Cloches are one of the most popular tools to protect plants against many outdoor elements. While there are a wide range of garden cloches in different sizes, shapes, materials, and price ranges, it’s easy to DIY some if you are on a tight budget.
In this post, we’re going to show you some interesting garden cloche ideas to protect your plants, a brief guide to making them, and which situations they work best.
Tunnel Cloches
This type of cloches includes two parts: heat-insulated fabric or plastic sheeting cover on an elongated frame (that is usually made of bamboo, plastic, or metal).
This cloche idea is especially suitable for extending the growing season of young sprouts or keeping mature plants against frost-bite weather. It is also commonly used in medium to large gardens because when the weather changes, these tunnel cloches are quick and easy to set up.
If you use them for protecting plants against pests or other outdoor elements during summer, consider using thinner fabric for the cover to avoid overheating inside.
Reuse An Old Glass Fishbowl
This idea imitates traditional glass cloches or bells that you can easily find in the market. Like this:
Reusing an old glass fishbowl to cover your plants at night or during the winter is an economical way to give you extra protection against temperature drops. The heft of your fish bowl also resists strong winds and snowstorms efficiently.
Despite their transparency, make sure to remove them during the daylight because glass is good at insulating.
Sunlight heat might cause the temperature inside the cloche to increase and your plant will be cooked.
Antique White Cloche
You can buy or DIY a white cloche in antique style like the picture above.
They might take time to make one on your own but that would be a fun weekend entertaining activity if you love handcrafting.
The materials are easy to find: You just need some bars (made of wood, metal, or plastic) and a cover (made of fabric or acrylic plastic panels). Don’t forget to prepare some high-quality glue as well.
The height of this antique white cloche depends on the current and future height of your plants. Ask yourself “How long will you use it to protect the plant?”.
Make a two-story cloche as above or a one-story cloche like this:
Make the top and the bottom separately if you want them to be adjustable or removable.
Essentially, this cloche is sturdy and protective enough to save plants (at all growing stages) against outdoor elements, like wind, pests, insects, animals, heat, snow, etc. They, besides, add a beautiful vintage look to your garden.
Cone-Shaped Cloches
Cone-shaped cloches are mostly used for protecting indoor young sprouts from transplant shock when you bring them outside.
It is best to keep the plants against strong wind and curious small animals while reducing the impacts of heavy rains and harsh sunlight.
As you can see, the top of this cloche is open for breathability and the material is partially transparent so that you don’t have to remove it during daylight.
Metal Frame Cloches
This is our most favorite type of cloche to protect your plants against animals, such as dogs, cats, chickens, squirrels, birds, and deer.
The metal frame creates a tough cage and is heavy enough to not be easily flipped over. As there is no coverage, it is well-ventilated and doesn’t cause overheating if used during summer.
Most gardeners use it when starting to sow seeds or when their plants set fruits. Ah, another big advantage of metal frame cloches is they don’t disturb pollinators.
In turn, it can’t save plants from storms, heavy rains, snow, and strong winds.
Here are some other versions to consider:
Fleece Cloches
Fleece cloches are usually used for protecting tender plants – such as melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, hot peppers, and sweet peppers – from frost in a garden.
They are super-easy to DIY.
You just need three dried, medium-size tree branches and a piece of thick fabric (like canvas) to be used as the cover. Put the branches 1”-1.5” into the area around your plant; the distance between each branch and the plant stem should be 5”-7” to avoid damaging their root system.
Gather the top end of three branches as long as they create a pyramid, use rubber bands or a piece of rope to secure them.
Cover it with fabric; tie the tip of the pyramid and make sure there’s no gap where outdoor air could go inside.
Recycled Plastic Bottle
This garden cloche idea is the easiest to do and the most sustainable. It can keep plants against colder weather, insects, pests, snow, and winds. According to the sturdiness of the bottle, the protection levels are varied.
All you need is just a plastic bottle. Cut it in half, and cover your plant.
You should pay attention to the bottle size; make sure it is high and wide enough to leave a reasonable space inside for the plant to grow.
Conclusion
When collecting and analyzing garden cloche ideas to protect your plants, we tried to only pick ones that are eco-friendly, affordable, and easy to do. Hopefully, all of them were helpful to you. Thanks for reading!
