Home-made cloches & cold frames

[Sara]

Here at Grow Your Own we're thinking of making our own cloches and cold frames for next year's spring sowings – hopefully saving a bundle on shop-bought gear.

We'd love to know how you put together your home-made cloches and cold frames. Do you cut the bottom off your stored up pop bottles? Perhaps you've made your own frame from bricks and an old door? Whatever you've been up to, we'd love to know!




Your answers may be edited and published in Grow Your Own's February issue.

[singleseeder]

I did see a pretty good set up shown on utube.

Make your four sides, sloping from back to front. This one was made from wood, but anything could be used I am sure; bricks, breeze blocks etc. But the magic ingredient was polystyrene sheets. These were cut up to line the four sides. No draughts and perfect insulation. The top was an old window but I suspect you could make a frame and cover in thick polythene; double glazed if you covered each side of the frame IYSWIM.

[Nicos]

I use cut off water/pop bottles too- and then in the summer invert them and partially bury them in the ground next to tomato plants/cabbages/ in amongst the beans etc and top them up with water during any very dry spells.
If you handle them gently, the bottles last a couple of years before bio-degrading.
Dual purpose and free - brill!

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

I saw an advert for bamboo cloches and thought I could make something similar using willow. So I'm just trying to make one using some red willow (probably something a Grape good at crafts could make in five mins).

[Aberdeenplotter]

Some say that necessity is the mother of invention but I more favour the idea that make do and mend leads to some of the best solutions especially in the garden. A few odd bits of wood, a bit of left over polythene and with a few nails/tacks, there you have the basics for a cold frame. Pop/water bottles are a good solution for some but certainly not on my allotment where they would be blown away in short time. A few bent pieces of fencing wire and another length of polythene can produce a useful cloche. Again though in a windy spot these are not ideal. For cloches, I use redundant panes of greenhouse glass held together with very useful clips which if I remember correctly were sourced from Two Wests and Elliot. I have seen sheets of acrylic sheeting bent into a semi circle and again fixed with a loop of fencing wire but the acrylic tends to be expensive.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I saw an advert for bamboo cloches and thought I could make something similar using willow. So I'm just trying to make one using some red willow (probably something a Grape good at crafts could make in five mins).

I foresee a living cloche frame in your plot shortly as willow roots extremely easily from cuttings.

[Thelma Sanders]

pallet wood sides and the glazed top-half of an old door, worked for me

[Jeanied]

I think I must have the strangest cloche on the site. It is a dome made of thick perspex - about 2 ft in diameter which I found in one of the bushes. One of the other plot holders thought it was a window from a WW2 aircraft.

It looks like an astrodome.

[cazp]

I am shortly making two frames for my raised beds (4ft square).

Will make wooden frames and use MDPE pipe as the support hoops as Ive seen lots like this online.

Since the frames needs to be stored flat when not in use, the pipes will probably slot in to holes in the frame, or will fit on to dowels on the frame. I am thinking of sewing mesh covers to fit over the hoops and using velcro to attach them to wooden frame.

Hope it works!

[singleseeder]

I am thinking of sewing mesh covers to fit over the hoops and using velcro to attach them to wooden frame.

Hope it works!

Brilliant! I would patent that before someone takes it to the Dragon's Den.

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

Ah, bottom of the cloche is not willow but old bamboo canes. The "cover" is intertwined willow.

[SarrissUK]

I love Joe Swift's idea of using four straw bales put together in a square with an old window on top. Obviously no heaters should be used in such a set up :P
I've not tried it myself this year as it's been pretty much warm enough to do what I need when I got the allotment in May, but will definitely give it a go in early spring!

[VirginVegGrower]

I asked local glaziers for people's old conservatory roof panels or secondary glazing. Two panels joined at one side with two brackets et voila!

[solway cropper]

I've used those sheets of corrugated clear plastic from DIY stores formed into a curve and held in place by thick steel wire bent into shape. Much cheaper than bought ones and just as effective.

Also got a frosted glass shower cubicle from a house modernisation which is waiting for me to find the time and the scrap timber to cobble some sides together. And of course there's the plastic water bottles with the bottoms cut out which I can get any amount of as my neighbour works for a bottling plant!

All of this fits nicely with the whole ethos of growing your own food and recycling wherever possible.

[VirginVegGrower]

Sweet jars from a sweet shop with bottom cut off is another of mine to stop slugs and snails having my lettuce.