. In most cases, you're paying quite a lot - the cloches aren't very cost effective at all and the pay-back time is long. Take the costs into account and those plants will be very expensive for you to grow. The PHD cloche, though, is really cost-effective.
Corrugated PVC lasts for at least ten years, polythene only for about three years before it has to be replaced, and that generally means replacing the whole cloche, not keeping the supports and replacing just the polythene. But before it has to be replaced, polythene begins to look more and more grubby. A cloche constructed entirely of polythene isn't a good buy at all. The PHD cloche uses polythene only to close the ends. Spare polythene sheets, already shaped, of course, are supplied. If these are kept out of the light, they'll be in very good condition and ready for use when the end sheets need replacing after three or four years.
Whether you have an immaculate and beautiful garden or a working allotment, with lots of salvaged and recycled things, and perhaps a number of eyesores you'd like to get rid of, ideally, when you can find the time, the appearance of the things you buy is important. In the case of the allotment, a few really distinctive items can help to compensate for a great many dubious things. Of course, PVC sheet isn't the most pleasing of all materials - none of the materials used to make cloches are, except for glass - which, for cloches, has too many disadvantages - heavy and far too easily broken. All the same, in its humble way, a cloche can share some of the advantages of good architecture - the sweep of pleasing lines, harmonious proportions, an appearance which lifts the spirits rather than depresses them. The PVC Cloche is peaked rather than rounded, in its high position - a distinctive appearance. In its low position, the cloche looks even more distinctive, a purposive curve which will enhance any growing area.
The PHD Cloche is very easy to erect - it takes only a minute or two. With the corrugated sheet flat, simply push the canes provided through rings, which are large enough to make insertion completely easy. Put rubber protectors - these are supplied, of course - over the thinner ends of the canes. Bend the sheet into a curve and push the ends of the canes into the ground. The rubber protectors prevent the canes from falling out as you do this, so that the whole operation is completely straightforward. As for storage, in this climate, no cloche can be used all the way through the year. In the depths of the winter, even the PHD cloche has to be stored. It rolls up into a fairly long but otherwise very compact shape.
Obviously, any wind that's strong enough to blow down a tree will blow a cloche away. (During one gale I experienced, the high-tech aluminium poles of a tent I owned snapped and gave way.) Joy Larkcom has a very useful and interesting section on cloches in 'Grow your own vegetables.' She writes, "Glass cloches and brittle plastics break, and lighter cloches are easily blown away in exposed position." But the PHD Cloche will withstand very strong winds - and it's been very extensively tested. Its construction relies upon very thoughtful design rather than the brute strength of heavy components such as galvanized iron, but for added security, there are three attachment points on top for attaching unobtrusive cords, which have the same function as the guy-ropes of a tent. None of the cloches on the market, to my knowledge, have similar attachment points. In all but the most severe weather conditions, you'll find that the cloche is rock solid. In most conditions, though, these cords aren't needed at all.
...when needed. Good ventilation's very important. Some of the cloches on the market are very inflexible in this regard. The polythene sheets which close the ends of the PHD Cloche can be removed in a moment, or clipped in various positions to leave the ends partly open. The whole point of a cloche is to raise the temperature inside it, of course, so that the plants have better growing conditions. If the temperature gets too high, though, the plants will be harmed or even killed and this can happen very easily. This is far more likely to happen with the small cloches on the market and far less likely to happen with the PHD Cloche, which has a much bigger volume.